Well after almost a month of having this bass, I finally have it playing the way I expected it to. It came with a broken E string and fret rattling on the A string at the 12th fret. It came with roundwound strings. I tried Rotosound shortscale flatwound strings (it's a shortscale bass). They did not have anything thicker than 40-50-75-90 that I could find in shortscale. I put em on and they were too floppy , but I still managed to break the G string. I ordered Dean Markley flatwound longsacle 50-70-85-105. By the time they came to me, I had taken all the bridge off and smoothed out some rough metal, buffed here and there with my dremel tool and adjusted the bridge height and the neck relief. I put the new strings on Monday morning and tuned up. It was immediately much better. I let the bass sit until Tuesday morning to see what the thicker guage strings would do to the neck. Sure enough, the tension put more bow in the neck than need be. I re-adjusted the neck and now Wednesday Morning.... I still need to adjust the neck a touch more, but it is playing wonderfully. The fret buzz at the 12th on the A is gone and the pick-up really has a nice growl. 
It is a small world for metal fanatics. I welcome you fellow musicians, especially the metalheads!
Wow, that's a lot of tweaking - good work!
GHS has 31" scale (short) that start off at .045 - their flatwounds. But if you're doing .050s, then even they would be too floppy.
Cool looking bass though!
I appreciate your response, DemoEtc. It was a sight unseen, never played bass. I liked the fact that it's body was not a typical "P/J". I figured on using the framework for making a good bass if need be. It really only needed a good set-up. It's a made in China bass. The Chinese are getting better production. I'd feel better in the future about a Korean or Japanese bass, but I'll not shy away from a Chinese bass. I have one Korean, one Indonesian, one Chinese. The Indonesian, a Silvertone Apocolypse, actually came to me with perfect intonation. The action was a little high, but the tuning was great.
I emailed Rondo to see if they could get any basses from anyone (SX, Brice, or Agile) that were non-standard "P/J" today. I hope they can come up with something.
It is a small world for metal fanatics. I welcome you fellow musicians, especially the metalheads!
Yep, with a little tweaking just about any instrument can be made to 'special order' to yourself!
I've sorta always liked the P J body shape just because it was comfortable against the body, BUT I've always wound up with odd sorts of basses. Not quite as cool as that one you have there, but I started off on a Sear Silvertone Violin bass (actually, they're 'viol' shaped; they all are, though they're called 'violin' or 'viola' (epiphone), or other things), then went to an Ampeg Lucy Lucite (clear) which was beautiful, then a Rick 4001, which had a shape all its own. I've got a Turser Beatle (full circle I guess with the viol shaped instruments), a Squier PBSpecial and an SX 5-string. Not quite all standard shaped. I mean, why be normal? ;)
Plus I've also always admired the Thunderbird type and the Steinberger headless (bodyless) designs. Hey, who knows? Kurt at Rondo's been known to request, and get, some pretty radical designs in from his connections. I emailed him months back about maybe getting some acrylic lap steels made in the shape and design of some of the prewar Nationals (New Yorker), Epiphones or those cool Machine Age/Art Deco Magnatones.
You never know :)
Kurt says he's thinking of something along the lines of an EB0. I imagine it will probably have that slightly offset body like the Agile Valkrie.
It is a small world for metal fanatics. I welcome you fellow musicians, especially the metalheads!
