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Official Halo Guitar Review Thread

#21
Well the bass arrived today. Although I am not a fan of unboxing videos, I did one.

First impressions?

  1. The bass does have Nordstand pickups.
  2. The bass is a nice glossy black with a black pickguard.
  3. The tone knob doesn't do a lot of shaping
  4. The P pickup is very P-bass sounding
  5. The J pickup... I rarely use a J bridge pickup by itself, so I don't have a good point of reference, but I will compare it to my 2 passive jazz basses
  6. It's not very balanced, the neck tends to dive when it rests on my knee, I'll try it with a strap later
  7. Frets could use a little more beveling
  8. Neck pocket is nice and tight
  9. I like the abalone like dots on the neck
  10. The setup is decent, no complaints
Thee are my first impressions, they may change as the day goes on....

I'll start posting comparison videos and audio soon.
 
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#22
Acoustic356 said:
Well the bass arrived today. Although I am not a fan of unboxing videos, I did one.

First impressions?

  1. The bass does not have Nordstand pickups. They are a modern P/J pickup. I'm not sure of the make.
  2. The bass is a nice glossy black with a black pickguard.
  3. The tone knob doesn't do a lot of shaping
  4. The P pickup is very P-bass sounding
  5. The J pickup... I rarely use a J bridge pickup by itself, so I don't have a good point of reference, but I will compare it to my 2 passive jazz basses
  6. It's not very balanced, the neck tends to dive when it rests on my knee, I'll try it with a strap later
  7. Frets could use a little more beveling
  8. Neck pocket is nice and tight
  9. I like the abalone like dots on the neck
  10. The setup is decent, no complaints
Thee are my first impressions, they may change as the day goes on....

I'll start posting comparison videos and audio soon.
Click to expand...

This is already confirming my initial concern that this particular bass is not a good litmus of Halo's custom work. I mean a budget/starter bass is still just a budget/starter bass, even if it happens to be an exceptional example, we can still only expect so much from it.
 
#26
The bass weighs in at 10 pounds even. Here is a quick picture that show the comparison of this bass next to two of the basses that I will be comparing this to. I will be using an American Standard P-Bass (my only P-Bass) and the PRS for the Jazz pickup sound.

It's slightly larger than the P-Bass, is not as contoured... but as you can see from the picture, a nice looking bass.

As you can see from the picture, the J pickup is a little closer to the bridge than the PRS, so I would expect it to be a little brighter.

The headstock is also a little longer which may account for the balance.

I will post more picture later!

DSC00111_zpsnd5v0yok.jpg
 
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#27
wvbass said:
Thanks for chiming in! I think this approach has lots of potential. And yeah, I got confused by the Contact Us form and couldn't find the physical address. Glad to see that it is there already.

As for preamps...you already have the right starting points by looking at your pickups: Nordstrand and Bartolini. Beyond that, there are lots of TB flavor-of-the-month preferences, but for my money, the Aguilar preamps are a safe choice, and an excellent line of products.

I probably won't be buying any new basses in the near future, but I am curious to see some product reviews here on TB. You never know when I'll add something new to my collection...
Click to expand...

We opened an account with Aguilar today. Thanks so much for the recommendation.
 
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#28
There are a lot of things I like about Halo's apparent approach to business, and I'm looking forward to more of Acoustic356's review of the bass Halo sent him, but I'm still bemused by some of the bass shapes available through the Halo custom shop option. Like this one:

Weird Halo Bass

Weird Halo Bass

  • Media owner Dradder
  • Date added

Seriously, ***. I'm sure there's some twelve-year-old metalhead who'd love to have that, but does he have $1200 to buy it? :)
 
#29
There are a few components that make a good bass guitar:
  • How it sounds
  • How it feels (weight/balance)
  • Fit and Finish
In this example, I will be discussing the sound. In the following video I compare the P bass sound of the Halo bass to that of an American Standard P-Bass. In the video I refer to them as Bass #1 and Bass #2. Please leave your comments as to which bass you think is the Halo and which is the P-Bass. In a few days I will tally the votes then reveal which was which.

Note: The P-bass has the grease bucket tone control.



Bass #1 Fender American Standard P-Bass Satin Hand Stained Model with Grease Bucket tone control. Bass #2 Halo Bass Guitar
 
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#34
Okay... I did the rear pickup... comparing it to a Carrigan Designs Short Scale and PRS Kestrel. All three instrument are uniquely voiced. It really depends on what you're looking for. In the grand scheme of things, it sounds okay.

So... here are my final thoughts:
  1. The instrument is heavy. 10 pounds.
  2. The headstock is HUGE. Not my favorite shape, but fortunately when you design them you can pick the one that fits your style.
  3. The fit and finish was fine... there were no complaints... it's put together very well.
I wonder how much their custom instruments weigh...

I plan on keeping the instrument through Tuesday, so if you have any questions, ask now while I have it.
 
#35
Dradder said:
You might also want to think about putting your satisfied customers' testimonials on an easily discoverable page on your main website. Rooting around in your company blog, I found some nice things that customers had said about their Halo instruments; you should give those a little more prominence, IMO. A lot of other instrument builders do that, and I expect there's a good reason why.
Click to expand...

We put a link for "REVIEWS" on the main navigation bar today.
 
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#36
@rockerjeff It's been a great experiment. I've enjoyed the bass. The workmanship is good, it sounds great comparatively speaking. My only question is whether the custom instruments are any lighter, or if everything weighs in around 10 pounds or so.
 
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#37
The Halo sounds pretty decent when you consider it's a $300 bass being put up against an over $1000 bass, would have been more interested to see one of their customs reviewed, but it is still good to see Halo stepping up their game and communicating with the bass community like this.
 
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