It's got good bones.

My Dad bought me this bass when I was a teen. I've had it through 12 years. I had moved on to playing some of my other basses as I felt I had grown out of the "Skull and Cross Bones" look. Recently I had been looking at other PJ basses but didn't really want to get rid of this one either. It has some sentiment to it. Because of all it had been through it sounded pretty bad and was getting in rough shape.

I made several changes to it. I ended up sanding both the front and back faces as well as the headstock down to the wood and staining it. I did some minor burn in with the sanding on the cut out arms and where you rest your wrist, still wanted it looking a little worn. I kind of like that there are no fret markers beside the skull and cross bones on the 12th fret (subtle compared to the giant that was on on the body). I replaced the stock pickups with an EMG active PJ set that also came with new pots. This required some modifications to the bridge pickup slot (too small), I also had to work in the factory input jack. No biggie. I replaced the machine heads with some gotoh ones of the same style. I replaced the bridge with a Hipshot Kickass 4 (brass saddles), the sustain is a lot better, it also looks great. I currently have DR HiBeams (round wound) on. The difference is night and day. It is punchy and versatile with the active pickups. I can slap, tap, pluck, and pick most of the sounds I want. I have spent a fair bit of money on this relatively cheap bass. I know you don't make the money back. I have no interest in selling and now very happy with this PJ bass.

Some comments on the bass (without any modifications): The lower cut out actually starts on the last fret making it easier to do some high neck shredding (Think "for whom the bell tolls"). This is a big problem I have with my J bass (common J bass issue). PJ pickup set up, along with individual pickup volume control and tone knob makes it pretty versatile sound wise. You can play pretty much any genre on it (string style also factors into this). Pretty light weight, this headstock style is also fairly light so you don't get that head dive that you might get on the inline 4 Fender P and J style basses. Even after 12 years the neck/frets are still in good shape, just needed standard cleaning.

To be honest I don't have too many bad things to say about this bass. The stock hardware is lacking a little but for a bass at this price point that is expected. If you are a new player it might be hard to navigate the fret board without any markers directly on the fret board. there are markers on the top of the fret board so you can get used to it. But bigger block style inlays might be better for starting out.