Dean Guitars Edge Pro5 5-String

This is a 35" scale, 24 fret through-neck bass built in Korea in 2007. The body is basswood with a quilted Maple top finished in "Tiger Eye" (beautiful!).

The neck is Maple and Walnut section with a rosewood fingerboard and a brass, profiled nut.

There are two EMG-Hz soapbar pickups and it incorporates the "Dean 3D Preamp" which is basically a 3-band active EQ section run by a single 9V battery contained in its own little cavity.

The hardware is finished in gold with Grover tuners and a monolithic bridge section. Other than the 3 equ controls, the other two controls are, I believe, individual volume controls for each pickup.

I play sort of Indie style music and I think the sound is very nice. It's smooth and quite punchy although could possibly be slightly more bassy. There is quite a decent range from the EQ, but the volume controls could be more linear; all the volume change seems to be within the last 10% or so of the rotation of the controls. I use it primarily with a Korg AX3000B effects unit.

There is a lot of sustain available if you want it, presumably due to the through-neck.

Overall I really like the sounds even straight in to a pre-amp/digital audio i/f although it would be nice to be able to get more of a growl from it more easily.

I've done nothing to this since it arrived except adjusted the intonation slightly. Overall the finish is beautiful and the profiled nut helps by allowing the action to be more consistent along and across the neck. The body is beautifully contoured and very comfortable to play and the neck is also nice and slim.

There are a couple of little niggles I have though. There is a slight imperfection on one of the horns where the wood doesn't appear to have been shaped perfectly. One of the knobs on the controls sits slightly higher than the others and, finally, the bridge is odd. I like the idea of the monolithinc bridge but on this bass it doesn't work brilliantly due to the body contouring; there is a slight gap between the end of the bridge and the body which is a bit annoying on a guitar of this quality and price. Also, from the point of view of intonation adjustment, it's not very accurate because you have to actually slide the bridge saddles rather than there being a screw to adjust their position. I'm considering replacing this bridge with something like a Badass, but that might happen later.

As I said earlier though, overall this is a very nicely set-up bass and it's lovely to play, but I have to drop it a couple of marks for the reasons above.

I've owned this for 18 months or so and used it on a number of gigs without any problems. I've seen no sign of any wear to the finish, except the bridge pieces look slightly discoloured. I've replaced the standard strap buttons with locking ones, so I don't have a problem there, and the Grover tuners feel smooth and strong. I have no problems with this bass's reliability or durability.

Well, Dean UK were quite helpful before I bought this but I couldn't find one in the UK, and Dean UK couldn't tell me when they'd be able to get one in, so I had to import it from the US.

Neal's Music were really helpful in getting it to me and kept me informed all the way as they also had to order this in.

I've been playing on and off since around 1981 and also own a 1985 Aria Laser 4 String and a Satellite Precision copy that I re-finished (twice - badly!) and de-fretted. I generally use my Carlbsro Stingray Bass head and Hartke 115xl cab with my AX3000B.

I asked loads of questions about this bass before i bought it, and I don't think there's anything else I could've asked.

If it were stolen or lost I'd buy the same again without a doubt.

It's by far the best bass I've owned, and I love how it looks, how it sounds, and how it plays. I took a huge risk buying this as I'd never played the 5 string version (I tried the 4 string version before buying though) but it has paid off.