THE BEST HEADLESS UNDER $500? Hils HN3

In this video I check out the HN3 from Hils Guitars. It's a made in Indonesia, sub £500 headless guitar. Find out about my experience with this guitar, plus we find out if Hils actually took on board the criticism from @PhillipMcKnight as they said they would!

00:00 Hils HN3
00:52 B Roll Video
03:01 The Issues
06:32 Did They Fix Phil McKnight Problem?
07:22 Clean Tones
08:34 Medium Gain Tones
09:19 Higher Gain Tones
10:21 Def Leppard Clean
11:18 Drop D High Gain
12:36 Lead Tones
13:15 I Like This Guitar... A Lot!

Buy the guitar here -

Please check out my Thomann affiliate links to some of their awesome gear that I use -

#hilshn3 #headlessguitar #hilsguitar #hn3 #strandberg

[JoeyRapps]

Being Andertons gave you a "point check" list, that high fret issue is on them. Don't sit on it, send that $#!t back. Either it popped up and just needs to be re-clamped or they have to level it. All notes should play. Thanks for posting this video, cheers!

[ChrisRossUK]

Hey man, thanks for the thorough video.

[foofighter]

Haha! Not heard that Papa Roach riff in a long time! Nice playing and, honestly, been eyeing this guitar for a while now as a travel guitar for song-writing and recording on the go. Thanks for the video!

[richardj]

Best darn headless less than 500 and probably best under 1k. Love mine!

[dardobartoli]

At last, an honest and unsponsored/paid for review (looking at all the Eart reviews). Interesting have some serious issues. Put me off for sure.

[fatsuperfly]

I’ve been thinking of getting one of these for the reason you said, it’s like a tool and out of the way and not expensive. I was looking at the Ibanez headless, it’s more money, but I did like the way it played. But I plan on traveling and recording with some friends and maybe just swapping pickups will still get me under that Ibanez and still can use it around my home studio for fast tracking ideas, idk. I’m just thinking here, just hate to shell out more.

[AGuitarNinja]

I've been waiting for my hn5 since october and have been searching youtube daily for more hex and hils content! I need the lightweight a trem and something with 24 medium frets rather than jumbo frets which is on everything these days and stumbled across these, they say delivery sometime in february fingers crossed

[richkellett]

I have a purple one, love it, thinking of getting a hn7.

[dysonsphere]

Nice sound! What modeler did you use? Thanks ❤

[LockedLoadedDestruct]

Got one. Tbh the pickups are ok at best but for the purpose of practice on the road, this axe really holds up. It feels like it tunes like a Floyd without the Floyd like setup work.

[karstux]

Oof, dead frets on a new guitar? That would have been a reason to send it back for me. I really want a HN4 or HN5 as soon as Thomann gets them, but you've given me a reason to actually visit their store instead of ordering online.

[sdcoffeeroaster]

I've had my blue one for about a week now. Like you I found the action way too high. 0.090" on ALL strings! So I spent a good amount of time dialing it down to about 0.070" to .050" where's it's buzz free. The humbucker adjustment just doesn't work properly for me. The humbuckers are very "sticky" in their cavities and maybe it's a clearance issue or hanging up on the screws a bit. Since they are mounted like p90's turning the screws cl lowers the pickups but the screws bottomed out with the neck pickup still at 2 mm, way too close to the strings and causing very weird harmonics like a bit of stratitis. Shorter screws would fix this or if possible a deeper screw hole. I found an easy fix using 3mm black nylon washers and I was able to set the neck to about 3mm and the bridge to about 2.5mm and the tone improved dramatically and no more weird magnetic effects pulling too much on the strings. Could that be what you sensed as microphonic? The fret ends are all dead sharp and my thumb feels that from the 1st fret playing open chords. I plan to fix that on the replacement. Mine also had a blemish on the headstock that is right in my face while playing so a replacement is on the way. The company is very easy to deal with and welcomes feedback to improve their product. For $500. USD I think it's a great deal. Mine weighs 4 lb 12 oz which is incredible and one of the reasons, with a bad left shoulder, I ordered it. For really hot pickups they are not excessively loud or in you face and split they are really quite good. I also found that the top strap mount on the back of the guitar not very user friendly and no doubt with a strap lock it will be even more annoying. Playing a headless guitar is much different due to the small size and with it sitting in my lap like you the guitar is way too high up for me since my upper body must be shorter than yours. I've found myself playing more towards the neck pickup with no place to anchor my pinky and will need to work on that a bit. Still I like it a lot and the neck is nicely shaped and easy to play.

[ebartley]

I just ordered one for $500. I ordered it because I herniated a disc in my back and I do alot of 4 hour time slot gigs. That guitar supposedly is under 5lbs.

[abbasnakhlband]

Would be nice to hear the neck pick up in solid mode with a little distortion.

[umarae]

I'm interested.
More interested in the bass though. Any word on the bass?

[breevwhyman]

Sir,

i would not say that it compares too well against the new 359 dollar EART headless off have a completely new superb seem a better guitar for 100 less...
although i don't know if they come with a gig bag....

i have to say that the NOTES thing you showed on the neck very concerning indeed a guitar at 50 quid it would be sent right 450 qud?....that's totally unnaceptable


sir, "Gear for music" HARLEM is way and afar the best headless guitar to buy at 149 with gig bag and bridge gets slight complaints as bieng a little the bridge functions perfectly and does its seasoned guitar players say the bridge HEIGHT slightly affects their ability to easily palm mute. for death i can tell you i saw him play it and it sounded just like blistering death metal to me

so who's to say. versus

Sadly Harley Benton completely stopped their headless

regards

ps...there are also the "Volgoa" brand on Amazon which are high quality at just 199 dollars.

[blackcitrus]

I returned mine hn5, because it was just poorly made. Hils quality is inconsistent. So I went to a store and bought a strandberg. And I tell you that those guitars are incomparable. It's like compare fender artist series and squire affinity.