Lakland Skyline 55-02 Deluxe Review

Loving This Thing!

I was on the hunt for a Fender Adam Clayton purple sparkle precision but said, "Nope!", when the prices went crazy. I saw this at a discounted price and immediately ordered it and waited for the bass to arrive - about a month - I'd almost forgotten that I'd ordered it and was happy playing my Fender Jazz 5. Finally it arrived and, man! What a beautiful bass! Plays great and sounds… read more great - waited a month or so and did a minor truss rod adjustment and boom! I found that magic spot! I play 5-12 shows a month and have only used this bass for since it arrived - it's been great, reliable from show to show and consistent. I run Shure GLXD16 wireless into a HX Stomp direct to board and it sounds great. Fit and finish are also spot on with my instance of this bass! I love maple fretboards (and Ebony too!). This bass makes me smile everytime I play it!

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The everything bass

I've been playing professionally for over 25 years now and have owned more basses than I can recall. This is the first bass that I've found that really can do everything and do it well. Every part of the bass is constructed beautifully, the neck is really comfortable/fast and the body is resonate and looks amazing. The pickups sound amazing in all positions and the EQ is really… read more versatile; I've always favored jazz/p basses and I put off buying this bass because I was afraid of losing those tone but with very little tweaking of the preamp I was able to get pretty close and also have that thump from the music man pickup to boot. If you're a professional player I can't recommend this bass enough and even if you're just a bedroom shredder this bass can do it all!

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Love this bass!

I own a US made 55-94 deluxe and wanted another Lakland(I owned 2 Skyline 55-01 basses in the past and loved them). I wanted a 2nd Lakland as a backup to my 55-94. This bass is sweet. Looks and sounds terrific. Has the same pickups & electronics as my U.S. Lakland. I was going to buy a Fender American Pro II Jazz V but opted for Lakland since I've owned them and played many gigs… read more with them. They are well made, look great and most importantly sound awesome. Much cheaper in price to it's American cousin but by no means inferior.

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Lakland Skyline 55-02 Deluxe Bass Guitar

Geez, what a beautiful bass. Quality control is on the ball, great sounds, beautifully finished instrument, never really heard about this brand but I went ahead and ordered one because I wanted a 5 string bass, I said I'm going to try something different and not buy a Fender or Ibanez this time, although I love them all, the sound this Lakland produces is superb, very powerful.… read more The ash body is designed so it sits on your right leg and in perfect position, strap not even necessary, although I use a strap and locks on all my basses, I can keep rambling on but bottom line it is a great instrument, I happen to have one of the best sales engineers at Sweetwater, James Masterson, this guy knows his business, call (800)222-4700 ext-1641, he will set you up for any musical needs.

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Really Nice Piece

Got my 55 02 a few weeks ago. Spent a couple weeks getting to know this instrument. It's a unique set up for me humbucker and single coil pickup configuration and a series, parallel, tap switch with the active EQ makes for versatile and usable tones. I predominantly use single coil basses with few exceptions. The bass is balanced and comfortable with very little if any unwanted… read more movement. The fit and finish are well executed. Plek'd and setup in the US makes for an instrument that plays beautifully and requires very little adjustment from the 34 inch standard scale basses I am used to. The neck is well contoured and smooth the fret ends are nicely polished. The tones range from smooth and bumpy to bright and aggressive easily reaching many different styles of music. All of this and its just a really pretty bass.

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My New Number 1

Fantastic sounding bass. Setup not the way I like it out of the box, but then it never is. Great versatility, feel, make, finish. Well worth twice the price. Would not ever need to buy a USA model again. This bass is just too good.

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This bass is simply AWESOME, let alone the price! Simply put, there is no bass better, and Quality is something not many talk about anymore..it's here!

I've been playing since 1990. Been around through the 90's scene, toured a bit, studio'd a lot, and have played/owned some of the best basses in the world. Owned too many but hey you know how that one goes. Everything from German Warwick's , to classic Fender American Jazz, Zon, Pedulla, Ibanez, Schecter, Jackson, Guild, Rickenbacker, Gibson, Sadowsky, G&L, Sandberg, Music Man,… read more Specter, and Fodera(this one I did not own only got to play it a few times on my personal rig, and the owners rig, and for me it was great but very mid forward and not enough low end oomph for me). There are more put you get the idea. My point is I've only stuck with 2 basses out of all of those other ones! Lakland being my primary! I've had the American built one as well, but got into hard times and had to get rid of it, went with the cheaper version and was astonished in how identical it sounded to my American built one. So much so that I could not tell the difference. And mine is a 2009 version and still kicking with absolutely NO problems at all! The neck Never needs to be adjusted, and I live in Chicago so cold winters, and humid hot summers, which is terrible for wood! I've had Ibanez necks crack on me before, American Fenders needed to be adjusted every 2 months, and on, and on! Not so with Lakland, and in fact out of all those basses that I've listed, I've had NO problems at all with this Lakland! Oh and the Lakland/Hanson pickups/preamp SMOKE the muddy Bartolini's! Seriously make sure your model has them! It's so worth it! And the the lows on this thing are amazing, the B just keeps going, and going, and going, and it's so full! Kinda like HD or 4k if you will. There's this veil that gets lifted from your notes, depending on your strings...I recommend DR Fat Beams for this bass...just crazy clean and articulate, piano like clarity!! And it stays in tune all month long! You could leave your bass sit in the case, pick it up 20yrs later, and it would still be in tune! Well I did for a few years as I was experimenting finding out which bass was best for me. And when I came back, I was like, why did I ever leave...it was right in front of me the whole time! So what's the deal. Well it ain't light that's for sure! It's about 12lb's. But that's what you need for great low end information! The lighter the bass is, the more hollow, less low end there will be in the bass. You have to have MASS to the instrument! Pickups and electronics are super important, like 70% of the tone, but that other %30 is what makes or breaks a great instrument! And Quality will determine whether your constantly going out of tune before a show, or double checking your tuning in the smelly, dirty, bar bathroom, or always not finding the right setup for your instrument! You can't get shizzer to shine! Oh and mine is the trans black with maple fretboard, as the maple cuts through a bit more than ebony or rosewood.

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Pleasantly surprised

This bass is worth every penny and more You can't go wrong with them . If you're looking for a quality instrument you really need to check them out . You can't beat the bang for the buck .

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Highly Recommend!

The Good: • She may be beauty, but this thing is a beast. • Sustain for days! There's a reason I love string-through designs. When playing at church services, the other members of the team head off-stage and get some coffee…I'm still ringing out the low end. My worship director calls it my "flex". • The tonal options are crazy. The preamp is incredibly versatile. Minor… read more adjustments to the T/M/B knobs create huge changes. For most of my use, treble is at 12, mid at 12:30-ish, and bass at 1. I haven't needed much more tweaking there. • The p/u switching options give a ton of variety as well. Even switching coils on the bridge humbucker provides a lot of variety. Mixed in with the neck J pickup, you have everything from deep warm tones to bright slap-happy goodness. • This is my first bass with an ebony fretboard; my main bass for the past 20 years (Fender Urge) is pao ferro, and rosewood prior to that (Fender Jazz Bass Special). I've been very surprised by the warmth I can get; I was expecting more brightness. The ebony definitely has a different feel when adding a little vibrato. • The neck is fast and comfortable. I prefer a satin finished neck vs. painted neck, and this one is fantastic. • The matching headstock and inlay-free fingerboard kick it up that extra notch in the looks category. • The 35" scale length was surprisingly easy to adjust to, and I've primarily played a medium scale bass (32") for the last 20 years or so. The Not as Good: • The finish is supposed to be 'Transparent Black' – definitely has a greenish hue to it in person. Certainly not as black as shown in the photos. • I'm not a huge fan of the D'Addario strings; they feel a little "gritty" to me and have a slightly higher tension than I am used to. I will be swapping them out for a set of Ernie Ball Slinkys once these are dead.

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Bass Review Update

I purchased this bass over a year ago and thought it was time for an update. I have been using my 55-02 as my primary bass for the last year for band practice, recording, gigging, and everything else. We play originals and i'm riding the B string 30% of the time so the extra inch in scale length really helps with live and studio recordings.It has great sustain and clarity from… read more the 35" scale length. The diversity in sounds from the pickup configuration is second to none. Especially when recording. But the actual reason i'm writing this update is for the overall quality of playability. When i venture into music stores to check out new basses, i'm happy to find that my 55-02 holds up to everything I try and beats many in the $1800-2500 range. My next bass will be another Lakland.

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Awesome instrument

This is a seriously sweet bass. Huge range of tonal possibilities and it will pull notes out you didn't realize you knew. It does not have a dull note on the neck. Period. I absolutely LOVE my Lakland.

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The bass I’ve been waiting for

I’ve had several basses in my time, but this feels and sounds great. I’ve always wanted a Lakland and I finally got one. I received the bass on time and it was ready to play. I’m lucky to have it!

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Great bass for the price

I ordered my transparent black 55-02 a few months ago and received it within a week. Bass was packaged great and had no damage. This bass has incredible action thanks to the Plek'd neck. I own an Ibanez SR506 which has great action as well but the strings on it are too close to the body for slap bass playing. The 55-02 is great for slap and the variety of tone is amazing with the… read more active electronics and pickup configuration. The 35" scale length creates good sustain and sound from the B string. Better than any other 5 string bass. As for looks the finish is on par with any other bass in this price range and better than some costing more. The ebony fretboard looks and feels great as well. I like the look of no fret markers too (there are the little markers on the side of the fretboard). I'm sure the all American made 55-94 is better, but $3000 better? I don't know about that. This bass has the American made pickups and electronics in it and they are installed here in Chicago at the same place as the 55-94. Buy this bass.

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AWESOME

I purchased a Lakland 55-02 a few weeks ago from Sweetwater. AMAZING is all I can say. The pickups are very versatile. You can dial in a jazz bass sound, a Music man Stingray sound. I find myself rolling the pan to the neck pickup and get a p bass tone. I resisted these and refused to even check one out for years because it wasnt made in the USA. The craftsmanship on these basses… read more is just as good if not better than anything Fender currently produces. I highly reccomend these. Call Chri Nunley at Sweetwater and let him hook you up.

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Lakeland 55-02 deluxe

great basses my friends,i been use jazz bass and musicman 5 hh sterling ,and theres no bass better than lakeland 55-02 deluxe..love it.........l

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Fantastic Bass

Unbelievably expansive tone control, as well as the perfect action for my playing style. The quad/dual tap and dual/single tap expands your options even more. Just fantastic...

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A Masterpiece.

People say you don't know what you've got until it's gone. I had a lakland 55- 02 before and I sold it. I thought I could get something better. I have spent thousands of dollars on top brands and custom made basses but I could not be satified with none of them. I saw sweetwater have the lakland spalted version and I tought I would try it again. Oh my goodness!, It felt surreal… read more to hear that sound again. It was amazing to play that bass again. I would never sell that bass again.

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Incredible instrument!

I recently returned to Lakland after playing several other brands, such as Fender, Pedulla, MusicMan, etc. The 55-02 tone is so incredibly versatile with the J+MM pickup configuration. The B-string is very strong, similar to the E-G strings. In fact, the B-string is much better in terms of clarity than the new Fender Elite Vs. The electronics in the bass are top notch...with… read more no "crackles" or background noise when changing the pickup blend configuration (something that I found to be far to common in the Fender Elite series). The neck plays very fast and I find the neck profile to be extremely easy to play. It took me a day or so to adjust to the 35" scale vs the 34'. Other things, such as the great bridge and the excellent 5-bolt neck makes the bass seem very high-end. The Lakland 55-02 price is much lower than the similar modded Fenders and the tone and quality are superior. As always, the customer service at Sweetwater was great; however, this was my first time visiting the store in Fort Wayne, Indiana. All of the Sweetwater crew was very knowledgeable and friendly. They brought a couple of basses that I selected down from the onsite warehouse in less than 5-mins! They had excellent high-end amps and cabs to try the bass on--which was great in making my selection. It was a great shopping experience. I will definitely be back soon!

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Not all girls want diamonds....

I'm a middle-aged chick, relatively new bass player and don't have a lot of opportunities to try out basses before I buy. That said, I've racked up quite a few in a short period of time trying to find "the one". I'd heard a lot about Lakland basses and researched them thoroughly before diving in and buying this, sight-unseen. Boy am I glad I did!First, the bass was delivered quickly… read more and in pristine condition. The pictures of the quilt maple top do not do it justice at all, absolutely beautiful. The craftsmanship is A+, fretwork is impeccable, neck is smooth and slim (comparable to the Ibanez SRs), string spacing is perfect (19mm I think), awesome tuners, etc. I thought going from a 34" scale to a 35" would take getting used to but it's actually more comfortable for me since I've got long arms. It came with Lakland stainless steel roundwound strings and they are so comfortable and sound really good. I can play for hours without my fingers looking or feeling like they just came out of a meat grinder. And speaking of strings, lots of players want to know about the B string and on this, the B string is not at all floppy; the 35" scale and through-body stringing guarantees solid lows with no twangy floppiness. The B is my favorite string!Tonewise, monster. There are so many tonal options available I can't begin to describe them all. I will say that I have my amp settings flat and dial in my tones on the bass...OUTSTANDING! Mine has the Lakland humbuckers, puts my Fender jazz to shame! I've had it about a month and it is still in tune. The guys at Sweetwater did an excellent job with the setup; neck relief is comfortable, action is low, and no buzzing. Sweetwater is just a freakin awesome company and I'll always be a customer. (Thanks Joel!) I am very, very, very happy with this bass. I'm ready to give up all my other basses since this is "the one". So if you're straddling the fence, buy it, you won't be sorry. And if there is a chick in your life who plays bass, forget about buying her diamonds....get her this Lakland instead :-D Peace!

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