ESP LTD F-104

It's a 4 string 24 fret (35" scale) bass, bolt-on neck with 2 active ESP SB-4 soapbar pickups, 4 knobs (1 volume, 1 tone, and 2 for the active EQ ESP ABQ-2), ESP DB-4 bridge, black colour, basswood body, maple neck with rosewood fretboard, the bodystyle is unique, only this series of ESP have this body, looks extreme and catches eye.
The battery housing is not so good, it's quite difficult to take the battery out, but it doesnt cause so may problems as I change it at home, not on stage :)
Nothing too special about the features, except for the looks, perfect for playing metal :)

The sound is excellent if you use a good EQ setting on your amp (I'm using Ampeg B2RE with a 500W Ampeg B2RE 4x10" cabinet), the active equaliser on the bass helps to fine-tune the sound, but I'd prefer to have the 3-line one (ABQ only has 2 lines of equalisation) The good thing is that you can get a good range of sounds perfect for different styles it can be bright, it can be quite dark, it can be attacking or warm (fretless style), just play with the settings.
I play in a prog-metal band which means I need different sounds from my instrument and this is exactly what I get, this bass is versatile and perfect for recording, and even on stage I can make some quick adjustments because all the knobs (except volume) have a stop-point in the middle, so it's much easier to change settings quickly, you can feel them with your fingers.
However, there's a little problem users should know of (it doesn't bother me much, but for someone it might be essential): when your both hands are off the strings it makes some very little buzzy sound and if you touch a string at this moment there'll be a quiet, yet notable click (It's my first bass with active pickups, so I don't know if this is the problem of all of them, but I never had it with the passive bass), the solution for this is leaving at least one finger on any place of any string, it doesn't make any noise then, easy enough for me.

The only thing I did immediately after buying is put the pickups a little deeper (they were so high the strings brushed against them while playing), but this is a matter of taste and the attack amount in your playstile, and then later after switching to my favourite Rotosound "Billy Sheehan" strings I had to adjust the truss rod and the bridge, no problems since.

Well, the bass has been with me for 4 years already with active rehearsing and live gigs with a break for about half a year (when I played only about 2-3 times a week), it never shown any signs of fatigue and I never made any repairs and it still looks good as new despite the swetty nights and tough long sessions. It is quite heavy which adds to the impression of a rock-hard instrument, though I never dropped it so can't tell for sure :) The strap buttons are solid, I check the bolts once in a while, but they seem tight enough. The truss rod was adjusted by me only once (when I switched to the new string setup. I'm using it without a backup and I rely on this instrument, actually it's the only fretted bass I have and currently I can't think of any replacement for it.

Never dealt with the support, but according to their website it's quite crappy. I mean it's good for the warranty cases, but if you get something broken after the warranty has expired you're in trouble, the company will only advise you to find some music shop for spareparts, no assistance at all. And if you need a new neck or body - no chance, they don't sell them AT ALL! so 5 for warranty, 0 for afterservice

I've been playing bass for about 15 years now, with active giging for about 7 years. At present I only have the F-104 and a custom fretless bass made by my own beloved self, and this gear fits me perfect at the moment. If it got lost I'd kill myself (kidding) I would first of all look for this model again, but i guess I might give a try to something else. I love the versatility it provides, it really is a well-made bass, hard'n solid, it's a good solution for any playstile, it has good pickup position for slapping, nice neck end for 2-hand tapping (always enough space to rest your thumb upon the neck in any position), it's just comfortable to play and it freaking looks great!
The only thing I'd wish to add to it is a 3-line EQ. Overall for an instrument below 700 it's perfect!

nicely spaced bass, there is plenty of room to slap between the neck pickup and the fretboard, the black finish shows fingerprints easily but hey, what can you do? the ESP pickups sound good (they're no emgz but still sound great)

im in a melodic metal band, i have it tuned to C (65-125g strings,truss rod ajustment)

and it gives a great sound warm and constant sound,
slapping sounds great,

however like any guitar you want to set up your preamp.

the action was fine, however one of the strings was damaged, oh well it did come from america (i live in australia) and i had it shipped to my house, the strings were still useable. i had my bass setup for C tuning so i didnt mind

very sturdy, recommend using a hard case with any guitar.
the knobs occasionally fall off but can be fixed easily, they're made of metal do they wont snap

they register your guitar, and put it under warranty for your name, not sure on the warranty exactly it was something like 2-3 years cant remember

over all this is a great bass
great sounding, great looking

for its price its worth it. the model up is 2x the cost, and if you're looking for a cheap bass that will sound great this is the bass for you (i still want to put emg35s in mine :P)