G&L Tribute Series L-2500 5-String Bass, Natural

Back of the neck, and this is the one real flaw. A chip through the finish and into the wood, about the size of a grain of rice, roughly a third of the way down from the nut, with a smaller nick just below it. There is a close-up of it in the gallery. It sits where the thumb travels, so expect to feel it. It is also what sets the grade: our published scale grades a unit at its worst axis, and a break through to bare wood rules out an eight however clean the rest of it is.

Body. The gloss is clean across the front, the back and both edges. No buckle rash, no dings and no finish checking.

Neck and truss rod. It plays. The truss rod adjusts at the headstock, above the nut.

Frets and fingerboard. No divots or wear grooves, and the rosewood is clean rather than gouged. A photograph is a weak way to judge fret wear, so read that as what the pictures show rather than as a measurement.

Hardware and electronics. Everything works. The chrome on the bridge, the knobs and the switches is bright. The tuners carry fine swirl scratches on the mirrored key faces and old grease dulling the open gears, both cosmetic. Nothing is bent and nothing is missing.

Gig bag. Used and it looks it. The printed logo is scuffed and flaking, and the fabric has faded.

The bass and the G&L gig bag. The bag is padded black nylon with a front accessory pocket, a carry handle and a shoulder strap, and it is worn: the printed logo is scuffed and flaking, and the fabric has faded. There is no hardshell case.

The L-2500 is the five string version of G&L's L-2000, and the switching is the reason to own one. Two MFD humbuckers, three knobs for volume, treble and bass, and three mini switches: one selects the pickups, one puts each humbucker's coils in series or in parallel, and one changes the preamp mode. The pickups and the Saddle-Lock bridge are Leo Fender designs and G&L still credits them that way. Most basses hand you a tone control. This one changes how the pickups are wired before the signal reaches an amp.

Tribute is G&L's imported line, not the US built L-2500. Same design, and the same pickup, bridge and control layout, built overseas rather than in Fullerton and priced accordingly. The serial printed on the back of the headstock reads 05099948, which decodes to September 2005 and puts it in the years G&L built Tributes in Korea. Those decoders are community work rather than G&L's own, so take the date as likely rather than stamped.

We have played it. It plays, and the electronics work. That is the part a photograph cannot tell you.

It has been looked after. The gloss is unmarked across the front, the back and both edges, and there is no buckle rash, which is where wear usually turns up first on a bass this age. There is one flaw and it is on the back of the neck: a chip through the finish and into the wood, about the size of a grain of rice, roughly a third of the way down from the nut, with a smaller nick just below it. It sits where the thumb travels, so expect to feel it, and it is what holds this at a 7. There is a close-up of it in the gallery.

Pickup only. We are not shipping instruments yet, so this one is bought here: 215 East Lewis Street, third floor, Livingston, by appointment.

Right for a five string player who would rather reach for a switch than a pedal. The three switches are genuinely different wiring rather than one tone control at different settings, and the layout is plain enough to learn in an afternoon. It also makes a sensible first five string: standard parts, a 34 inch scale rather than a longer one, and a B string sitting where every other bass you have played puts it.

Buy something else if you want the US built L-2500. This is the Tribute, and the gap in price is the gap in where it was made.

Buy something else if you want a passive Jazz style bass. The switching is the reason to own this one, and you would be paying for a set of positions you would leave alone.

And the L-2500 has a reputation for weight, which varies unit to unit. If that is the thing that decides it for you, ask us what this one weighs before you make the drive.