I walked into my fav store in town yesterday and for 200 bucks the next day I walked out with an Ibanez Artcore hollowbody bass. Swapped the medium rounds for some TI jazz flats, a quick setup and this bass sounds nice n smoove .. max the tone knob out and it has plenty of bark. The fit n finish is really quite nicely done & the neck has some nice quilt to it ... yet further dimishing and blurring the assumed quality line between MIA basses and their japanese, Chinese, and Korean counterparts. I'm quite impressed with this bass.
Ultimately, Im going to have a Lakland HB but for 200 bones, I couldnt pass up this nice lil MIC gem. I'm thinking this guy is a prime DarkStar candidate.
I just realized I fergot to put the trussrod cover back before I took the pics!