I like the sound of my Midtown as is. No, it ain't hifi, but that is not what you would expect with a bass as retro-styled as this one. The off-the-rack Fakebucker is warm and phat, not much transparence, but then you are hardly gonna play Roundabout or Tom Sawyer with that bass. As Mark has quite rightly observed, it's more to jam along CCR records.