Hils HZB5 Mystic Purple

The features of this bass are incredible for the price, it looks cool and the overall design is good. The colour is black-ish with some purple/greenish shine to it, and in real life the whole bass looks quite a bit darker than in the photos (both the body and the fretboard), which is a plus for me. It's very ergonomic and feels smaller than normal 34-inch scale basses. It comes with a nice gigbag, but you could probably also put it in most regular e-guitar bags, since the bass is like only 10 cm longer than a normal strat-style guitar. The pickup configuration and the preamp features give lots of tonal options. I would prefer a more narrow string spacing, but the 18 mm is still quite okay for me, and is definitely easier to slap than 16,5 mm string spacing. Mine weighed 3,7 kg, so pretty light for a 5-string bass.

However there are some problems that have occurred. In my bass the fret ends come a bit past the fretboard and are very sharp, so they will have to get filed. It's playable but very noticeable and I have got some minor scratches on my palm from playing. Also the 15th fret seems to be ever so slightly too high on the A-string, resulting in some buzzing when the 14th fret is played. Also the pickguard is unfortunately very low quality plastic, and was very dinged and scratched up from just 30 minutes of playing fingerstyle, like just touching it with your nail results in a permanent scratch.

All of these issues will have to be taken care of by a luthier, which adds to the total cost of the bass. However it's still great value for money if you consider what similar options there are from other brands. One quite curious thing is that Hils sell a bearing upgrade kit for the tuners, and the kit is only like 10 euros, so why they didn't include the better bearings in the first place is beyond my understanding.