Dillion VXB-5

Made in Viet Nam (that's what the V in in the model means) 5-string bass, 24 frets, neck thru design, neck composed of layers of mahogany and maple and wings of solid ash. Fingerboard is rosewood. The entire bass is finished in satin oil-rubbed fashion. Two no-name pickups with active electronics. Body style is Fenderish. Bridge is conventional. Tuners are nonlocking but hold the tuning very well. Scale is 34". Frets are medium size. For a 5-string bass the neck width is on the narrow side, not much wider than a 4-string. There are 4 controls: volume, pickup blend, bass, and treble. Except for the volume, the others have a center indent, a very nice feature.

The active electronics and the controls work together to give you almost any sound you want. The pickups appear not to be humbucking, because once you move the blend knob away from the center indent, the pickups become noisier. They are dead quiet in the center indent position. For my own taste the bass sounds best using more or all neck PU with a bit of bass boost. The B string is very musical, not flabby at all for a 34" scale. Except for a bit of noise when away from the center mark with the blend knob, the bass' sound leaves nothing to be desired. It is all there.

The neck and the frets are superb and very nicely finished. Fret ends feel very smooth. The narrow neck and the smooth frets and neck make this bass a joy to play. No issues whatsoever.

However, whicle the oil-rubbed finish looks very nice from a distance, close up it is obvicous that Dillion decided to skip the wood-filler step. The ash looked very porous. I rubbed in another coat of oil finish just to feel better. Then I slapped on a few coats of paste wax and the wood is now impervious to sweat, spit, beer, whatever.

On the back are two plastic covers, one for the control cavity and one for the battery. The fit on these was pathetic. I had to file them down to fit the two openings.

In order to keep the price of a neck thru bass at an insanely low price, Dillion skimped on the small details. However, they did not sacrifice the sound or the feel of the bass.

The bass is solid, but typical of oil-rubbed finishes you have to baby this thing a bit more than with thick polyurethane finishes. The payoff is that you actually feel the wood and not the thick clear coat. I don't think this bass needs a backup.

This model is discontinued. You have to buy it used. Good luck finding a new one in a store.

I think this bass is made in the same factory as the Peavey Grind bass, which is also from Viet Nam. This keeps the cost down -- there is no way to make a neck thru bass at $800 list, and with the usual discounts, you do the math. This a tremendous amount of bass for the money. Spend some time with the porous wood and file down the two plastic covers and you will have a very, very good bass that rivals neck thru basses costing 3-4 times more. All the sounds are there. The neck and frets feel great. The neck thru design look very attractive. If you can locate one, you would have one great bargain.