HILS headless basses

[bnt]

I see Andertons are starting to sell the Indonesian HILS HNB5 headless 5-string basses for £599. I was hoping they would after I saw them stock the guitars. Very Strandberg in design.

Personal impressions from the specs:

Positives: multiscale, light (~3.5kg or 7 1/2 pounds). Some nice finishes e.g. I like the rose gold. Stainless steel frets. Gig bag included.

Negatives: 33-35" multiscale, I'd prefer a longer low B (maybe 36"). Single coil pickups. I don't like passive pickups with onboard active EQ, would prefer all active. Could be more ergonomic in my opinion, body is chunky.

 

 

PS the company also has 30" short scale headless 4-strings on the way. 2.5kg / 5 1/2 lbs quoted weight.

Edited December 22, 2024 by bnt
typo

[crazycloud]

3 hours ago, bnt said:

Negatives

Ugly PG, a really stupid design choice on such a modern style bass.

[tauzero]

Negatives:

5-strings are fanny fret only

No natural finish option

Pickguard - why oh why?

[PinkMohawk]

Jumping on the guard hate bandwagon, goddamn that thing is ugly. I'm not sure if it can be removed either, since I can't tell if the rear rout covers all of the pots, or if the pickguard is covering a top rout as well? Definitely a candidate for some arts and crafts though, cut it down to something much more pleasant to look at. Other than that, it's ticking boxes for me. 

[tauzero]

42 minutes ago, PinkMohawk said:

Jumping on the guard hate bandwagon, goddamn that thing is ugly. I'm not sure if it can be removed either, since I can't tell if the rear rout covers all of the pots, or if the pickguard is covering a top rout as well? Definitely a candidate for some arts and crafts though, cut it down to something much more pleasant to look at. Other than that, it's ticking boxes for me. 

 

The rear rout is weird. Two routs, one under the rearmost row of pots, the other one not in a position to be behind the front pots but for some reason going under the strings, so there must be a front rout for the front pots (and what is the second rear rout for? A birth canal for baby Hilses? Yet another solution to doing headless tuners?). Ibanez and Cort can manage rear routs on mass-production bolt-on headlesses, is it really that hard? And is the wood they're using that crappy that they can't have a natural or stained finish option? 

[PinkMohawk]

Just now, tauzero said:

 

The rear rout is weird. Two routs, one under the rearmost row of pots, the other one not in a position to be behind the front pots but for some reason going under the strings, so there must be a front rout for the front pots (and what is the second rear rout for? A birth canal for baby Hilses? Yet another solution to doing headless tuners?). Ibanez and Cort can manage rear routs on mass-production bolt-on headlesses, is it really that hard? And is the wood they're using that crappy that they can't have a natural or stained finish option? 

Yeah there's a lot of weirdness the more I think about it. I'd really want to take a screwdriver to one and take it apart before I agreed to pay the money for it. That second rout is right under the bridge too, right? What the hell goes there? I'm not too broken up about the lack of natural finish, though stains would be nice, and even a veneer wouldn't be much more expense. I don't know, it could be an interesting buy, but I need more details on these first. 

[bnt]

I was wondering about that extra rout too. In any case, I find myself more interested in the upcoming HNB3: short scale, 4-string, single passive humbucker. But the HNB5 is interesting as an alternative to the G4M 972 / Coliseum, the only other "budget" multiscale out there - which I think is ugly and heavy.

 

PS re the wood, they say Mahogany. I expect it's three piece at least, in this price range. It takes more effort to make multi-piece bodies look nice. I think the design inspiration is from the Dingwall NG3, which also features solid finishes and ugly pickguards.

Edited December 23, 2024 by bnt

[Delberthot]

They remind me of those Aliexpress Strandberg copies - Changbergs if you like ( Going along with the tradition of Chibson, Chickenbacker, etc )

[andruca]

I strongly hate the tone of 2 pickups too damm close together. Systematically ruins every bass for me. I know it's the "modern" standard for many. I just can't stand it.

 

I think this is still a higher value than Ibanez's 2 cheapest EHB options (1005/1205), at least these don't come with Turdtolinis (a "standard" I couldn't care less about, after much money spent on their dead sounding crap). Pickup distance (or lack thereof) aside, those pickups sound open and normal. I wish somebody just made a headless fanned fret Jazz Bass, which just sounded like so (NORMAL decent pickups), no need to reinvent the nasal tin sounding wheel (nor the dark dead one). Closest I got was putting Wilkinson alnico Jazz pickups in my EHB1005MS as far apart as cavities will allow. Best that EHB has ever sounded, by far (moreso coming from the stock BH2s and some -also Darktolini- P452Js, a totally useless burning of a lot of money). Still pickup distances are WRONG on the EHB1005MS too. I love the bass but pickup position and pickup type choice are WEAK. Guess Leo got that right first time too.

 

IDK, I like "modern" basses as per functionality and ergonomics. Just hate the sound choices manufacturers make for most of them.

Edited December 23, 2024 by andruca