Millennium 5 AC BXP Review

It features an agathis body, hard rock maple neck with rosewood fretboard and an attractive quilted maple cap. An active electronic system, driven by Peavey Cirrus neck and bridge active pickups, provides an extra boost in volume and tone with more expressive sound control.

Features:	8.5
Sound:	9.5
Action:	6.5
Reliability:	8.5
Impression:	8.5
Overall rating:	8.3
Users rating:	8.4
Comments:	12

overall: 8.8

Reviewed by: Lemurs4mangos, on june 29, 2009

Price paid: $ 350

Purchased from: Musicians Friend

Features: The bass was made 2009 in China. 21 frets, Rosewood fretboard and agathis body with quilted veneer, Transparents black finish, String-through finger-style bridge. Active PuPs. Volume, Blend, Shape, Bass, and Trebel knobs are given. Peavey VFL active PuPs. Hipshot Y-style tuners. No included accessories. // 9

Sound: I play Metal music mostly. Thrash Metal, Alternative Metal, Hardcore. I also play rock, and some jazz. I've used A Cry Baby wah f a while and Boss bass distortion. The bass is not noisy at all. You can get almost any sound out of it from jazzy to punchy, you can get a crunch only, or a long sustained note just by turning the knobs. The bass can make smooth sounds and a full on crunch. The low B string especially has different sounds. Smooth or that full on smack sound. I do play some slap and I fine that the Neck Pickup does the most for this style, but it does have a very good bright sound for this style. // 10

Action, Fit & Finish: The guitar's action was perfect, although I did have to spend a good hour re-adjusting the bridge. The 12th fret was not matching up at all as an octave, and I use this a lot in my playing. The notes seemed out of tune from about 8 and up. The bridge re-adjustment fixed this problem easily. The pickups were adjusted very well. All the hardware is very secure and well put together, the only real problem I had was the bridge. Oh, this is small but... The 2 9-Volts were not attached, but this was very small, and I'm not sure if they should have been attached. They were in the battery compartment in the bass just not connected. // 7

Reliability & Durability: This guitar has withstood a couple weeks of band practices, and my hard hits, it stayd in tune very well, the strap stays on (these strap buttons seem larger than most I've seen). The hardware stands up very well to regular ware and tear. I would use it at a gig without a backup, if it weren't for the fact that I'm affraid to break a string, but this has nothing to do with the bass, I just think that all artsit's should have a backup incase of broken strings. The finish is lasting very well, very very hard to scratch. // 9

Impression: As I said before I play Metal, Rock, Hard Rock, and some Jazz stuff. This is a great match for these genres even though the bass's look from the finish I got, doesn't exactly LOOK like a Jazz Bass, if you're goin for that I suggest the "Tiger Eye" finish. I've been playing for almost 2 years and this is my 2nd bass. I also own a Fender Squier P-Bass. The only thing I had wished I had asked about was what batteries it took. But the 2 9-volts isn't a problem, I just suggest re-chargable batteries. If this product were stolen/lost I would definately buy it again. My favorite feature is probably the 5th string, but I also love the tone from the bass itself, and the pickups. The only thing I don't really like about it is how easily fingerprints and such show up on it. I compared this to Traben Array 5 and and Ibanez 5-string, I picked this one because of value, and I loved the finish. // 9

overall: 7.8

Reviewed by: eddiehimself, on february 12, 2007

Purchased from: Online

Features: Peavey Millennium bass guitars are well regarded as the essential working player's bass for their solid low end, playability and craftsmanship—in fact, pros such as John Campbell (Lamb of God), Josh Sattler (doubleDRIVE) and Marco Mendoza (Ted Nugent, Whitesnake) are avid Millennium players. Each Millennium AC BXP bass features an agathis body, hard rock maple neck with rosewood fretboard and an attractive quilted maple cap. An active electronic system, driven by Peavey Cirrus neck and bridge active pickups, provides an extra boost in volume and tone with more expressive sound control. These 21-fret, 34 inch scale basses also feature volume, pickup blend, bass, mid and treble controls, as well as the new Peavey headstock design. // 8

Sound: I like the sound of this bass. It's quite strange because the mini humbuckers actually sound a lot like single coils, you get a very transparent sound with this bass, but thanks to the active electronics, you can make the sound really thick, with a lot of mids and earth shaking lows, even with my crappy Peavey Basic 112, it sounds amazing if you play some chords. Unforturnately, it doesn't seem to handle a lot of distortion in the same way but it dosen't matter 'cos the cleans are so good. The sound is quite soft, it doesn't have a hard-hitting quality that you might want if you play slap bass a lot or if you just like that sound. // 9

Action, Fit & Finish: Now here's the thing, I think this was prolly the fault of the shop but one of the knobs was missing that was pretty annoying. But everything else seemed fine, I needed tro adjust the intonation and the action a bit, but this was easy thanks to the bridge, which is like 5 mini bridges, each for 1 string, like on a lot of cutom basses. // 6

Reliability & Durability: This bass seems very strong, the finish is still flawless (and this is an ex-display model) The strap buttons are very big and in all the time I've had it, it's never come off, so it seems pretty good. This bass is very dependable, I think it would easily withstand Live playing. // 8

Impression: I play most types of modern rock+metal music ('80s onwards) and I would say this bass was a good match for that, I personally think that this bass would work with most styles of music apart from if you want a really hard sound but I think that maybe a compressor would help. If this bass got somehow stolen I would probably get another bass but that's just 'cause, as I've said before, I feel life's too short to get the same bass twice! The reason I got this bass was 'cause I saw it in a shop and it looked bloody beautiful in purple with black hardware, and I was in this goth band at the time so I thought it would help their image. I wish it had all 5 knobs! // 8

Comments

[Deliriumbassist]

I have this bass in Tiger Eye, and it's a very, very good instrument for the cost. I get quite a good slap tone out of mine, though, but I do mostly play metal and progressive stuff on this. Never had a problem running it through distortion either. As said, a very good bass.

[Bass Cat]

yeah distortion on mine is quite good too. the only damage i have to mine is from when i accidentally dropped it on some concrete, and its only a little crack. a very durable instrument

[seek_&_destroy]

do you really think it's worth the extra dough for actives? pros/cons of actives on this bass?

[Marlux102]

i have the same bass, and i love it, and the distortion sounds great

[Deliriumbassist]

Well, I find actives help to shape my tone better, to suit it to my style. Others don't like it because it can be fiddly... and it costs more:p: Ah well, each to their own

[eddiehimself]

seek_&_destroy wrote:

do you really think it's worth the extra dough for actives? pros/cons of actives on this bass?

Definetly get the active, it sounds amazing, you get a load of bass and if u play it clean thru a tube amp, you get a really nice drive sound aswell.

If ur lookin at buying this bass, one thing u should note is that the pic on here doesn't do it justice. The top looks so much nicer in real life. Also i like it more then 7.8 but it's just the fact that it didn't come with all 5 knobs brought it down a lil bit.

After hearing it again, i don't think the dist. is so bad. But the best bit is definetly the chords, bloody brilliant m8.

[eddiehimself]

I got an SWR SS180 and goliath 410 half stack now and this bass sounds bloody great through it. Did i actually say it didn't have a hard enough sound!? oh how wrong i was!!!

[Lemurs4mangos]

eddiehimself wrote:

seek_&_destroy wrote:

do you really think it's worth the extra dough for actives? pros/cons of actives on this bass?

Definetly get the active, it sounds amazing, you get a load of bass and if u play it clean thru a tube amp, you get a really nice drive sound aswell.

If ur lookin at buying this bass, one thing u should note is that the pic on here doesn't do it justice. The top looks so much nicer in real life. Also i like it more then 7.8 but it's just the fact that it didn't come with all 5 knobs brought it down a lil bit.

After hearing it again, i don't think the dist. is so bad. But the best bit is definetly the chords, bloody brilliant m8.

The active pickups... About how long does the battery power on the last? Playing time wise.
And they're not in use when not plugged into the amp correct?

[525bass]

I've had this bass for three years now and I love it. It has such a flexible sound you can use it to play anything. I play a wide variety of genres and it handles all of them very well. It sounds great with distortion (I think that's mainly because of the 18 volt pre-amp, as I have an esp bass as well that uses only 9 and is noticably quieter) and the slap sounds fairly decent when you solo the bridge pickup. To Lemurs4mangos, my batteries usually last about two months, with the bass being played for a few hours every day.

[525bass]

I've owned this bass for about three years and I love it. Probably one of the best basses I have ever played. It has an extremely flexible sound due to the five-band EQ in the preamp. I play stuff from several genres and it handles each very well. It's tough as hell and it plays so smoothly. It sounds great with distortion (probably because of the 18 volt preamp, I have an ESP bass as well that only has a 9 volt one and sounds horrible with distortion) and the slap is also pretty good with the right strings and the bridge pickup soloed. The bass has a huge sound, but it can be used with a very small amplifier and still sound good. I used to run mine through a little peavey 35 watt 110 and it sounded great. Now I use a Fender 100 watt 210 and it just shakes the house. The only problem I've ever had with it is the output jack keeps coming loose due to poor soldering of the connections inside. When this happens there are loud pops and clunks in the signal and sometimes the bass cuts out all together.

To Lemurs4mangos, the batteries on mine usually last for around two months if I play it every day for a couple of hours.

[Lemurs4mangos]

Okay well as you can see I got the bass, and in about 6 months, of playign daily I haven't had to replace the batteries, I play 3-4 hours a day when I can.

[eddiehimself]

Just to say i've sold this bass now, it wasn't a bad bass to play or anything i was just getting a bit irritated with the hardware.

525bass wrote:

I've owned this bass for about three years and I love it. Probably one of the best basses I have ever played. It has an extremely flexible sound due to the five-band EQ in the preamp. I play stuff from several genres and it handles each very well. It's tough as hell and it plays so smoothly. It sounds great with distortion (probably because of the 18 volt preamp, I have an ESP bass as well that only has a 9 volt one and sounds horrible with distortion) and the slap is also pretty good with the right strings and the bridge pickup soloed. The bass has a huge sound, but it can be used with a very small amplifier and still sound good. I used to run mine through a little peavey 35 watt 110 and it sounded great. Now I use a Fender 100 watt 210 and it just shakes the house. The only problem I've ever had with it is the output jack keeps coming loose due to poor soldering of the connections inside. When this happens there are loud pops and clunks in the signal and sometimes the bass cuts out all together.

To Lemurs4mangos, the batteries on mine usually last for around two months if I play it every day for a couple of hours.

you mean 3 band EQ it's got 5 knobs total for the volume and balance.