I bought this bass for the looks. I wanted a pink PBass for a long time and this one is quite beautiful. The shell pink is gorgeous; it has a slight lavender hue, not a problem, but it is worth noting. The bass is a bit heavy for my liking at 4,3kg.
I gave the bass 4 stars because, out of the box, it's not a great instrument. I wasn't expecting it to be one, to be honest, and, although it was of slightly higher quality than expected, it wasn't really anything to write home about.
It has a few high frets; most notably, it has an unseated 12th fret, which immediately lowers the instrument's overall quality. The tuners are really not good; they all have a different feel and are obviously quite cheap. The pickup is ok, but too hot for my liking, and the bridge is just adequate (although the brass saddles are a nice touch).
With all this said, after customization, it is now my favorite bass. I put a pearloid blue pickguard on it, and I replaced the bridge with a top loader high mass and the pickup with an EMG GB. This is a monster now; it sounds incredible with Fender 9050L flats on it. The tuners will also be replaced in the near future.
It is worth noticing that even though it is a 38mm neck, it is quite chunky and might take some time to get used to. Nevertheless, it feels great in hand and, apart from the frets, is impeccably finished.
I really like HB, but I always expect at least some, if not a lot of work on every instrument I buy from them. This one is no exception but is absolutely worth it!
TOP:
Color
fit and finish (frets excluded)
overall quality
very nice woods (the bass sounds great acoustically)
Trussrod wheel!!!
Top-loading triple string tree
FLOP:
Fret ends and especially that unseated 12th fret (REALLY disappointed in that one...)
Low-quality tuners
side neck markers halfway in the wood/halfway in the binding (looks quite ridiculous to me)
no shielding whatsoever (There was a lot of buzz going on out of the box)