Here's my review of the DeLuxe, from another board forum:
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Well, as I mentioned in the post about the cat hurl, it arrived today (20 July) at a decent hour, totally unscathed.
I guess it's OK. Frankly, the whole business leaves me sort of nonplussed; this is so far from a "traditional" vintage bass of the sort I've played for so long that I don't really know what to make of it. I feel like a pup seeing an armadillo for the first time.
One heads-up: It really and truly _is_ in unfinished wood, not merely the matte polyurethane so frequently used for the "unfinished" look and feel...so you'd better keep this thing preemptively oiled up or it's going to look really cruddy from your hand grime. It may anyway, I dunno. This is why I bought the mahogany instead of the ash. The ash one at the local GC looked filthy from being pawed over by guitar-store mooks for months. The mahogany may be less grubby-looking over time. My guess is that enough "lemon" oil (actually just cheap artificially lemon-scented petroleum distillate in most cases) will keep it saturated enough so that it doesn't soak up the filth- and acids-laden grease from your hands. Of course, you (and your clothes) will soak up the cheap lemon-scented petroleum distillates, but that's your problem.
I'm not sure what the point of this (non-) finish is, and if someone does, please explain it to me. Maybe this is some fad or other...I would have preferred a nice, clean clear-coat over this, but I knew what I was buying up front so I can't complain.
The wood itself is OK. Nothing spectacular, just utility-grade mahogany, ash (maple?) and some darker wood laminates with some rough spots on the end-grain where the body curves. Laminated through-neck construction is nice, giving a strength and stability you won't have in single-woods. The lamination layout is very much like my vintage Gibson Thunderbird bass.
The allen screws in the bridge are way too short (as opposed to Fender, where they're always too long and tear your hands to a bloody pulp). They make it, barely, but I might see if I can find longer ones so the threads don't strip on these from just a couple of threads bearing the full pressure of the string. Small thing they should have taken care of better. The cast bridge/tail is nice and solid and functional.
Weight is light at almost exactly eight pounds.
The neck is pretty unexpected. It's a guitar neck, basically, smaller by bounds than the piano-leg neck of that awful
Starfire Special I got. It's not as rigid as I would have liked, but I suppose it's all right, if "springy." It's set up for shredding: Almost perfectly straight and low, low, low action. This whole business of bass shredders sort of leaves me flat, but they'd love this bass for sure. The active electronics will no doubt have the bass shredders doing break riffs from _Seinfeld_ in no time.
I don't hear a good, punchy, bottomy bass from this yet. It's very twangy, which I suppose is the style now. I'll have to work on this a bit. With active electronics one should be able to get a pretty decent range of sounds.
Summary: An OK (if unusual) bass, delivered on-time and undamaged. A keeper.
