Ktaxon 5 String Electric Bass Guitar, Full Size Standard Right Handed Rosewood Fretboard Bass Kit with Gig Bag Strap Cable Wrench Tool (Black)

For the money this fits the bill. Out of the box it was playable. Still could use a little more detailed setup. I’ve purchased other more expensive brands of instruments that needed much more work.

I've bought many guitars. Half the time you get a guitar in the mail or at a music shop, and you have to screw in the screws all the way. This guitar is really not bad. It's slightly intonated on 2 of the 5 strings, but otherwise, it only needed to be tuned and was 100% playable out of the box. It feels solid. The strings are meh, but I'm going to use them. I bought a set of 5 string ernie balls for a third of what this whole guitar costs, figuring I'd replace them right away, but no. The stock ones are fine.Because of the price, I was fully expecting to smack that fat b string and hear tuners rattle. I was expecting unavoidable hum when I turned it up, or crackling from a potentiometer while adjusting the volume/tone knobs. I anticipated having to adjust everything and tighten it all down, or maybe even replace parts outright. There is no need for any of that. Whether I choose to upgrade/mod is a different story. I'd consider playing out with this as-is, honestly.The pickups are single coil, and hum quite a bit when using only one. I was pleased to find that the pickups are wired correctly, and they cancel each other's hum when both are turned up to the same volume. Who's not playing at max anyway? I've got the tone pots doing a lot of shaping, but really enjoy having the neck tone pretty far down for deep warm punch, and the bridge allll the way up to get that midrange clarity at the same time. It sounds like a guitar that costs 4-5 times as much.There are no sharp frets, dead frets, or fret buzz. The shape of the neck is comfortable, and 24 frets is nice. The tuners stay put.The volume output is a bit less than my 4-string, but it feels like I get a bit more nuance at max volume by comparison. Turn up the amp, and all is honky-dorey.The fretboard is unfinished wood. Pick up a Mexican stratocaster, and there's lacquer on the fretboard, which is appaling. I rubbed some lemon oil on this bass, and it actually looks pretty decent. Feels like is should have cost more.The body is very light, and I sit to play mostly. This makes the neck rest at an uncomfortable angle. This problem is not unique to this guitar. The body is a fingerprint magnet. Again, what guitar isn't? The only real problem I found out of the box is that the knobs are different heights off of the body. One is nearly up against, 2 have a 1/16" gap, and the other sticks up almost 1/4". I only found this while looking for something negative. It's a non-issue for me, and hadn't even noticed while playing.Fresh out of the box, this looks, feels, and tastes like a $300+ guitar. I have yet to adjust the bridge, but it does look chintsy. Being a musician on a budget I've dealt with this before, and being ginger with wrenches should let me make adjustments just fine. I wouldn't recommend wrenching the heck out of anything on this guitar, or be prepared to replace parts.I know this is not a premier bass guitar. The under $100 price tag had me thinking I'd have a beater guitar in my closet for funsies. This is actually going to be taking the place of my Washburn 4-string, hanging on the wall, ready for recording. Note that most of what I do is through somewhat expensive modeling software behind a focusrite scarlett DI. I have lots of fancy tools that clean up my sound. If you plug this into a cheap practice amp, your results may not be as good. If you're just wanting to try a 5-string on a budget, you probably won't be disappointed.I bought a 7-string guitar last year, and wanted a 5-string bass to compliment. I had low expectations buying this bass, and for what I got, I'd happily pay 2-3 times as much. Before purchasing, I read other reviews that are quite negative. Maybe I got the one that was built on a Monday, I don't know. The bass came in a guitar shaped cardboard box, and that was inside another rectangular box; pretty par for the course, buying a guitar online. The inner box had 2 different types of tape. I think the retailer opens and quality checks these after they get them from the manufacturer. If so, that could explain why it wasn't a dud.If you're looking at this bass and have read my review, just buy the darn thing. You're not going to get much better quality until you hit the $400+ price range... If the one you get is as decent as the one I got. Again, maybe I got lucky. Maybe I just have low standards?A bonus is that there was no branding on the headstock, so I get to have fun with decals. I'm considering slapping a Yamaha logo on it, and see if I can trick a couple buds into believing it costs $900.

For the price, I’m really impressed with the quality of this bass.

So far I’m only 20 minutes into this thing and have to give this an easy 5 stars based on bang for the buck. I’ve been a guitarist for 25 years and want to start tracking some bass here soon, so I’m not exactly an “experienced bassist” but know my way around a guitar. I only played this through a small Boss practice amp (Katana AiR - so not spec’d fully for a bass) so this is purely based on fit/finish/feel and not really the tone.Pros: nice neck shape, very playable intonation/action out of the box, great packaging (full foam insert in the box), hardware feels relatively solid and the sound should be more than enough to get scratch tracks/random noodling.Cons: fretboard will need conditioning, fret ends will need dressing (but better than some guitars I’ve played), strings feel to be quite cheap, big neck dive versus the light body and the overall output of the pickups seems low (could just be my amp).This won’t be anyone’s top shelf instrument, but upgrading the hardware, electronics and string would likely land this in a solid backup/spare/I need a 5 string for a gig type slot. Really excited to see what I can get out of it into Logic via my HX Stomp + how much I can improve the feel. Great project bass!

As a bass builder, I have to premise by saying this bass is cheaper than the wood I would have to buy to make it. For a hundred bucks, I couldn’t pass up this deal on a 5-string. I needed one to experiment with different hardware and electronic configurations and this bass is perfect for that.Like many of these basses that are machine produced, the body, neck, and fretboard are cut accurately, and the neck was straight requiring no truss rod adjustment. However, it’s not entirely playable out of the box. String action was high needing to be adjusted as well as the intonation. After lowering the action, the strings buzzed against the pickups because they weren’t completely screwed in. Also, the pickup cavity routing was a bit too snug for the way the pickups were installed.Tuners may need to be replaced but I have to wait a bit for the strings and wood to settle into the new environment to determine if the tuners are bad. They are held in place by a single screw. I had to retune significantly today but that is normal with new strings and a change in environment. My other basses rarely ever go out of tune.It’s not a high quality assembly, but you’re not paying for a high quality assembly. If you’re looking to play it and you know how to do setup and intonation yourself, it’s a great starter bass. Most beginner basses require initial setup anyways, so that will likely cost you about $50-$100 to have a guitar tech do it at a music store if you can’t do it yourself. So, add that to the price if you’re doing comparisons. You can usually negotiate setup into the purchase if you buy from a guitar shop rather than online, so something else to keep in mind if you’re a first-time buyer. Be sure to bring it up yourself, though. Most places will include setup and intonation if you ask for it, but may not outwardly offer it.If you’re like me and you’re just looking for a good 5-string skeleton and you’re going to replace everything on it, the bones are good. The neck, body, and fretboard are all fine and don’t require any major work aside from normal fret edge treatment.I gave it 3 stars instead of 4 or 5 just because the packaging could be a bit more protective. It had some body dents and weird finish spots and the headstock was cracked. They’re only cosmetic so no big deal for me. I can fix them, but I would be returning it otherwise. See attached pictures.Also, as is evident from the pictures, the stock pickups are much wider than the string spacing with the stock bridge setup. The pickup cavities and stock pickups are for a wide string spacing (19 mm or larger) but the bridge is really small and since it is not adjustable, it only allows for 16.5 mm string spacing. Again, if you’re a beginner, you’re not going to notice the difference in sound so this doesn’t matter too much, but it’s something to consider if you’re going to make upgrades to it or run it through high quality amplification. I can put a bridge on it that accommodates up to 18mm string spacing without having to drill new holes for the bridge, but I will have to wood fill and re-route the pickup cavities as they are too big for my 18mm string spacing pickups that I am installing. It would be nice if the bridge and pickups were matched to size with the original purchase.