Super bass! Ultra Light ?3.5kg. This bass is 1kg lighter than a Sire JB, and surely close to 2kg lighter than my Warwick. A bass with a futuristic look and super comfortable to play! A thumb rest is provided. The neck is rather wide compared to a 4-string JB, the spacing is 18mm but remains just as comfortable to play. Small issue, the 9V battery discharges quite quickly I find, the autonomy is not better than on much cheaper basses. Despite storage recommendations, the batteries discharge even without using the instrument, bad point! And I still don't know if the problem can be solved by a luthier. The HH Bartolini pickups handle well. Attention! A compressor seems necessary to be able to master such a preamp. Even if we don't have the Norstrand pickups which are mounted on the higher range. However, you can obviously upgrade it later with these famous pickups which, having compared them, sound clearer, more precise, with that tube sound growl much more present. But you can still get close to the Norstrand sound with the help of a good compressor and by boosting the mids/highs, but well with that you will inevitably have some hiss. For an entry into 5-string, these pickups are already very good and more than enough to stand out in the mix. In fact, I found myself covering the guitar and being at less than 50% volume in rehearsal! Actually, what you have to master is the bass. Personally, I turn all the knobs to max, except the volume which is generally at 50% max... and with a compressor on top you can even get buzz because the power of the built-in preamp is so strong! So be careful, clearly, this bass is not just a volume switch, it's a potentiometer, let me explain, in fact, here the volume knob should never be at max in active mode! Otherwise the sound is distorted. For a sound without saturation, I found that this knob can only be turned fully in Passive mode. But that rather promises a good big punch, and that could only be a bonus. So, the sound signature, if I may say, is clearly modern, apparently modern means more bass drop and attenuated mids, well here we are clearly in the ultra badass BOOOAAASSE register. You got me? And as I said, with a well-designed little compressor, I personally use the TC Electronic Spectra Comp, it sends the fat! What would it be with Norstrand pickups?! Mammamia! The finishes and lutherie are good, no problems noticed. On the other hand, I received it unadjusted, with the truss rod absolutely not set for slap, I had to tighten the screw... Regarding tuning stability, it works, well the woods being light type, I noticed that tuning is relatively sensitive to climatic conditions but that's rather normal even on much more expensive basses. Maybe also that it just comes from the multiscale mechanics which do not wind the strings but just pull them. But frankly it's never really out of tune. In short, power in the lows, comfort, ergonomics, look are the major assets of this instrument. The price is frankly reasonable for headless, it's an extremely risky bet for Ibanez, knowing that even today bassists still keep the safe values Musicman and Fender as reference, here we are at the opposite of Vintage personally I love it. The bass comes with a premium semi-rigid and super well-made case, lots of pockets, a must have. Actually I am left-handed, and finding something as innovative and out of the ordinary is a difficult mission, until now we only had luthiers to charge us 3000 for a custom bass, here we have a real series for LH.