IYV IBA-500 5-String Electric Bass Guitar - Transparent Red Finish | Perfect for Rock, Jazz & Studio Recording

This is my first new string instrument in over 30 years. My first 5-string bass. And, I mostly played guitar before.Instruments at this price point 30+ years ago were unplayable junk! Definitely not the case now -- this thing is way better than I'd imagined it would be.So, active pickups! Wow! Apparently active makes everything sound awesome. They're really hot - I have to turn down the amp quite a bit when I turn on the active pickups and turn it up quite a bit when I switch over to regular passive pickups. It would be *really* nice if they both matched their output.The instrument arrived free of blemishes -- As skimpy as the packing was (including the tape repair by Amazon), I was sure it would be beat to hell, but it wasn't. Nothing but a pair of small hex keys for doing set up tasks. No manual, just a sticker showing that one of the pots is a push/pull to switch between the passive and active modes.I would like to know if pulling the cord out of the jack turns off the electronics... but no manual. I could just look inside the back cover to find out, but a manual would have been nice.I thought the set up was pretty decent right out of the box. In fact, the intonation was SPOT on. I think it could *probably* benefit from a little more arch with the truss rod, as it's a little close above the 12th fret, but I don't play up there anyway.One thing I would describe as less than less than amazing is that the fret ends are filed/sanded off at 45° and are a tiny bit sharp. When I change the strings, I'll definitely spend some quality time with my Dremel polishing the frets & fret ends: they're dull.The only negative of the guitar, and one thing I didn't notice in the pictures, is that there are no fret markers on the string-side of the fretboard, and only small black ones on the edge. I hadn't realized that I use the markers quite a bit, which is definitely a bad habit.Last thing I'll say is that the matte transparent very dark red with black fittings is really what sold me -- I'd been looking at the natural finished ones. I guess not having fret markers helps give it the look that appealed to me!