This was my 2nd ever bass, but it’s my favorite bass. It really is a solid and versatile instrument. 

I love the 5 strings (Schecter also makes the exact same bass with 4 strings). It’s great when the 5th string is needed (some def leppard, Some Aerosmith, Sabaton, Megadeth, and some others), but It’s also great to use that 5th string in a pinch when you’re in the wrong tuning for a song. It gives you something to work with in that situation. The 5th string is also an amazing thumb rest (I know some people hate that I say that). 

5 strings means they are spaced closer together, which can be beneficial to some, or detrimental. Personally, I like it. It can also be tricky for someone who isn’t used to 5 strings to get used to the bottom string not being E.

The bass is also great for drop tuning. It hold any tuning I’ve used well, and intonates great as well. I think the 5th string helps it to maintain the stability that it has. Even though it has the low B, Drop tuning is often the better choice, since many songs play very differently (especially when they use the open low drop D) that make them difficult to translate to 5 strings and still maintain their difficulty or playability.

The tone of the bass is also really high quality. It has individual pickup control. This is great in terms of getting a great tone, but both have to be rolled off to mute the bass. P-Basses, Sting Rays, and many Ibanez basses all have one volume knob, which make muting the output much easier. 
The individual pickup selection is great to control the tone exactly how you want. There’s also the 3 band eq of Lows, mids, and highs to help with that as well. One drawback of this customizable tone, is that it’s also easy to create a tone that you don’t like, if you’re not used to it (especially for newer players). Most amps now have the eq settings, so the active eq on the bass might not be needed for many people.

The EQ is great for me since I do a lot of direct input recording without an amp. Those that also use a DI box in a live setting and no amp would also benefit from this tone control, especially when covering lots of different artists or material, to better match each song.

The bass does take two 9-volt batteries, but I will say, that I’ve only had to change them twice since I got the bass in 2015. As with any active bass, it’s best to unplug the bass when it’s not being played (such as during a 15 min break between sets or overnight at home) so that the batteries don’t drain quickly.

This is an intermediate to possibly pro quality instrument, and the price will reflect that. I got mine used many years ago, which made it easier to obtain.