Thomann 11/5str 3/4 Europe Double Bass

J'ai acheté cette contrebasse il y a un peu plus d'un an et je peux maintenant vous dire que nous sommes inséparable.
En répette acoustique ou sur scène amplifié elle sait se faire entendre. Il faut malgré tout un temps d'adaptation à son large manche et à la 5ème corde qu'on prend la première fois pour un câble de remorqueur. Finition impéccable.
Seule petite surprise un soir, le tendeur du cordier a lâché. Je vous conseil de le remplacer par un tendeur acier.

I am a professional classical bassist, who was in search of a sturdy instrument for open air festivals and such, where I'd rather avoid to take my old carved basses.
Good points: the instrument is very solid, properly built and sturdy (the neck may result quite thick to many, especially people with smaller hands; I personally don't mind). The sound was already pretty decent out of the box, although adjustments were needed.
Bad points: the setup was really bad. The soundpost was much too long and misplaced, way too far from the bridge; in fact, it was almost in the center of the bass! It was really hard to reach even with the proper tools, which I own; this hindered the sound of the instrument by great extent. The endpin was also really crappy, and it cracked after a couple of days of regular use (mostly home practicing and one or two orchestra rehearsals). The string height and action needed also adjustments in order to make it possible to bow; although I had mentioned that I wanted an orchestral setup, the luthiers at Thomann had set it up really badly, definitely not adapt to what I needed. Last but not least, the caring set mentioned in the description was missing from the package.
In the end, I had to spend further money by a luthier in order to make this instruments really playable, which is a shame since Thomann has a workshop dedicated to set ups.

To conclude: I am definitely satisfied by the instrument, which revealed itself excellent value for the money, and I'm enjoying a lot playing it after a proper set up. Needless to say, I'm really disappointed by the service around it.