Schecter Diamond Series California Custom 5

2004 Model: Made in Korea with custom setup at the shop in California, USA.
21 jumbo fret 5 string. 35 inch scale. Volume, Blend, Bass and Treble Controls. Active electronics. 2 EMG pickups, 40p5 and 40j.
Jazz style alder body with flamed maple top. 4 bolt satin finished maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, black pearl dot markers.
Hipshot A "stringthru" bridge. Grover tuners. Graphite nut. Factory installed Elixir strings. You get a lot of highend features for your money.

Wow! The sound posibilities from this bass are incredible. I'm using 2 single 15in.W/ horn cabinets, 500Wrms each and a 575Wrms Ashdown head. Starting with the amp and bass setting flat the sound is very Jbass like. Going + or- on the guitar treble and bass controls Pbass, Warwick, Musicman tones are achievable. Then by adjusting the amp controls you can get anything from smooth deep bass, growling punchy mids to super clear highs. The bass has an overriding clean tone from top to bottom even though I have the horns set very low on the cabs. The real plus to this guitar is the B string. Tone and clarity are excellent with good string response. No flab here. Nice tight punch. I'm sure the 15in. speakers help. Soundwise this is the most versatile sounding bass I've owned in 35 years of playing. (My Pbass is still my honey.)

Factory set-up by any standard is quite good. Action was low, about right for me, with no buzzing. I'm not fond of graphite nuts. I don't need the lubricating qualities of graphite because I don't do a lot of string bending. I really like mammoth ivory for nut material. Tone and sustain are improved. My friend Mark, the owner of Sunburst Guitars in Bath, Maine, changed out the nut and did a super-tune-up. Playability was improved. Along with the new nut and the Hipshot bridge tone and sustain are really nice. As for fit and finish, this is quality made bass. Don't let made in Korea scare you. It has the same attention to detail construction of a much higher end guitar.

I believe this bass will hold up to extended live playing. With the high quality materials and workmanship it should last years. I've replaced the stock strap buttons with locking ones. I wanted the extra protection for if this bass has one drawback it's heavy. I picked up a better strap and this helps out with comfort and balance. I've owned this bass for about two months so I can't say with complete certainty how it will hold up. But I would feel comfortable gigging without a backup.

I have emailed Schecter twice about getting a factory hardcase. No responce on either try. This bass is no longer in production so getting a left handed factory case might be impossible. However, a simple yes or no from Schecter would have been nice. The bass came with a factory limited lifetime warranty. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for a rating in this category.

Overall this is a lot of 5 string for the money. With it's quality and features I don't think you can do much better for under $800.00. If it were lost or stolen I try to find another one. Sound is the number 1 attribute to this bass. The combinations are endless. It's also beautiful. The flamed maple dark cherry finish is something to see. As I said before if there's a downside to this bass it's the weight. It is also the first 35inch scale bass I've owned so to me it seems neck heavy. I bought a high end Levy's leather strap and this made the whole guitar more comfortable and balanced. I'm happy with the purchase and would look at other Schecter basses in the future.

What can I say- active EMG pickups, 2-band active EQ, high quality elixir strings (that will cost a crapload to restring unless you go for something of lesser quality) and of course the fifth string gives the Cali Custom 5 as much versitility as you could want. I do have 2 major complaints though--1) the 35 inch scale gives you a workout when trying to play anything difficult, and your going to see your speed suffer imensly 2) its heavy as heck, extended periods of play lead to fatigue like crazy, have a chair at hand.

I play through a Crate bx-100 (an older version with a 8 band graphic eq) with a boss bas od pedal in front of it. All i can say is that i have more control over tonality that i would have dreamed of. Its insane what i can do just by turning the knobs on the guitar- go from deep and dark to a full tone blast to a shrill high end extremely easily. The bass is a little picky about what you do with your left hand, it takes some time to learn how to not make fret noises or make the B string slap against the fret board. But I really cant complain at all about the sound- sheerly amazing

The quality i got it in was not a problem at all-- put together very nicely

About six months after I got the guitar, the output jack started acting up. I took it out and pushed the prongs together, and it worked for a while, and then started acting up again. Now its an on and off problem, I think im going to replace the jack. The rest of the guitar though, great, just have an extra nine volt battery close at hand in case you forget that its been a while sinse you changed it

The dealer I bought the guitar from had it ordered, but hadn't recieved it yet, (as I'm left handed, I had to buy online) Months went by and nobody seemed to know where it was. I finally e-mailed schecter just to find it was no longer in stock in their warehouse, and not going to be manufactured in the following year. For some reason they decided not to inform the dealer of this for a few weeks after I had talked to them. Luckily I found it someplace else in stock, but schecter sure didn't go out of there way to inform anybody of anything