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Okay, I know. It seems like a gimmick bass and I suppose it is. I mean, come on... a 3 pound bass? Real sound? Playability? For this price?For the price of a midrange (and thus sacrificable) axe, there's this crazy bass from Traveler.Imagine my surprise the first time I plugged it into an amp... Even if it was just a little Pignose the first time.Bottom line is that while it's really super-basic barebones, it DOES play decent. It's essentially the "neck-through" part of a bass without the "wings." There isn't even a volume pot. This baby is like stripping out the interior of an old Chevy Vega, putting in a pair of Recarros, dropping in a rebored Buick-6 and new powertrain and going out and challenging people to street race. Which I did in my dumb young days.It just plays and you can amp it. You can take it with you anywhere and even just use a headphone amp so you can always practice and there's very VERY little luggage penalty.The included bag is NOT a flight-case. Just saying.I've been playing bass for 40 years. This is a "toy" that I'm keeping because it exceeded my expectations.

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When it arrived in the mail, it came in a full-sized bass-shipper carton. Yikes! Bigger than I thought? Inside was a viola guitar sized leaning trapezoid box a few inches thick. Now we're getting somewhere! Well packed, maybe more than needed (?), even had a mylar/foam wrap on it to protect it against thermal shock? It was inside the gig back, which is a wee thing made of what appears to be recycled polypropylene as a woven fabric like medium weight luggage. There is a pretty big pocket on the front for you leg rest and strings and a tuner and cables, maybe a stompbox (get an EQ). This axe is simplicity itself. All maple except the fingerboard. There is a substantial machined ball-end anchor on the top of the neck that is also the pressure plate for the truss rod, wrench included. Action was a little high. Comes prestrung with D'Addario Nickel Full Rounds. I like the sound of those, but not the feel, and like round wounds like to do, they buzz a bit on the frets. Still, they included good sounding, well made strings, not no-name throw-aways. I will replace them with the Half-round/Ground-round Jazz Lights later. The Anchor at the top is solid aluminum. It tensions the strings against a slender Ivorite or similar nut. I may change that out to brass which sounds much nicer. It would be nice if the aluminum headstock replacing anchor was finished a bit more nicely, with softer edges and corners, maybe a wee touch of styling? That would make it much more comfortable. The frets all seem okay but they aren't dressed brilliantly. I don't have the tools or experience to do that, but I can feel that the ends of the fret bars could have been shaped to be faster and smoother. This is not a $79 toy. Everything does fit and the finish is a matte clearcoat, seems like a waterbased poly spray. That's fine. The wood looks good under it. Their logo is actually hot iron stamped into the wood! Yippee-yi-yay! The arrangement of the normal quality Chinese machines is such that you tune from the top, there's no messing with a Steinberger tuning bridge or expensive strings. My fingers are a bit of a squeeze in the small space provided, but i get in there. I never use a thumb rest, so I'm leaning to removing it. The leg rest works and is easy enough to put on and off. The output jack is in the bottom strap button, and the buttons are nickeled steel. The sound is loud and clear as one would expect of a quartz contact mic. There is no volume or tone pot. I suspect that it might be possible to install those in the limited space available with miniature knobs, so that's another thing to look into. It does put out low end, though it's no P-bass. You would do well to get a basic stompbox with EQ and perhaps a gain control so you can have some control where you are rather than at an amp at the other end of the sofa. This is made in China, like so many instruments are. I wonder why this couldn't be done in the US, Canada or Europe for about the same selling price. That is worth something to people. The woodwork and finish are typical "We make it as good as you pay for" Chinese workmanship. It is the little things that more attentive hand labor and perhaps a final inspection QA process more detail/finesse oriented would bring to this item, and those little things are what holds this back from getting 5 stars across the board. Still, THREE POUNDS? For an Electric BASS? You really want to plug in: It's no louder without an amp than any other solid-body is, though you can certainly feel the body working, even on the E string. For pooping around, I use the little Pignose. It works and it would be pretty hilarious to show up to a small party-jam with a tiny original Pignose and this itty-bitty bass over your shoulder. Reminds me of Kwai Chang Caine! Speak softly... and carry an axe! I'm keeping it. It's pretty cool to just have it wherever, at my desk, my bed, watching tv and it's just handy and easy, takes no space and the way it looks in the case, people will think you're carrying a machine gun! Hey, they could soak you for the case separately and extract $40 or so out of you after the fact. That is something they do NOT do, so that's a value-added feature along with the quality strings. Try one. It's better than you'd think, looks to have some obvious mods (as I mentioned) and it definitely will have that "WOW!" factor, kind of like when the Steinbergs and Hohner "copies" came out back in the 80s, but cheaper and sorta cooler in some ways. Steinberger WISHES they could make a THREE POUND ELECTRIC BASS.

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