HILS Headless on the cheap. Seems too good to be true

Some pics and initial impressions. Out of the box it needed setup work. Action was awful. I got it playing better in no time though. It's light as feather. I mean really really light! Pickups are very hot but toneful. Neck end (headstock?) is a well thought out design. Lock down screws for cut off strings. No need for double ball strings. Enough wood is left for hanger and clip on tuner. Fret work is about what I'd expect for a $500 guitar. Some slightly sharp edges but otherwise good. Neck wood and fretboard are beautiful. Width at nut is rather narrow. Yet, wide at the body joint. This might need some time getting use to. Tuners work very well. Output jack location requires an angled cable plug if you want to set the guitar on its feet. Otherwise a strait plug will stick out further than the feet. Soft case is good quality.

Overall, It's a very good value guitar. I think it'll suit my desires well.
 

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TJontheRoad said:
Some pics and initial impressions. Out of the box it needed setup work. Action was awful. I got it playing better in no time though. It's light as feather. I mean really really light! Pickups are very hot but toneful. Neck end (headstock?) is a well thought out design. Lock down screws for cut off strings. No need for double ball strings. Enough wood is left for hanger and clip on tuner. Fret work is about what I'd expect for a $500 guitar. Some slightly sharp edges but otherwise good. Neck wood and fretboard are beautiful. Width at nut is rather narrow. Yet, wide at the body joint. This might need some time getting use to. Tuners work very well. Output jack location requires an angled cable plug if you want to set the guitar on its feet. Otherwise a strait plug will stick out further than the feet. Soft case is good quality.

Overall, It's a very good value guitar. I think it'll suit my desires well.
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damn the green is nice
 
The frets are too low for my taste but they are not badly installed on the few I have seen so far.
 
Eagle said:
The frets are too low for my taste but they are not badly installed on the few I have seen so far.
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Yes, I would prefer them a bit taller. The frets appear to have been dressed in a quick assembly line fashion. There are minor sharp edges on a couple fret close to the nut. No big deal though.
 
Day 2; I'm still fighting a bit with the HILT for the optimal setup. I suspect the cold shipping didn't do it very well. I opened the box top side before completely opening it a couple hours later and a puff of very cold air came out. The guitar settled more overnight and the setup work I did yesterday didn't hold. So, I need to give more time in my studio. I was going to shoot a video demo today, but I think I'll wait till next week and get a better and longer feel for it.
 
TJontheRoad said:
I also ordered an Eart GW2 headless to compare with the HILS. Look for a video on this soon.
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The Eart guitars are okay. Didn't love the hardware and didn't love the "machine-rounded" frets, they tapered off too quickly on the edges. Let us know what you think though!
 
Just got the blue HN3. After reading only positive things, I'm a little disappointed with a few aspects. I'm no expert when it comes to guitar hardware or setting things up, so for many maybe these would be easily addressed.
  • If I plug all the way into the input jack, no signal. Have to pull it out to ~85%.
  • Significant fret buzz in a few spots in the middle of the neck on the three high strings. Neck relief is fine (if anything, a little more relief than I would prefer). String action is not especially low (again, would like it a little lower). Maybe I just need to tap a few frets down? I've never done that and not sure how to diagnose that vs. a different issue (like uneven frets?).
  • Strangely getting something that sounds like fret buzz on the open G string, but looking closely, I can't see how it could possibly be buzzing against any frets. This one has me stumped and frustrated.
  • When I received the guitar, I could only tune the high E string to Eb before the tuning peg stopped turning. You would think they would know how to string these in the factory. (Or how to tune it in Indiana when they receive it and supposedly check it for issues.) Not a hardware issue; no tuning issues when I put new strings on. Just annoying.
    • A broader issue here is that the folks in Indiana are supposedly checking the guitars for issues before sending them out. That seems like it would have been hard to do if you can't get the guitar in tune. Either they assumed this one was going to SRV and so Eb was fine, or they're just not really checking them. They should have caught the significant fret buzz, no? And the finicky input jack?
It's a cool little guitar and I'm happy to be trying the headless thing on what's going to be a beater/travel guitar. Also understand it's $500. (Although I had no issues with my PRS SE I bought on sale over the holidays for ~$700.) Just disappointed with some of this and hoping I can figure out how to resolve it all. Sounds like I got a dud compared to everyone else on the internet, or I'm just less resourceful and patient.
 
dutchstriker said:
Just got the blue HN3. After reading only positive things, I'm a little disappointed with a few aspects. I'm no expert when it comes to guitar hardware or setting things up, so for many maybe these would be easily addressed.
  • If I plug all the way into the input jack, no signal. Have to pull it out to ~85%.
  • Significant fret buzz in a few spots in the middle of the neck on the three high strings. Neck relief is fine (if anything, a little more relief than I would prefer). String action is not especially low (again, would like it a little lower). Maybe I just need to tap a few frets down? I've never done that and not sure how to diagnose that vs. a different issue (like uneven frets?).
  • Strangely getting something that sounds like fret buzz on the open G string, but looking closely, I can't see how it could possibly be buzzing against any frets. This one has me stumped and frustrated.
  • When I received the guitar, I could only tune the high E string to Eb before the tuning peg stopped turning. You would think they would know how to string these in the factory. (Or how to tune it in Indiana when they receive it and supp isosedly check it for issues.) Not a hardware issue; no tuning issues when I put new strings on. Just annoying.
    • A broader issue here is that the folks in Indiana are supposedly checking the guitars for issues before sending them out. That seems like it would have been hard to do if you can't get the guitar in tune. Either they assumed this one was going to SRV and so Eb was fine, or they're just not really checking them. They should have caught the significant fret buzz, no? And the finicky input jack?
It's a cool little guitar and I'm happy to be trying the headless thing on what's going to be a beater/travel guitar. Also understand it's $500. (Although I had no issues with my PRS SE I bought on sale over the holidays for ~$700.) Just disappointed with some of this and hoping I can figure out how to resolve it all. Sounds like I got a dud compared to everyone else on the internet, or I'm just less resourceful and patient.
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Yeah sounds like you got unlucky. I agree it should not have left with those issues. Are all the string clamps at the nut tight? You can get buzzing there if it's not placed or cinched down well.

Input Jack is likely an easy fix, you can probably just bend the contact piece of metal back inwards so that it's making good contact when the jack is in. You'll understand if you take a look at it.

I wrote them about an issue I thought mine had with tuning, and they were quick to respond and get me sorted. Turns out I wasn't tightening the string clamps enough. My guitar has been rock solid since. Hope you get it figured out.
 
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dutchstriker said:
Just got the blue HN3. After reading only positive things, I'm a little disappointed with a few aspects. I'm no expert when it comes to guitar hardware or setting things up, so for many maybe these would be easily addressed.
  • If I plug all the way into the input jack, no signal. Have to pull it out to ~85%.
  • Significant fret buzz in a few spots in the middle of the neck on the three high strings. Neck relief is fine (if anything, a little more relief than I would prefer). String action is not especially low (again, would like it a little lower). Maybe I just need to tap a few frets down? I've never done that and not sure how to diagnose that vs. a different issue (like uneven frets?).
  • Strangely getting something that sounds like fret buzz on the open G string, but looking closely, I can't see how it could possibly be buzzing against any frets. This one has me stumped and frustrated.
  • When I received the guitar, I could only tune the high E string to Eb before the tuning peg stopped turning. You would think they would know how to string these in the factory. (Or how to tune it in Indiana when they receive it and supposedly check it for issues.) Not a hardware issue; no tuning issues when I put new strings on. Just annoying.
    • A broader issue here is that the folks in Indiana are supposedly checking the guitars for issues before sending them out. That seems like it would have been hard to do if you can't get the guitar in tune. Either they assumed this one was going to SRV and so Eb was fine, or they're just not really checking them. They should have caught the significant fret buzz, no? And the finicky input jack?
It's a cool little guitar and I'm happy to be trying the headless thing on what's going to be a beater/travel guitar. Also understand it's $500. (Although I had no issues with my PRS SE I bought on sale over the holidays for ~$700.) Just disappointed with some of this and hoping I can figure out how to resolve it all. Sounds like I got a dud compared to everyone else on the internet, or I'm just less resourceful and patient.
Click to expand...

It took a few days for the one I received to temperature acclimate to my studio. Afterwards, the setup work I did made things much better than out of the box.
 
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