Hey RG, the Mikro is a great buy for the money, it was less than $400 AUD. I played it the other night working out a riff for my friend and the B on the low E string sounded flat then sharp etc, just didn't sound the note. Not sure if it's the strings (which it came with) or a dead spot on the fret board
. The PUs' (as Zilthy said) are pretty ordinary, so P bass set up, 1 vol for each PU and overall tone. I like that it's small, poplar body so it's also light and really easy to play.
The MM Sterling short scale is a much better instrument. 30" scale, mahogany body maple neck and fingerboard. One PU with neodymium pole pieces (
. The volume pot is a push/push which does a boost (it's not active so not sure what they do here, e.g. keep a bit back then let it all out?). It's got a 3 way selector pot which switches the PU from series, single coil and parallel, nice variations and an overall tone. It was around $1500 AUD. String wise, DR make a nice short scale set but my favs are the strings that came with my Alembic SC short scale. Alembic CX-3/45 S. They are elliptical winds with the low side of the ellipse on top. Really easy on the fingers and frets, sound and feel great. I bought 2 packets for the price of one from Alembic's Yahoo store having a sale.