Marcus Miller V5 Alder-5 TS

This is a great sounding passive jazz bass with a lot of midrange growl that makes it cut easily through any busy mix, with an awesome build quality for its price range. The neck was really smooth as well as the fretboard and the fretwork was perfect, with no sharp edges and well leveled frets which allowed for a very low action.

What made me decide to return it after a couple days was the neck dive which was really bad and affected my playability. Using a larger (7cm) and grippier strap didn't help to solve the problem for me as I always felt a constant pull towards the ground which made me uncomfortable. In my opinion, the problem was in the headstock which was way too heavy. That's why if you plan to get this bass and have ever played a well balanced 5 string, I'd strongly recommend to get a set of lighter tuners because trust me, you'll notice the difference. The Gotoh GB528 4L/1R tuners are a drop in replacement, no drilling required, but they cost around 200 € and I didn't think the investment was worth it for an instrument that was meant to be my secondary bass.

To summarize

Pros:
- Tone
- Neck
- Fretboard work
- Average weight (mine was 4.6Kg)

Cons:
- Neck dive
- Bridge (I am not a vintage bridge guy)