The ESP LTD B-205SM See Thru Black Satin is a 5-string bass guitar featuring an ash body, a maple top, a maple/rosewood neck, a rosewood fretboard, SB-5 pickups, and a see-thru black finish. This is a bass guitar constructed for use in any genre from metal to reggae to funk. With a 5-string design and active 3-band electronics, the LTD B-205SM can handle any of these styles with ease. Equipped with SB-5 pickups in both the bridge and neck position, a warm rocking tone is achievable any time.
I used to play 5 string basses but decided to move up a string to increase my range. This bass is perfect: it sounds great (clear with both low and high ends), looks beautiful (much better than in the picture!), and the price is VERY LOW for a good 6 string. Seriously, most decent 6 string basses cost well over 700 eur! Been playing it for about 3 years now...never a single problem! Highly recommended!
This bass has everything you need for this price, good looking, nut width is a bit slimmer than standard 6 strings, 24 jumbo frets, good wood for better sound, nice sustain, great 3 band electronics and 2 EMG looking pickups that give a really nice tone for all directions of music. Totally recommend this bass for first 6 string or even last that youll use.
I ordered this Bass as I wanted a more modern fretless than my Jazz and decided on a 5. I was first impressed by the exotic finish of these Basses but skeptical on quality at this price. I needn't have worried. I honestly do not know how ESP maintain this kind of fantastic quality/price. Out of the box the maple cap looks great if you like a natural wood finish. I could not find a single cosmetic flaw. The Bass is slightly neck-heavy due to the light weight body but it sits well on a strap. The hardware seems solid enough and looks cool. My Bass was well set-up but other reviews say the contrary. The strings are D'addario Rounds as listed so you may want to change these out for flats if you wish to avoid scratches on the roasted Jatoba fingerboard (they used to be Rosewood). The active threeband eq plus passive pan pot give a lot of tone scope. The only negative point to my ears is that I would like a touch more sustain but all in all consider these Basses before going for a Rockbass.
I have this bass for 9 months by now, the build quality is very good except the preamp.
The pickups sound really good and in conjuction with the ash body they make the bass sound like a professional instrument.
The only downside is the preamp, it's not quiet unless you cut the treble to mininum. Also the pots started to crackle after a while so i reccomend replacing them.
The strong suit of the bass is built quality and especially the frets. No sharp edjes, not visible fret ending and acceptable leveling, i had to level only 2 frets to get a really low action.
Overall if you want a bright sounding bass with decent quality, great pickups and you are able to change the preamp then this bass is for you.
Amazing! Apart from the beautiful look of this instrument, it feels nice and sounds really cool.