I have one of these. Except all the parts are on it and it's green.
Galvestons are made in China. Mine is playable but not the best made fish in the sea. Buzzy if I play too hard; floppy strings. (Haven't bothered trying a setup as I doubt it would help based on comments from others.)
Some guys get rid of the floppy low F# and add a high Bb instead. It would take a special rig (along the lines of greenboy's fEARFUL) to support the lower notes if you wanted to play solo. In a group you'd probably be fighting the kick drum. And FOH would cut your lows to give the kick some room anyway, right?
I took it to a studio to record and the engineer said he couldn't get a strong enough signal out of it, even with the active electronics "on". I remember someone saying when I researched these before purchase that the p'ups weren't that good. (What do you expect for the price?) Maybe someone else would be motivated to find better p'ups but I'm not. The electronics probably aren't all that great, either.
But where else are you going to get an 8 for this price? (I think these retail for about $500, so <$200 is a super bargain.)
I bought it to explore ERB as it relates to solo bass. It's been great for that, and priced right. You can even play some (partial) guitar chord shapes right away on the bottom 4 strings; they are of course tuned a whole step down from standard guitar, DGCF instead of EADG.
One of the guys I talked to has two of these (one as a backup). He gigs regularly with them.
Out of necessity I've been gigging with mine on some shows (with the country band). I really need a 5 but I only own a 4 or an 8. (My wife made me return the 5 I had purchased; it just wasn't worth it.)
At last night's show during sound check the sound guy said, "sounds like a bass". He was probably thinking "it doesn't
look like a bass". I was only playing 5 strings of course. As long as it sounds like a bass and works within the context of that group, that's all I need.
On one previous gig I played it in a guitar/bass/drums trio. I used the high-pitched strings to cover a missing keyboard part on one song. They are a bit thin souding, like a guitar, but the sound guy that night said they had more of a piano sound. (Maybe because I was finger plucking? I'm sure the scale length helped somewhat.)
Anyway, if you're considering ERB this is probably the cheapest ticket in, especially if you buy used. If you want something with better quality that will keep its value, get something like a Conklin 7 instead. G7TZ seems to like his fine. (You probably won't miss that low F# anyway.) When I was looking I didn't notice anything available with more than 8 that wasn't a luthier's special order one-off. And honestly after wrestling with 8 I don't think I'd want more.
Also take time to consider if you'd be happier with a tap instrument (Chapman stick, Warr guitar). These may be better suited for playing solo, IMO, even if you tap everything. (I wonder what Steve has to say about his stick?)
Or maybe even a lute.
By the end of the Renaissance the number of courses had grown to ten, and during the Baroque era the number continued to grow until it reached 14 (and occasionally as many as 19). These instruments, with up to 26-35 strings, required innovations in the structure of the lute. At the end of the lute's evolution the archlute, theorbo and torban had long extensions attached to the main tuning head in order to provide a greater resonating length for the bass strings, and since human fingers are not long enough to stop strings across a neck wide enough to hold 14 courses, the bass strings were placed outside the fretboard, and were played "open", i.e. without fretting/stopping them with the left hand.
Or a harp guitar.
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