NBD - HILS HNB3 Black

[brickers]

Picked up one of these at Anderton's yesterday, and I think I'm more surprised than anyone I ended up with something so metal looking - I'm overwhelmingly a funk, soul, reggae listener and player, though I listen to a some choice metal from time to time. Never gone anywhere near the metal look though.

 

I'd put a deposit down on a Sterling Ray34 and RaySS4 intending to come away with something punchy for some fingerstyle funk (skills to follow...) and the guy in the shop offered it to me as an alternative to the RaySS4 - humbucker, passive, short scale. The ergonomics are great and I worry that it might have put me off 'normal sized' basses now.

 

Things I like about it:

• Sounds close enough to a punchy stringray-style tone for me (don’t shoot me if your ears are more discerning than mine - I can only tell you what it did for me)
• I wanted a simple passive volume/tone set of controls. It has a simple passive volume/tone set of controls.
• Light, short scale
• Really comfortable on a strap or sitting down
• Fretboard dot placement is a nice touch
• It has rubber feet so you can stand it against the wall
• No neck dive. If anything it could drop the other way given the size and placement of the tuners but I haven’t felt that
• Tuners seem precise and solid - dialled into the note and stayed there straight away, unlike the fenders and sterlings I tested. Knobs and jack are similarly good.
• Finishing seems good for £500, though not 100% perfect, e.g. some of the black finish is unevenly on the side of the brown fretboard wood. However, it’s a dark bass and took me a day to notice, so I’m not bothered.
• Stainless steel frets
• 24 frets - again, never thought that I’d want that, but I was jamming with a backing track and some effects and it’s a nice register to have options in for layering
• Strap buttons are nicely placed
• Because of the way the headless system works (no idea if this is all headless systems or not), you don’t have to buy short scale strings - you can fit long scale strings to it and just cut them short (or leave them long if you don’t like your eyes). Handy if they don’t make the ones you want in short scale or if you already own some strings you’d like to use. Not sure I’ll be chopping down my TI jazz flats just yet though
• Neck is smooth with a satin finish
• Almost forgot - the gig bag it comes with really is good, with lots of thick padding, a neck support and two front pockets. Much better than the non-free one I got for my other bass

 

Things I don’t like so much about it:

• The style… but I like that a lot more than I did now I see the ergonomics leading to it. A little red, gold and green stripe and I’m halfway to being Robbie Shakespeare in his Black Uhuru days, surely.
• When A/Bing with the sterling short scale there was… something about the HILS neck that felt lower quality. Not badly made or finished, just not as hefty in that reassuring way. Bearing in mind that the finishing of the neck is nicer on this bass than the sterling, and I don’t think about this issue now I’m not directly comparing the two. It might also just be a result of this bass’s lightness, so could be a feature rather than a bug
• Tone isn’t 100% stingray, and it doesn’t have that music man pickup style I love. But I there are options should I feel the need to butcher another guitar, and it’s nice to have an upgrade path
• I’m not looking forward to changing the strings

 

I spent quite a bit of time A/Bing this and the sterling short scale, and though I could tell the differences between them when I switched, I didn't really feel when playing either of them that I was longing for the other. In the end, the HILS won on ergonomics, price, and to a certain extent build quality.

[BassApprentice]

For those wondering - like me - how different a prospect of the HILS NEXT HNB3 is to a Stingray...

[brickers]

11 minutes ago, BassApprentice said:

For those wondering - like me - how different a prospect of the HILS NEXT HNB3 is to a Stingray...

 

...very different indeed. I'm hoping my post comes off as 'look how surprised I am at how much I liked this bass' and not 'look at this funny shaped stingray'

[Pea Turgh]

If Batman was a bassist…

[LeftyJ]

1 hour ago, brickers said:

• It has rubber feet so you can stand it against the wall

 

That's brilliant! I love it 

Most headless basses have two bottom strap buttons, but having rubber feet sounds really useful and clever. 

[ezbass]

1 hour ago, brickers said:

A little red, gold and green stripe and I’m halfway to being Robbie Shakespeare in his Black Uhuru days

That would look great. 

[BassApprentice]

Regarding changing the strings - surely this system is easier? Straight through the saddles into the headstock clamp. Tune up and cut the excess? No faffing around with cutting before winding and coming up too short or long?

 

I've never had a headless bass but it does seem easier. Could be wrong though!

[tauzero]

1 hour ago, BassApprentice said:

Regarding changing the strings - surely this system is easier? Straight through the saddles into the headstock clamp. Tune up and cut the excess? No faffing around with cutting before winding and coming up too short or long?

 

I've never had a headless bass but it does seem easier. Could be wrong though!

 

It is easy. You also won't put a twist in the string. DBEs are even easier as you don't have to cut the strings, but the bass has to be the right scale length (in fairness, basses with DBE headstocks will be the right scale length).

[brickers]

4 hours ago, BassApprentice said:

Regarding changing the strings - surely this system is easier? Straight through the saddles into the headstock clamp. Tune up and cut the excess? No faffing around with cutting before winding and coming up too short or long?

 

I've never had a headless bass but it does seem easier. Could be wrong though!

I’ll hold my hands up and say I was parroting something I’d heard elsewhere when I said this. I watched their video for how to do it and it seems fine, maybe with some potential gotchas that the normal method doesn’t have. But then they’ve said what they are so shouldnt be a problem.

 

3 hours ago, tauzero said:

 

It is easy. You also won't put a twist in the string.

 

that’s a nice benefit

[brickers]

5 hours ago, Pea Turgh said:

If Batman was a bassist…

im going to remove all the ergonomics and stick this in a giant yellow epoxy oval so it can look like the bat symbol

[brickers]

Quick update with a view of under the pick guard and of the control cavity. The cover over the control cavity was a bit of an afterthought and it’d be nice to get something that fits better and is easier to add and remove but this is a passive bass so no real need unless that changes. There looks like plenty of room to change pickup placement should you wish, or fit something different without having to rout the body, and plenty of room for different electronics.

[LeftyJ]

Wow, it never occurred to me before that with monorail bridges each needs their own ground wire. This is the first time I've seen this. Very cool! 

[brickers]

I must half-sheepishly admit to returning this bass.

I actually think there might be a design flaw with it - I kept hearing a chorus-type effect that I associate with pickups being too close to the strings. Unfortunately the pickups are tall and there was only maybe a millimetre of travel to move them away, and it made no difference. The guys in anderton’s couldn’t hear it, but I play mostly on headphones through an hx stomp, so maybe it less noticeable through an amp. Maybe my mind was playing tricks, but I couldn’t get past it, and that feeling of inexpensiveness did not go either.

As I was within the first 14 days of owning they allowed me to return with no questions - great service from Andertons once more. I went for a ray34 and I’m so glad I did - it is twice the price but way more than twice the bass (not least in weight…) and feels like a forever bass. And due to an error on anderton’s part, I came away with a superb sire gig bag for free, that easily exceeded the one Hils included.

So a lot of what I originally said still stands but I realise now how much I was swayed by the size - it really did make the normal sized basses seem unmanageable and they’re just not.

And if you want a stingray - get a stingray…

[Brian18242]

I wonder if Andertons will sell on your bass at a slightly reduced price as I wouldn't mind picking up one of these 👌

[brickers]

As far as I’m aware they only had this one in stock so if you try one it’s probably the one I had!