Hamer Velocity 2 Ash 5 String

2009 model, made in Indonesia. Five string, rosewood fret board, medium frets, non-locking Hamer tuners, and satin finish maple/bubinga neck (5 bolt). Good action with little buzz. The neck head has matching ash cap.
Three piece ash body (center piece w/"wings") capped with solid ash front and back. Translucent red finish.
Two Hamer active soap-bar pickups. The bass and treble are active, the volume is not. The 4th control, "blend", well...I'm not sure what it actually does. On one extreme rotation, both pickups are selected; on the other extreme rotation, both pickups are selected - so it's not a blend in the typical sense. To me, it sounds like the pickups vary from "2 single coil p/u's, in series, out-of-phase" to "2 single coil p/u's, in parallel, out-of-phase".

The active tone controls do allow for a wide range of "tones"; and the blend control adds another dimension. The sound definitely ranges from deep lows to "punchy".
With normal settings, the pickups are very quiet. If the treble control is maxed, there is some "hiss".

The setup was "usable"; I did do the usual tweak of intonation and height. Pick up height was fine.
Finish, overall, looks very nice...except up on the head. It looks like someone forgot to "finish the finish" as there is a rough edge all the way around the head. The nut was not cleaned up; had burs of plastic dangling. There is a bit of over spray on the nect by the body joint. And there are scratches (small) on the back that leads me to believe this unit was "previously owned".
The 9-volt battery compartment lid latch was cracked.
The fret board had not been dressed and was dry as a bone.
If I had paid full price for this instrument, I would have been very disappointed and angry.

I've owned it for less than a month, so time will tell. On first blush, I don't see any reason why it won't last.

I contacted Hamer for information concerning the blend control and the electronics in general; no one responded.
I contacted Kramer (parent company), and the east coast service manager responded quickly and kindly.

I bought this bass sound unheard, and frankly, because it looked so sharp. I did need something to replace my 1975 Epiphone ET-285 that was having tuning issues and the sound was not overly conducive for the material (contemporary Christian). And I wanted a 5-string. At the original price of ~$600, it looked like a good deal. When Musician's Friend closed them out at $300, it became a much better deal. As I noted above, if I'd paid the full amount I would have been upset.