OLP MM2 StingRay

Not bad for a bass in this price range. Ash body with clear finish. Musicman pickup config. This bass has all the markings of a Stingray. Cool bass. It's balance is excellent. real good starter bass.

Passive pickup have there limitations. Round bottom end and strong mid range but the top end lack definition. The easy fix is active Duncan musicman replacement pickups which I'm told is what everyone is doing to get close to a Musicman sound without dropping the bucks. Pretty simple controls not a lot of tweeking possibilities. Overall usable sound.

The fit was so so. Bass side of the neck joint had a gap. The finish had what can only be described as shadowing that could be seen when viewed at an angle. The worst thing about this bass was the action. The majority of the 21 frets were not seated properly. It was impossible to get the action at an acceptable level. The OLP rep's advise was to have the neck re-freted and leveled which is a $200.00 plus dollar investment where I live. Needless to say, the bass didn't stay around very long.

Can't really tell how reliable it would be. It seemed solid probably would have held up well.

As I said I contacted OLP via email and they responded promptly but overall I got the feeling that they weren't really all that concerned about their produces quality and my dissatisfaction. I guess you get what you get at that price range.

I've been playing for around 10 years and I'm by no means a killer bass player. I do have the ability the spend massive amounts of money on unnecessary basses, an excerise I indulged in regularly.So you ask, why the hell did you buy this? I figured if I could get a well playing bass at this price range I would up date the electronics and have a respectable bass. What I learned is that if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is. I figured before I drop another $400 in a $200 bass I should just give it to some needy student. Would I take a chance on another one. No! Would I recommend an OLP if some 14 year old wanted to see if he or she could play an instrument. Yes! But if you're a player looking for a great sounding bass, put the $200 toward a Ken Smith.

This is my second update on this bass.
The last update was a year and a half ago.
This bass has gone thru hell.
Bounced around in vans, trunk of my car and in trailers for close to 2 years.
I leave it in my trunk at all times when I'm not playing it.
In Northern Illinois it gets from 30 below zero to 105 in the summer.
The abuse did knock it out of adjustment.
But I set it back up in less than an hour.
It has never failed me and I have had many positive comments on its looks and sound.
It still looks new with no noticable wear.
This has been my only gigging bass for close to 2 years.
Just a great bass and a real work horse.
Only problem has been that one of the volume controls got broken while in transit.
The reason for this is the gig bag.
It does not protect the bass like a hard case.
I just polished it up for a jazz gig I have to do tomorrow.
Looks lovely.

Been playing 30+ years.

New, 2004/5 MM2 Stingray Style Bass. All Black with pearl pickguard, black metal parts (knobs, control plate, bridge and open-geared tuners). One-piece maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, 21 frets, basswood body, and nice Stingray style truss rod adjustment at the heel which allows adjustment without removal of the pickguard or neck. Two volume controls for each of the single humbucker's single coil pickups and a tone control.

At this price point -- $229 -- incredible. Some variety with the coil split, but not as much as with a real Music Man, but this is about a grand cheaper, so get a Seymour Duncan replacement and it'll be great (I'm keeping it stock for a while, though, as I found a sound I like -- both coils full on, with tone set in farthest treble position). Great set up for slap and pop technique. Some have said it will be noisy when you turn down or off one of the coils, but I have not found this to be the case. You do get a difference, but for some reason, I like it better with the top coil on and bottom off when I don't use both.

This looked good and was set up great right out of the box. Perfect action on this and another MM2 they had at the Guitar Center where I bought this. Either I lucked out, based on previous reviews, or they are doing these better, but Inspector Number 3 was sure doing his job right with this one. Great action for slap and pop technique -- no buzzing anywhere. It felt as good and as right as any Ernie Ball Stingray I have played, and that is why I bought it immediately. Finish seems great too, although I don't really like the totla blackout treatment, but I was buying for set up, not looks.

Seems to be built like a tank. Nice fat neck, like a P-neck, solid feeling controls. The output jack looks cheap, and a few screws were kind of scuffed, and the black finish looks like it will wear sometime, but it still seems like a quality piece. Not much taper to the controls, but there never is on these lower-priced gems.

Can't tell. They ahve an interesting web site.

Well, a couple of weeks ago I proved to myself that Squier makes a great jazz bass. Now I am convinced that OLP makes a great Stingray. Either I've gotten to the point where the instrument I play does not matter, or, as I suspect, these low-cost instruments are just as good -- sometimes even better -- than their pricey counterparts. I've been playing for more years than I care to think about and, having reached a point where I actually think I have a lot of my tone in my fingers, I am pleased to find quality instruments that are very easy to afford. Look at it this way -- in two weeks I picked up a jazz bass sound and a Stingray bass sound for a little over $400. Not a bad deal. People call these brands "beginner basses," but they are only beginner basses in terms of new players not wanting to shell out a lot for an instrument they have not yet learned to play. All players can be easily pleased with these OLP basses. I know I am.

Bought in 2004. Features as described in other reviews here. Opted for the Black body/black headstock version w/maple neck.

In a word - brilliant. Echo what's been largely said here. Overall it sounds like a bass twice or three times its price with a low growl and tight bite on the top strings. It's the first bass I've ever owned with a "sweet spot". The first three frets on the G & D have a really satisfying feel and sound to them. Have no gripe with the pickup. But through a SansAmp DI box it sounds even punchier. Earthed really well - whereas my Squier Standard Jazz Bass picks any buzz going!

Fit is really good. Feels weighty and well made. Bar the neck fixing plate, chrome fittings look solid. Played well out of the box, but I dropped the action down a touch. No fret buzz. The intonation - after being set - is bang on, and hasn't slipped. This bass also holds in tune really well. The only thing really lets this black version down is the white pickguard. It looks cheap. Swapped for black, the guitar looks perfect. Not sure on the look of the newer models - I guess you either like the sparkly pickguard or you hate it.

Not gigged it yet and only owned it for about 2 months - so unfair to say.

No dealings as yet

This isn't about the MM2, but the MM2 pickup used on another bass I built.

OK, my friend has this MM2 and decides to upgrade to an active pickup and preamp. He wanted a really light StingRay without a heavy price tag as well. So he makes the swap and gives me the old pickup and electrical parts. Trouble is, I didn't have a bass I could put it in. I had gone skiing and bent my metal Volant SuperKarve I alpine snow skis in a hard crash landing and taken the camber out of the bottom sides of the skis. I was wondering what I could use it for. If I had a half dozen more ruined sets of skis I could make a neat lawn chair or something. As I was looking at the flat hard plastic bottom of the ski, I was reminded how it looked like a big fat fretless bass fretboard. Then I thought about the unused MM2 pickup, and wondered what a "stick bass" made out of an old ski would be like. What the hell, give it a try. I took off the ski binding and decided that the bridge would be at the front end of the ski. I fashioned a one piece bridge out of a brass plate I got from a local machine shop, and bolted through the ski to secure it in place. The holes in the ski were 1" slots to allow intonation to be made. I needed to offset the ski fretboard a bit higher, si I cut the ski and bolted the ski back together where the neck on a bass would be. I measured a 34" scale and bolted a brass nut there that I had made from the same brass plate as the bridge. The neck was really wide at 65mm, so I pretended it was a 6 string nut and kept the strings offset to the G string side for easier playing. The pickup was mounted to the ski about 3" from the bridge after I routed the base of the ski a bit to hold the pickup. I had a set of old 2x2 bass tuners, so I drilled the tail end of the ski and mounted them in place by drilling through the ski. After stringing up the ski bass with flatwounds, I noticed that more bending of the ski was in order to get a playably low action. I also had to make a neck shim to get some setback in the neck. The good thing is that a stainless teel ski is not affected by the weather. There is some of that mwah sound that a fretless bass has, but the tone is not at all woody, naturally. I screwed two strap lugs to the bottom of the ski to where it balanced well. The tone controls were mounted to holes drilled through the ski below the bridge, and covered with a metal box cover bolted to the ski. The strings go through holes drilled in the ski near the bridge. It's the best sounding ski bass I ever heard, because it's the only one I ever heard. It's a great gag bass. Doesn't really sound like an MM2 or any other wood bass I ever heard, but that was expected. Unique tone.

The action kind of sucks, but it's playable on simple stuff. The ski bass is very light with a slim body. I'm really not a fretless bass player, so I don't know how to compare it to other fretless basses. It's hard to rate this category, as not too many ski basses exist, I would suppose. My workmanship isn't up to skilled luthier standards, of course.

It would be hard to imagine anything more durable. Stainless steel and P-tex tend to last forever it seems.

None.

With free pickups and electrics and being able to salvage a ruined set of skis for something marginally useful, I think it is outstanding value. My friend's MM2 sounds good with his active electrics, and he like to mess around with weird sounds the ski bass can produce. It's worth the effort to build just for the unique tone it makes. If I ever get a 6-string pickup, I plan on converting the other bent ski to a 6-string ski bass.

Sting Ray copy with passive pickups and tone control, lightweight basswood body, and Fender Jazz type V-V-T tone controls. Fairly simple bass.

OK, there is basically one way to use this bass: keep both volumes full up to reduce noise. Front and back halves are wired in common humbucking arrangement, so their output voltages need to be even to cancel out noise. Backing off on either half for a single coil Jazz bass sound will result in noise pickup. Get your tone at your preamp and keep the bass tone control at a regular position. I keep mine full up to get all the treble without needing to add treble at the preamp and causing noise. I then back off on the tone control when needing deeper bass. This is a humbucker rock bass. It is very quiet as long as the front and back halves of the pickups are kept balanced in volume for humbucking action to do its job. The neck has the punch of a solid maple neck and the body adds some basswood warmth. Sustain is medium. The neck is 4-bolt and inset about the same length as standard Fender basses. The more expensive passive Mexican Fender basses are not better in any way that I can tell. You MUST add an active preamp if you want the tonal range of a Sting Ray, which was limited to begin with due to the single humbucker pickup. I would have preferred a copy of a G&L L-2000, but the Sting Ray is the more common bass and these things are sold to Sting Ray wannabe owners that don't want to cough up the coin for the real thing. In my eyes, the Sting Ray isn't worth the coin anyway, so I am going for the looks and general feel and am satisfied with the tone which is punchy and good in its own way. I suggest running this through a SansAmp RBI, Bass Driver DI, or an Aguilar OBP-1 or DB924 preamp. That will get you back some of the Sting Ray tonal range at the frequency extremmes although not the exact sound. If you buy any of those good and cheap preamps I mentioned, you can buy all of these cheap Asian basses you want and blow away standard passive Mexican Fender basses all day long unless they are also using active boost. Your sound might go up to a 9 for what you are looking for in tone. People who give these OLP's a 9 or 10 rating just don't know what active electronics can do for Rock Bass. Seymour Duncan makes an active Sting Ray kit for about $200 that will get you very close to a Sting Ray sound, but an Aguilar DB924 can be used with every bass you own to get an active boost. The Aguilar OBP-3 preamp would be my choice for the ultimate tone shaping at a reasonable cost, but it is installed onboard and can't be used with other basses. I bought a SansAmp RBI and use it with all my basses and guitars.

Every cheap Asian guitar I ever saw needed a good setup when it arrived. This was NOT anywhere near ready to play. It was ASSEMBLED and nowhere near SETUP. Very typical low rent Asian situation. Usually several setups are needed as the wood is seasoned out and acclimated. This one was too low and rattled. Now that everything has settled down, the action is nice and low without excess buzzing anywhere. Workmanship is good for a high production Chineses bass. OLP is one of the Elite Brands organization which is a division of Hanser Holdings which owns Kustom amps. You can get practically the same bass from Jay Turser except the D tuning key is turned downward for a 2x2 tuning key arrangement which looks retarded. This is the same shape and somewhat the feel of a Sting Ray, except it is lighter and will not get the sound of an active bass. If you do not need custom action, fit, and finish, this is a good bass and no use spending more in my opinion. It makes a VERY GOOD beater gig bass for a semi-pro because of the light weight and fast, comfortable neck with low action capability.....if a Sting Ray feel is your thrill. Just don't get hung up on the fact you want an exact copy of a Sting Ray, because it ain't. There are LOTS of decent instruments coming out of Asia at a low price these days. This is just one of them. A used Asian Spector Legend or Warwick Rock Bass blows right past this bass for a few bucks more. One thing this does have is the easiest truss rod adjustment ever on a bass. That's important if you are a low action junkie.

The soft basswood body will dent up and I had to put glue down the screw holes to harden them and keep screws from stripping. Basswood is very soft and notorious for not holding screws. Just do the glue thing when you get it and use a toothpick to get the glue down into every part of the screw hole. It will be OK after you do the little things that a high speed production line isn't going to address.

If you can't fix these cheap Asian instruments yourself, you should be buying something else that's worth the time and trouble of dinking with by a luthier. Except for a total replacement of something, I wouldn't bother calling the company.

There has been a recent price increase by OLP as I figured there would be as the dollar weakens and OLP gets a reputation. My father got a nice Oscar Schmidt Delta King guitar that is a copy of a Gibson ES-335 for $150 and except for junky strings, it's a really good sounding guitar that took more labor to build than this bass and uses more expensive wood in the body. The people who give it a 9 or 10 aren't looking at what you get from other Asian manufacturers. Be aware that this is a commodity bass coming out of a big Chinese factory that makes basically the same thing for Jay Turser. OLP is just a marketing brand with absolutely no production facilities in the USA. I think it's a better deal than a Mexican Fender because of the higher labor costs in Mexico. HOWEVER, I have bought used basses on eBay for a little extra that are head and shoulders above this bass. My latest was a Spector ReBop in mint condition for a little under $400 when you discount the deluxe gig bag that was thrown in to sweeten the deal. By the time you add a gig bag and active preamp to try to match the Spector, you have a bass at the same price that is inferior all the way around. I would suggest getting one of these basses used and paying AT LEAST $100 less than the Musician's Friend price which is now $252. I can get all the used Asian Spectors that I want for $300 or less on eBay and have the active electronics, double pickups, 3-piece neck, and playability of a Spector. I can get their Czech Republic basses staring at $400 like I did my ReBop. The OLP MM2 in no way compares to a Euro Spector bass, or even their Korean bass with a 3-piece neck, maple top, and active electronics. As the prices of these Chinese basses rise, and used basses go down due to the souring economy, you are a nut to pay as much as I did. I could have waited a bit and got a used MM2 for $150 or less. Forget about an American standard production Fender, Gibson, Rickenbacker, Ernie Ball, G&L, etc. G&L kicks their own butt with their Tribute line of high quality import instruments. You can get them used for what I gave for my Spector bass. They are better than this OLP. Readjust your thinking about low cost instruments. There is almost nothing made in the USA with a street price under $1000 that isn't kicked in the head until dead by an import instrument that costs considerably less. There is not a single ski company making skis in large numbers in America anymore, although there are American owned brands with production facilities overseas, and the guitar industry is heading down the same path. I would just as soon play this OLP MM2 as an American standard P-bass or J-bass, but there are lots of import instruments for less than an American P or J-bass like a G&L Tribute or Euro Spector or Asian built Warwick that just stomps all over them for quality for what you pay. Go pick up an Oscar Schmidt Delta King at $150 before you decide this MM2 rates a 10 at $252. Its a good buy at $150 which is what you get the Delta King for. If you pay a couple of hundred bucks more in the used market, you get VERY pro quality instruments from the higher quality manufacturers like Spector, Warwick, G&L, MTD, etc., that copies their custom USA and German instruments rather closely. Much more closely than OLP does on any of their instruments. OLP markets the look on a generic sound platform. So pay a generic price and not a penny more. Rickenbacker is the only prominent American manufacturer of high production that has no cheap import copies available, but that is a vintage instrument design with a limited market anyway. Their best and most versatile sounding guitar is the 650D which can be had for $700 street price new anyway (hardly worth importing against at that price), and their basses aren't worth the relatively high used prices unless you MUST get that vintage Rick tone and look to fit into a cover band or something ($1750 MSRP for a flatsawn necked production line bass is r

I got this thing used so I have no idea what year it was made but it's black with a blue shell pick gaurd. One passive humbucker. 2 volume controls and one tone and a maple finger board. really nothing special.

Right now I'm playing in a peace punk band (think antischism meets contravene) and I use this as a back up to my active deluxe fender jazz. I use it with a 1976 Fender Bassman 10 and the only effect i use is my digitech distortion. For a passive bass it gets a very good sound but for some reason i can't get it to sound good with distortion. I mean it doesn't sound bad but i like the crunchy sound and all i get with this thing is clean sound with a lot of fuzz around it no matter how much i fiddle with the pedal. I will give it this though it is a VERY quite bass which i like it's the main reason I bought it, but you have to understand that a bass with only one tone control and one pickup will not be very versatile. On my fender I can get a wide variety of great sounds but on this one you only get one good sound but it is a really really good sound!

I bought this bass used so the action, set up and pickups were all great. It seems like a very well put together bass. the strap buttons seem very secure. the only problem with the bass is when I got it home I noticed that whoever owned this bass before me drilled two small holes in the finish. why i don't know. when i saw this I almost took it back, but then i played it for awhile and loved the sound and decided to keep it but if you buy this thing brand new you obviously won't have this problem.

this seems like a very well put together bass. i wouldn't use it as my main bass but it is a solid backup. I've only had to play it live once and it held up very well. the strap buttons seem very secure but i still would recommend taking them out and putting some wood glue in there so they will NEVER come out. I do this with every bass i buy.

never delt with the OLP people.

I'm 23 now and I've been playing for about 7 or 8 years now. like i said i own an active deluxe fender jazz and i use it as my main bass. i used to own a squier standard jazz as my back up but it got stolen so i got this one. I almost bought another squier jazz but the salesperson kept going on and on about this one so i tried it and liked the sound and it was MUCH quiter than the squier. it was also about $100 cheaper. it would be nice if it had another tone control but what do you expect from a bass that retails around $300. I would recommend this bass to someone who's just starting out or for someone who's just looking for a reliable back up. for the price it's one of the better basses you'll get, but like i said earlier in the review this is not a versatile bass. It gets a good rock sound but that's about it.

2003 MODEL, BLUE, SINGLE HUMBUCKER PICK UP, BOG STANDARD STRAIGHT OUT OF THE BOX. PASSIVE, BASIC FEATURES

FANTASTIC SOUND. REALLY QUITE SUPRISED THAT A PASSIVE BASS CAN MAKE A NOISE LIKE THIS. PRODUCES A FANTASTIC DEEP GROWL WITH PLENTY OF ATTACK.

ACTION VERY GOOD. PLAYED WITH FLUIDITY. PICKUP ADJUSTMENT SPOT ON. EVERYTHING AS IT SHOULD BE. FINISH VERY GOOD.

NOT TOO IMPRESSED WITH THIS ASPECT OF THE BASS. HAD IT A YEAR AND WITHIN THAT TIMESCALE, THE NECK HAD BECOME HEAVILY TARNISHED (IT HAD GONE GREEN THROUGH A COMBINATION OF SWEAT AND STRINGS), THE NUT HAD FALLEN OFF AND CRACKS HAD STARTED TO APPEAR ON THE BODY AROUND THE NECK. WAS ALWAYS VERY CAREFUL WITH IT SO QUITE SURPRISED TO SEE THESE FAILINGS. INTONATION HAD TO BE ADUSTED FREQUENTLY AS WAS CONSTANTLY GOING OUT OF TUNE UP THE NECK. REALLY FRUSTRATING.

BEEN PLAYING FOR 17 YEARS. OWN A 5 STRING VERSION OF THIS BASS WHICH I THINK IS SUPERB AND A MILLION MILES BETTER BUILD QUALITY THAN THIS BASS. IT MIGHT JUST BE THE INSTRUMENT I HAD AS IN ALL OTHER ASPECTS THIS BASS WAS SUPERB, BUT A SHAME TO BE LET DOWN BY SUCH SHODDY RELIABILITY. WOULD I BUY ONE AGAIN? NO, I'D SAVE UP FOR THE REAL THING. A GREAT BASS FOR THE STARTER, BUT LIKELY TO FALL APART IN THE FACE OF ANY SERIOUS USE.

2004 Natural finish
Elm Body
Bird's Eye Maple neck
Maple fingerboard w. black dot inlays
Shell pickguard
single passive MM humbucker with dual volume control (each controlling the output of one of the two coils) and tone (high end roll off)
Classic 1976 Stingray look and feel.

MM offer passive basses in this exact same style for those of us who prefer the open sound of the old style electronics. In which I was luck enough to play and it's tone is very very close to its American borther. It has a very nice glassy hi/hi-mid when slapped and all the burpyness and growl of it active counterparts. It resonds very well to right hand dynamics which make this bass as tonally versatile as a single PU bass can be.

Nathan, my bass salesman, already set the bass up for me upon arrival (now a personal standard service for my rather large purchases in past and future)... so I'm unable to say. All the hardware etc was very well installed. some very very minor finish flaws (just less lacquer around the headstock edgs in one spot and in the neck joint). the cutout of the pickguard around the levenson trussrod adjuster is slightly off, which may possibly hinder any trussrond adjustments (it arrived set up just right for me, very very slightly concaved). The Elm body is very hard and hasn't dented when my sax player had a try at being bass player and dropped it. it is a 2 piece body, but sounds great...i've never seen Elm for basses. Frets are perfectly fitted, with above average finishing.
also, my neck has the gorgeoue bird's eye in it- a feature not specified by OLP... luck i guess!

very good solid chrome hardware. this bass was meant to be a back-up to my fender jazz, but it's looking like it'll be used a lot more. it's a great playing and feeling bass.

I love the look, feel and tone... a great bass for the price.

This a review for an OLP MM2 four string bass made in China. This particular model features a natural stain with a tortoise shell style pickup. The body of the bass is elm, and the neck and fret board are maple. The bass features a passive version of the standard Ernie Ball Music Man style pickup, with two volume and one tone controls. Each of the volume controls adjusts the level of one of the coils inside the pickup, so you can achieve a single coil sound or combine both for a wide range of sounds (along with the tone control). The body style is based on the Ernie Ball Music Man bass, featuring a heavy duty four string bridge (not a string through body style). The tuners are open gear style units similar to the Music Man and P-Bass. This is a long scale bass with a fairly wide neck, especially as it approaches the body. The frets are full size. The bass came with a cheap gig bag (from the dealer) and the necessary tools for neck and bridge adjustments.

I play an eclectic range of music, focusing on jazz/funk-infused modern post-punk rock. The MM2 suits my style very well, with a wide range of sounds to dial up. I am playing the bass through the Behringer BX1200 120 watt with 12" speaker bass wedge amp. Once again, the range of sounds is pretty amazing thanks to the two volume and one tone controls. The bass is well-suited for both stage and studio, being incredibly quiet, unless you split the pickup into a single coil...of course, you get the average single coil type of buzz, but nothing obnoxious. I really have no complaints about the sound. I have a friend that owns a Music Man with the active pickup, and I must admit that I do not notice a huge difference in sound or versatility between the two.

When the bass arrived, the action was fairly nice, although there were a number of uneven spots in the fret work, causing buzzes and muted notes. The pickup was adjusted considerably lower than it could or should be. The finish was flawless, and all of the hardware was perfectly set and solid. Really, the only major flaw were the uneven (poorly dressed) frets around the 13th and 15th frets...on the 3rd string only...that resulted in dead notes. Otherwise, it was a well produced instrument.

The design and quality of the bass should allow it to stand the test of time with persistent studio and live action. All of the hardware (tuners, bridge, strap buttons, etc.) seems to be solid, and the finish is immaculate and tough. I would certainly use it for a gig without a backup. The MM2 shows no sign of needing constant neck or intonation adjustments.

Due to the uneven, buzzing, and muted frets, I contacted the company (via e-mail) to see what they could do to remedy the problem. I had already taken the bass to my favorite instrument repair shop for an analysis and quote. The technician was really impressed by the quality of the MM2, and he said that a few of the frets needed adjusted to even things out. The tech stated that many companies do not spend a lot of time dressing the frets, usually performing the setup with a machine, figuring that most folks will take the instrument to be adjusted to their playing style anyway. The tech admitted that this was no excuse for the few buzzing and muted notes. The tech recommended a basic fret dress and setup to correct the problems and make the bass play the way I wanted it to. The local shop quoted the fret dress and setup (including pickup adjustment) at $85.00!
Anyway, back to contacting the company! A representative contacted me no later than a day after I sent the e-mail. The rep was incredibly helpful and flexible. The rep offered for me to either send it in to them for repair or replacement, or, for the local shop to repair the bass. OLP unfortunately does not have an authorized repair shop in the Portland, Oregon area. And the local favorite shop I took the bass to was not interested in becoming an authorized repair facility for OLP (the shop is just too busy to take on such a task). So, the rep told me that OLP would only pay $50.00 toward the repair to an unauthorized repair facility. By the way, the warranty on the bass is for one year! I decided that since the bass was in perfect condition otherwise, I'd have the local shop do the fret dress and setup (since I kow they do a great job), and just pay the extra $35, instead of having to ship the bass back to OLP...and who knows if the quality of repair (or replacement) would be up to snuff...plus, wierd things can happen in shipping instruments. To me, this was a deal. Anyway, the shop dressed the frets and setup the bass perfectly...it plays like a dream, with no buzzing or anything. I mailed the receipt to the OLP rep, and I expect the $50.00 to arrive any day now.
Ultimately, the customer support was excellent!

Really, this is a great bass for the price. Sound, fit, features, everything! It's hard to compare it anything (except the Music Man), because the bass really defines its own style and sound. Versatility in sound is the key to this bass. I highly recommend the MM2. Consider that natural stain, since the body is made of elm. The solid color models use basswood for the body.