Dean Guitars Edge Custom 5

This bass is a 2000 model made in the Czech Republic. It has a deep-set, bolt-on, 24-fret, 35" scale neck made from three pieces maple with two walnut laminates and a wenge fingerboard. Its offset-waist, non-contoured body consists of a three-piece alder back and a AA-grade flame maple top; it is finished in a light transparent black that is closer to a dark grey but looks turquoise at certain angles. The controls are: volume, balance, bass boost/cut, treble boost/cut. The pickups are OEM EMG-HZ soapbars, with a P/J coil configuration. The tuners are Gotoh-style Grovers and the sturdy, thick bridge looks like a lower-end Schaller. The hardware is black. The neck profile is rather thin and narrow for a 5, but it has good string spacing at the bridge for decent slapping. The bass came with a TKL semi-hard-sided case, but no tools (piss--metric Allen wrenches are hard to find).

The Edge Custom 5 has three main sounds. With the neck pickup soloed, it is dead-on Precision (lots of lows and low mids, eats through Marshall stacks) and sounds AWESOME for rock and funk. With the bridge pickup soloed, it has the bright, twangy bridge J pickup sound which is good for less aggressive slapping, but also eats through the mix. With both pickups blended equally, it has a "hi-fi" sound with virtually no midrange and a TERRIBLE low B, but gets a great fusion/crossover slap sound from the other four strings. The EQ is useful throughout its range but the treble control is frightfully noisy. The B string is fairly tight although it came with what feels like a .125, which is too loose for me. I will soon be restringing it with DR extra-long-scale Hi-Beams or maybe Foderas.
I play a mix of rock, funk, and fusion and the Dean does them all very well. It doesn't have too much character to the sound--if you're looking for Warwick or Jazz "growl" or Music Man "grind," go elsewhere. I use it through an Ampeg SVT-III driving an Eden D-210T and it has a powerful presence with lots of low midrange and beef on the B string. I can't wait to take this sucker out on gigs when I get back to school this fall; the electronics aren't quiet enough for the studio, but it's not as if I'm a professional musician. (I'm an EE at Cornell.)

The bass was set up nicely--low, LOW action for Jaco/Stanley-style fast runs, a little bit of neck bow but not too much, and excellent intonation. There is some string buzz since I dig in pretty hard but I'm starting to play more over the pickups so that is becoming less of a factor. The pickups were also leveled nicely; there isn't much volume difference between an open B and the G on the 24th fret of the G string.

I think this bass will stand up to fairly heavy gigging. The neck is quite stiff and even though there have been many humidity changes since I've gotten the bass (I live in Illinois) there hasn't been any noticeable change in the action or intonation. The finish is fairly thick. The strap buttons look bulletproof and it's very well balanced anyway so I'm not worried about it taking a dive. I would definitely gig without a backup; even if I broke a string, having 5 strings still allows you to hold down the root until the end of the song. There isn't a separate battery compartment but the control cavity is screwed in with standard Phillips screws anyway so a dead battery wouldn't be a problem.

The warranty is an ironclad five years--since I'll likely be on a mission for my church in three years and unable to play, it won't matter.
I contacted Dean's customer support via e-mail about the size of the Allen-head screws on the bridge and truss rod and they only told me what size wrench to use for the truss rod. I guess that's the most important part, but I want to change strings soon and setting intonation is a Good Thing(tm) in my book. Guess I'll have to be a little more active--sigh...

I have been playing a year and own only my bass, my amp, and my cabinet. I wish I could have gotten this bass in blue but it's not a big deal. Were it stolen I'd definitely buy it again, after tracking down the thief and disembowelling him with the semi-pointy headstock. I love the playability of the thin neck and the B, although the pickups are a bit disappointing. I may replace them with Alembics or real double-coil EMGs.