Product: Charvel Fusion V
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted
04/10/2007
at
06:39pm
by
Dave Wiese
Features
:
8
Early 90's 5 string with alder body, bolt-on maple neck, and rosewood fretboard. Gotoh sealed 5-inline tuners, Jackson style pointed headstock. P-J pickup configuration, active with volume, blend, bass and treble controls. The body was similar to a Jackson Concert V, but with a slightly smaller bottom horn. The pickups were an oddball style with 2 horizontal metal strips exposed similar to a DiMarzio I seem to remember from that era. The bridge was similar to a Schaller roller type bridge.
Sound
:
2
The highs sang through this thing but the lows were extremely lacking which is sad for a 5 string. The B string rattled like a door spring. I never had a worse sounding bass. I wasn't expecting a botique sound, but this thing was worse then some of the Korean or Chinese 5 strings you can pick up new for under $500.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
6
The action was fair, and it was fairly easy to play, but the pickups had a gap exposing the windings which my thumb would grt caught up on, plus the pickups kinda rocked back and forth too easily. I was never a fan of 5 inline tuners, I'm more so a fan of 4x1 (Like a newer Musicman), or 3x2 (Ibanez, Spector, and most other 5 strings).
Reliability/Durability
:
10
The one plus side to this bass was that it was unstoppable. Never needed a neck adjustment, and as crappy as the electronics were, they wouldn't die.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
2
This worked (sort of) for a first 5 string, there weren't really any budget 5 strings at the time. But if you were to A/B it with any other 5 string under the sun, you'd find the other 5 string to sound better. I'm picky when it comes to 5 strings, the only midgrades I can think of that I'd recomend are Dean or Schecter. My favorite 5 string out there is the Czeck made Spector NS.
