ESP LTD B-205 5-string Bass Guitar - Natural Satin

Looks amazing and really fun to play. The active preamp sounds amazing and you can dial in any tone. Very good for the price.

I've always enjoyed the warm, resonating sound of a fretless bass, but I've never been able to justify shelling out money for an instrument that might just end up collecting dust due to its limited applications. However, I already own several other LTD basses (F1550x, F205, and B204) and I love them all so I decided to take a chance on this one as my first fretless. It has quickly become one of my favorite instruments! The unique grain of the spalted maple makes this a gorgeous one-of-a-kind piece, and it plays as impressive as it looks. The lack of frets demand greater accuracy than a fretted bass would, but the neck feels thin and fast - it's very easy on the fingers and the construction is undoubtedly solid. The pickups (I prefer the one on the bridge) offer a full, beefy tone with lots of sustain and very little excess noise. This bass is indeed quite heavy, but it's well-balanced and sits comfortably on the shoulder if you have a decent/wide strap. Overall, I'm extremely satisfied with my purchase. The bridge needed some minor adjustments to correct the intonation before I could use it, but a luthier/tech can easily set it up for you (or do it yourself with a 1.5mm allen wrench - there are plenty of tutorials online.) One thing to note when buying new strings: you'll need to make sure you buy "super long" strings or they might not sit properly in the nut. I'm personally a fan of light-gauge D'Addario Nickel-Wound XL's on all my LTDs (which is conveniently what they come pre-strung with.) However, I've noticed after a few weeks of regular playing that the strings have left slight indentations/scratches on the fretboard of this bass. I replaced them with Chrome XL (flatwound) strings, which make it sound and play even better, and will prevent further fretboard damage. Hands down, flatwounds are the way to go for a fretless.

I have played a Rickenbacker my whole life, which I love, but I wanted to try a 5 string. I purchased an Ibanez but was very disappointed with it and sent it back. I ordered the ESP and could not be happier. It looks and sounds great, and the craftsmanship is what I would expect to pay for a much more expensive bass. The only thing I need to do is replace the strings and it will be perfect. I highly recommend this beautiful bass for the beginner, or seasoned player. Nice work ESP!

Bought more or less blind from Amazon, bc I needed a backup in a hurry. It's now been my main bass for seven years, and the only reason it's four-star is the battery access cover plate. It's a major PITA. The rest of the bass is excellent in every respect. Fix y'all's cover plate with a magnet or something.

Always had a 4 string so the addition of the B string is awesome and who needs frets? It's great for slapping and plucking it's just going to take awhile to get used to the strings being closer together. This guitar will need to be set up. The neck and bridge both needed adjustment but that was 10 minutes max. If you don't know how to do it there are videos all over YouTube to show you how. I would definitely recommend this bass to anyone looking to move past a 4 string.

Nice looking bass plays well sounds good nice action my only complaint is that the case was not included as advertised other then that I’m satisfied with my purchase reaching out to seller to find out why the case was not with bass misleading says case included.

Is NOT the same as picture. These are not the spalteds of 2012, these are the watered down version. Looks cheap, sounds and plays great. Neck is absolutely amazing shape, but these just dont have the same flair without the badge inlay in the fretboard. Find an older one on Reverb that has the badging!

There’s good ice cream and bad ice cream, regardless of flavor, and the first thing you want to know is is this bad ice cream. No, this is good ice cream, although like most cheap instruments, it needs some set up work, in this case I even went in and cleaned up the neck joint a bit. The second thing you want to know in a review is what flavor is this? If a J bass is classic vanilla, and a P bass is chocolate, this ESP LTD B-205SM is vanilla soft serve. Vanilla because it doesn’t impart too much of its own character on the strings, and soft serve because it doesn’t have the thump and punch of a passive Fender, but instead is full and round and somewhat compressed sounding. A major competitor in active 5’s is the Yamaha TRBX305, which would be chocolate soft serve, having a lot more of the P bass character but not as much punch again. Which flavor is right for what you do? This bass might excel when you want a pure tone that is easy to manage, also a great platform for effects and amps that give their own character. Maybe the idea of a perfectly fine bass that lacks its own punch and character doesn’t appeal to you. I can’t answer that for you. Get them all? But it’s a beautiful instrument if you get one with nice spalting. I am amazed at how some people don’t know what spalting is and think the wood is rotted or something. Yes, but in a good way.

Guitar has just arrived about 20 minutes ago and it is perfect! The seller get A star for quick delivery. I ordered the guitar Tuesday evening and the guitar has arrived Friday morning. Considering this parcel is coming from Germany!!! The build quality and tone on this guitar are very good considering the low price! Great Guitar great seller!