Hofner Galaxy Bass Reissue mini review

I've been interested in these and got the opportunity to play one at a guitar shop today so I thought I'd post my thoughts. The bass I played was the short scale version. These are mass produced in China and the price in the store was $299. It was heavier than I anticipated general feel was good. Visually, the color was more orange than red, the bridge was higher mass than a Fender but not as high mass as a BadAss, the tuners were cool looking, the body shape is very Fenderish as was the headstock, the rosewood on the fretboard was light colored, the neck was bound and chunky - all in all a cool looking bass with a retro vibe. I decided to plug her in and have my way with her. Ouch - the fret sprout on the bottom edge of the bass was very evident and it was on the top edge too. I'd blame it on the humidity - or lack there of - but I played 2 other basses in the same shop in the same room that had no fret sprout at all. The action was way high - over double the 3/32 I like. Upon closer inspection the neck relief was fine but the saddles were odd in that the way they were built I could not tell if they could be lowered but I could tell that the break angle would be minimal if I could lower them. Maybe a neck shim could fix this but it was a turnoff to see a new bass shipped this way. The electronics included 2 staple pickups and a volume for each pickup and a master tone. Neither pickup on its own was spectacular and together they were a little better. The bass did not have a lot of bottom but it had numerous funky tones by playing around with the volume and tone knobs that I liked. I was playing thru a small no-name 60's tube amp in a 300 sq ft store with 2 other people in there so I did keep the amp volume down. I really wanted to take it home because it would be fun to play and had some cool tones that might inspire some new basslines but the fret sprout and the high action were enough of a concern that I left her in the store. Bottom line - hopefully the next one I pick up won't have the setup problems because the retro vibe and funky tones were very likable.

I did not measure it but it felt jazz width - 1.5 - 1 5/8" would be my guess. Very full and chunky all the way down.