I bought this as a platform for modding and learning how to refinish/paint guitars. As long as the neck was straight, I wasn't worried about the hardware being cheap. When it arrived, I plugged it in and started playing with it. I was pleasantly surprised with what arrived.If you set your expectations appropriately, you'll find this a very capable fretless bass for the money. Here's what you get:- You get a full size, lightweight, fretless bass that's a decent-looking, Jackson-knock-off-style rig- You get 2 decent passive humbucker pickups (Belcat) that sound better than I'd expect at this price point.- You get average tuning hardware (holding tune better than I expected)- You get an inexpensive, but workable Strat-style steel bridge- You get a solid, no-crackle jack- You get solid, smooth-feeling, no-crackle knobs with decent (100kΩ I'm guessing) pots under themWhat you need to expect, especially at this price point:- You will need to adjust the truss rod, but I think I'd expect this on any guitar/bass that is shipped directly to me regardless of price- You will need to adjust intonation- The provided cable is kinda plastic-y, so buying a sturdy cable is in your near future- You will need to buy your own strap to hang this thing around your neck- The strings are basic steel, wound strings; not great feel, not great tone, not great sustain, but workable at this priceOther than that, you can start playing decent sounding, fretless grooves in no time.For me, I'm going to play with this for a while before I start my project on it. For anyone else wanting to play around with a fretless bass, or students learning, this is a pretty good deal.