The flamed maple top on the one I got has almost no "flame", which makes it look very flat and 1D. Minus 1. The stacked knobs feel very cheap and are put on skew. Further, the bridge and/or rear pickup are skew and not parallel. Not fixable. Minus 1. The neck looks and feels like a million bucks. Really nice. This bass is marketed by Sire as a premium instrument. While it feels nice to play, the issues mentioned above should not occur on a top-of-the-line instrument. If I was near Thomann and not overseas, not having spent EUR400 on shipping and import duties, I would return it in a heartbeat.