Stagg BC300NS

Made in China in 2004. 20-fret 4-string j-bass copy. the body is made of 4 pieces of alder (or a similar chinese wood, not sure). classic 3-pot control layout (vol/vol/tone), 2 j-pickups, all passive. the tone pot started to get noisy after a while. neck is flame(!) maple with a rosewood fretboard, bridge a tuners are simple but functional. natural satin finish on neck and body feels pleasant. tortoise pickguard.

When I tried it in the shop the sound was allright but not mindblowing, but after proper setup and a few gigs it's getting there. the pickups are fine and so is the wood. what you see is what you get - authetic j-bass tones. it handles both jaco-style bridge pickup sounds and bright slap tones with both pickups on. all tones have a nice warmth to them, blame the soft body wood and the rosewood board. pickups on their own can pick up noise quite easily, but that's single coils, right? very usable, dynamic live sound, nice and balanced in the studio. very impressive for a few bucks!

finish was flawless, action was okay, not great. after 10 minutes of adjustments it plays great. truss rod responds well, strings don't match perfectly with the pole pieces of the pickups but it doesn't show in the sound.

simple, solid design...body wood is quite soft, so it's already got a few dings and dongs. - apart from that: built to last.

haven't dealt with them...

I've been playing for ten years, other gear includes peavey tl-six, steavens custom fretted and fretless 5-string, hartke 5000, swr goliath junior. I love this bass for it's warm sound, great playability and the fact that I don't have to worry about it on the road- if it breaks I'll just get a new one. I'm thinking of getting another one to convert into a fretless. a great bass!