BaggyMan

Oh yes. Bought a nice blue sparkle number, c/w a john east pre amp from @AaronLuke91 and a thoroughly nice chap too. Spent a relaxing few hours modding it to my taste (dropped in the john East pre amp..obvs.. and swapped the bridge, wrapped the scratchplate..)

On another post i mentioned my journey though owning the the Cort Space 5 and all things headless. Well, the madness continues. Meeting up to buy a sub 4hh from a felow basschatter in Guildford yesterday..meeting outside Andertons...oh dear. I saw the very briefest of discussion on youtube about Hils guitars and basses being available at Andertons, and intrigued, i thought i'd take a look at one. The one I was intended to looks at was a metallic blue with a rather plain white 'plate. Instead is tried this model in white with a tort plate. First impressions is that visually the scale and fanning on the frets looks very Dingwall like. As I own a Dingwall combustion 5, this is a very good start. Build quality is good (see gripe section below) , no blemishes or point and stare horrible finish issues but at £599 (dropped by £50 recently i later found out) list, there shouldn't be. Controls are from top to bottom, Sweep , Volume and the pre are Bass (nearest the bridge), Mid and treble. Jack socket is on the side back from the G string. Balance is excellent, but tbh is you cant get a headless to balance, get out of the guitars game. A quick peep under the covers reveals tidy wiring and a pot on the pre amp to control the output level. So the playing experience is very much like my Combustion, similar neck profile. Almost identical fan scaling, so i took to it quickly. On the front pickup the bass gives a p bass zone sound, with a hint of zing. Centered on the sweep the mid starts to feature as part of the character of this bass. Bass control is good, not to overdriven at maximum and gives a good footing for what is obviously the bass' bread and butter, the mids control. Wound high it gives a really mid range honk, and top that with the treble its sharp an poppy without hiss or hint of electronics noise. So impressed enough i bought the damn thing. And my wife was even in the room! result! Confident i could gig it straightway, i played a full gig last night with my comfort assesment of its Dingwall like qualities and balance/weight and playability being born out, I had a fine time and very happy with my purchase. At £599 i'd say the market position is about right, although the soon to arrive Sire headless series may give the folk at Hils something to think about. Gripes? two: 1. I would (and in fact will) have had the volume and the sweep round the other way with the volume uppermost. 2: A couple of fret ends need a tweak. Not much but this should n't be the case these days, look what the Sire people are doing with the rolled edge design at the same price point. I didnt notice them whilst playing live, just checking it over later on so not a deal breaker just one to be aware of. (probably a little bit of board shrink) Summary Great bass, good sound range with a wider working range than the Cort, that said if thats what you are looking for (in the Cort) then thats the one for you. This has a broader appeal and kicks some butt. If you've played a Dingwall combustion you'll get this straightaway. A dingwall like experience for a quarter of the list price, worth a try i'd say.

Some time later..... Having lived with the glockenklang/Aquilar mix I just wasnt happy with over £400 of mods giving me a meh outcome. So decided best to sell the Space 5 and swap the bart's back in, sell the aguilars separately or use on another project. And so I did Setting things back up (pick height etc) suddenly i am thinking...actually this is sounding pretty good...in fact really nice, warm and good sustain, a bit scooped but best of all of the combinations.... The fella on youtube Hobo workshop/Johnny Lee or similar has mentioned that some of his mods fail on a mismatch between pre amp and pickup choices/mixes. Looks like i had built my own. Interesting. One Other thing to note, which could apply to any roast maple necked bass for that matter, the side dots on the neck are black. They all but dissappear in lower light stage conditions. Looks like some luminlay dot marker might help perhaps.

Had some play time and I think I have the skinny on it. The barts are not very clear, not a pickups to match the quality of the build in total. The Glockenklang is good all round pre amp and a better fit tonally than the markbass i think. Overall its a very modern sounding bass and expecting it to have musicman or P bass characteristics isn't really the idea of it, so that my bad for not letting it have its own style.. I tried it through a markbass amp and it sounds great, through the my darkglass amp, not so much lack definition in the bottom end for some reason. Changing the pickups and pre have changed it for the better in the end, just not in the way i expected. Like i say a journey.

I'll admit i bought a space 5 on impulse, having loved the vibe of headless basses since way back in the 80's when i owned my washburn force 42...not heard of it well see below.... a wish i hadnt sold it bass tbh. Anyway I bought a secondhand Space 5 the main idea being its a little dude of a bass and handy for small venues and jam nights. First up its a lovely build, very nicely put together, good materials and the spec and reviews indicated that it was going to be a fun bass, bart Mk1's and markbass pre. But no, the sound was muddy or woody and a bit hollow and not to my liking and there was no 'snap' in the sound. Folks are pretty down on Bart Mk1's, especially cort in house ones, so i went a bit giddy and bought some aguilars.. fitted and well still not distinctive...so pre amp swap then ( i like modding basses usually to good outcomes, so happy to fiddle as its not one of my 'front line' basses)...but this one I dunno. Dropped in a glockenklang three band this week. Still not there. Something like £200+ worth of pickups and £100+ of pre amp and no real change (ok some but not £300+ worth of enough) So pondering this on the way home from a gig last night and my next thought was perhaps its actually the pickup placement. Might drop in some dual coils and parallel/series them to see where we go from there. And before everyone kicks off with whats the point , why did you buy in the first place etc, i enjoy the journey, have turned the cheapest of basses into great gig machine in the past with some choice mods. Just surpised how wild the changes i have made have made only a small amount of difference. coil tap/series parallel mod coming up. Washburn Pic grabbed from the interweb..not my bass.

Its one I had laying around, i think its by a chinese company called Donlis. Its a good higher output type jazz pickups and does a great job. Going forwards I may looks at delano who also do big pole jazz pickups. For now this is as good as the original and a better balance in terms of the output https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32867705703.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.57.4581P1aAP1aAWL&algo_pvid=214ba381-7e3f-425e-87f9-f3b7ee2d3602&algo_exp_id=214ba381-7e3f-425e-87f9-f3b7ee2d3602-28&pdp_npi=4%40dis!GBP!16.09!16.09!!!20.26!20.26!%40211b698e17299496958354213e9d6e!12000034714672003!sea!UK!760833171!X&curPageLogUid=fwvxSc4CaGM9&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch|query_from%3A

Put mine through its paces and it running like a champ. Mods: Changed out the neck pickup for higher output, control knobs.

Been using this chopped carbon wrap on scratchplates.. the one on my z7 fits well enough to not need screws..really pleased with look without the screws. Swapped out the neck pickup for a slightly punchier big poled version. Better volume balance and a more cohesive look.

On the way to a gig...'did i leave the gas on? was there something in the oven???....oh shiiiii..."

I have seen models across the range with horrendously dark necks and board where you really couldnt see the fret markers. I hard a P5 that was close to being too dark. .I think you are right the sugars/sap crystalise inconsistently across the timbers used some do are ok, some go dark..

I took a sneaky pick at the pre amp. It has an adjustment pot. Suspect a tweak will help. And then I notice thats been said on other post ...sigh Welcome to overlabouring a point (or pot) post club

Did a full gig this weekend with the Z7 and overall very happy with it. The neck dive issue wasnt really there so not going to bother with Ultralites or whatever anytime soon. General weight of the bass is good so happy there, Sounds wise i like the neck pickup as a blend option to round off the 'stingray' (there i said it) tone and drop in some bottom end. The neck pickup is quieter than the Mman bucker and i 'may' think about swapping that out in the future for a more powerful/stacked and noiseless alternative. The steel fret aren't any great difference to the standard old school one's but i supect they will last longer. Rolled edge on the board is just plain lovely. Comparing it with previous V7's and V3 i found it say better in the mix for the sort of music i play, so i doubt this will be on ebay (or here..) in the near future. She's a keeper.

One QC issue: The action as delivered was way off too high. Not really an issue until i tried to adjust the D string saddle. The allen key/wrench spin in the hole. Luckily i have a bunch of old scrap bridges and harvested two allen screws off an old Ibanez bridge which were a straight swap. Worth checking yours folks...

yep my bad ally knobs!

And finally, it be here. Not quite the over the top fab grain of one i have seen on the owners page (pic shown for reference ...omg thats perdy) My new ride has landed safely without the QC issue of some poor souls here. First impressions Neck Dive: a little but not on the strap Heavy?: No 9lbs and a bit. Lower horn embarassment?: Yeah a bit noticeable, access is a lot better for the dusty end but looks better in the flesh Controls: I quite like the knobs, a bit sadowsky like and definately better quality than the really cheap plastic ones one my v3, v7 etc. But still plastic (even on the sadowsky metrolines they are aluminium) Neck: Rolled edge is great, no fret sprout Pickups: Mman pickup is very articulate and quiet. Single coil on the neck position has 60Hz noise at high treble settings (Nordstrand drop in perhaps). Took a peek under the controls plate, spareate pre to the controls, getting a parallel/series switch will be a squeeze so probably wont attempt. Four wire Mman pickup though so technically possible. Looks like wired in series. Am I happy with my purchase: ?. Yes, first impressions are good, pre amp seems a bit tighter voiced than the v7 (maybe thats just my looks like a stingray so must sound like one eyes..), hardware looks ok. Just for a laugh a laid a musicman scratchplate over the pickup etc. Looks like the Mman is about a cm further forwards towards the neck. Edge of the plate overlaps the control panel. De-condoming the scratchplate the drills holes are tidy as is the routing, so it can be 'topless' without looking crap. I so want to add the musicman style lugs to the bridge....i have some...it may happen Anyway check this.. Mine's a more modest