I say that much: Rock music would not have needed to be rewritten had the SB series never left the drawing board, BUT: There is nothing inherently wrong with these basses, they have a more flexible sound than an EB, but also a less idiosyncratic one. Of the four types (SB 300 - single coil short scale, 400 - single coil long scale, 350 - humbucker short scale and 450 - humbucker long scale), the SB 400 of this auction is the best one, those two single coils and the long scale give it a deep but clean sound, bit like a Ric in front pup mode or a Jazz if you fool around with the pup settings. The 450 and the 300 are about equal and the 350 lags behind the others because of an unfortunate bridge pup positioning too close to the short scale positioned bridge.