IYV, 5-String IBHLFF5-400 Multi-Scale Headless Bass

CNC machines do a great job making super consistent parts, so if you know how to give an instrument a setup, you can get a great piece for crazy cheap. After re-stringing this with some DR DDTs - I gave this a little action, intonation, and truss adjustment. All without issue. It plays really well, with solidly low action on all strings. I'm mostly in drop A so there's a bit of looseness in the 5th string, but it's got good clarity. THE GOOD: 33"-35" multi-scale is comfy and gives a little more oomph to the low B. More piano-like clarity, but not overly stiff either. the price! crazy cheap. Electronics are solid, preamp is decent. Pickups are better than expected. I had planned on upgrading, but I'm happy with them for now. P2 size is common enough to find some options. Neck is nearly flawless! Very comfortable, smooth. Great fretwork, smoothed out and no sprout, no edges. 18mm string spacing (ish?) is a nice compromise for a 5. Wide, but not overly so. Finish is good, not like 100% perfect, but instruments should get beat up anyway. Nuts at the top of the lock nicely. THE OK: The strings it comes with are bad, buy new strings. You should know that already. The fretboard needed some mineral oil / lemon oil. Can't hang it on the wall with a standard guitar hanger. THE BAD: THE TUNERS. Oh my god, I don't know why, but some of them just. don't. move. I had to use a channel lock wrench to turn some of them. They all hold a tune fine once they're set, but they take some work to get there. OVERALL : I got this for a rock / metal project, and it's going to do just what I need it to do. For about $300 (bass + new strings), an hour of setup, I'm thrilled. With another $300-400 of parts, this would be a top tier bass. With just new strings, it's great! EDIT : I got some Nordstrand fat singles for this thing, it is incredibly huge sounding now.

My bass was untunable, so i couldnt even have fun with it. The tuner kept screwimg in butter and didnt tune the bass. One of the tuner always lost tension, so it is a unplayable bass unfortunately. I am trying to make a refund, but it is taking me too much time and they wont give me compensation for the time i lost…

IYV does it again! An Ibanez EHB model or a custom Keisel will cost you upwards of a grand, even used, up to several times that much. This IYV bass is a much more affordable way to explore multi-scale / fan-fret 5-string headless bass first-hand. The price-point makes it a great candidate for upgrades & mods, too. I installed an EMG BTS 2-band preamp and a 3-way mini-toggle for series/parallel/single-coil mode on the neck pickup, leaving the bridge pickup as a full-time humbucker. I wanted more tonal flexibility on the neck pickup as I tend to play Geezer-style right at the end of the fretboard. It has a push/pull on the Vol to bypass the preamp for passive mode as well. I honestly can't remember if that was stock or if I installed it... I do a lot of mods. The fret edges are smooth and no issues with loose or high frets. The bridge works fine and holds tune well. The finish is matte and looks great. It plays fast & fluid and sounds awesome! No complaints here. Highly recommended! I've also owned the Metallic Blue non-multiscale version. It's an excellent alternative if you're not down with slanted frets. An added bonus is that this bass will fit in most regular guitar gigbags, making it much less expensive to have a decently protective case for it vs full-sized bass-specific offerings.

First thing… it’s a 35” scale on the low B, fantastic tension there. I didn’t measure the G string. Second: the tuner complaints…I disassembled them and applied a light coating of bicycle chain lube to the threads of each saddle/bridge. Problem solved. Super smooth and accurate. Third… the bridge is tedious and if you lack patience, you will become frustrated with setting the intonation, string height. I’m not impatient. I took my time and adjusted it all to perfection. The notes rang like bells even acoustically. I could play chords and they sang. Fourth: the body material and weight suggested to me, that it’s made of a type of Luthite wood, like a generic basswood that is manmade. Very light and seemed “soft”. But luckily, no neck dive. Fifth: the fret ends were sharp. While I had the instrument with the strings off working on the saddle and tuners, I oiled the fretboard repeatedly - it was thirsty. I also polished the frets and filed the fret ends. There weren’t any frets sprouting. Finally: the electronics. Good bass, decent treble. The mids appeared to be upper, UPPER mids, borderline additional treble. For metal or rock, these electronics are fantastic; for what I do, not so much. I play in a “wedding band” and though we do play some rock, we play mostly R&B, Disco, Country, Top 40, Jazz, Oldies from the early 60’s/late 50’s and the lack of a fat mid tone ruined it for me. Also, the 35” low B, low E were great, but the G and D strings, fanned out are great if you are often in the upper register of the bass. Reaching that 24 fret G on occasion, I’d fly past it and find myself off the fretboard. So the multiscale principle is lost on me. That, plus the serious lack of thick mids, made me decide to return it. Overall it a great price point, and so a great bass. But the lack of mids, the possibility that it’s a manmade material the body is made of… the pickups being ceramic based build. Lots of output but generally a “scooped” EQ profile. Hence the missing mids. If the magnets were AlniCo V’s it would be warmer and have less pull on the strings and would allow the pickups to be closer to the strings (they’d serve as thumb anchors for finger players like me and also, like ramps. I sent it back today 3/9/26 and ordered the IBSY-500 instead. It appears it has a 35” scale based on the images and distances I can see and no need to worry about overshooting the G string at the 24th fret.

Update- ALL of the frets were loose. Like they didn’t use any glue. I had to super glue and press every single one of them. I don’t think I would recommend this bass for the amount work it needed. A great weird looking bass. Cons- the nut was busted at the B string. Amazon refunded me $43. The truss rod was really loose. The first fret was REALLY LOW. I had to level all the frets pretty far to get them lined up with the first one. Action was high and it’s kind of a PIA to adjust the saddles. The electronics are pretty noisy. I’ll have to open it up and check all the grounds and shield it. The neck pocket wasn’t routed real tight. Pros- strings seem decent. Balanced pretty well. Sounds good aside from the noise. Plays real well after the fret work and set up. Is it worth the money? I think so, as long as you know what you’re getting yourself into and know how to set up a guitar.