Can't help you out, but I've been impressed with Yamaha lately- a lot of their stuff I find prety crappy, but they make some real gems. I just played a $250 yamaha fretless bass that was absolutely awesome (for the money). I was tempted to buy the little cuss, and toss an EMG P-J pickup set and BTC pre amp cause the unpluged tone was great and the neck was as sweet as could be. Oh well, pay off the five string first...