I played Pilots from around 1988 to 2000. A 4 and a flame maple 5. I always loved the necks, and I was way into EMGs for a long time. Basically a "Super J Bass". Or as some have called them - poor man's Sadowsky. Some fine tuning of the frets and a good setup is all they need to be every bit as good as some much much more expensive basses. And yes, you can get even the older USA (pre-DeArmond) ones for next to nothing.
I still have my 5 string. It's actually the one and only 5 string I've ever owned. I had replaced the bridge J pup with a 40DC dual coil and added a EMG BTS pre-amp. vol/blend/stacked bass/treble. It now has Duncan passive pups and no pre. Here's an older pic.