Review in Gitarre&Bass 3/2001
by Dirk Groll
(excerpt)
....not a cool and neutral sound, but a nice character tone. Definitely the
neck is bolt-on and carved from quartersawn maple... finest birdseye maple,
also with the glued-on fingerboard with vintage radius... unquestionably the
woods selected give a great impression.... despite of the big headstock, (the
HWB) wears very comfortable without being top-heavy. String spacing is 18.5
mm so you can play the five with full dynamics. The wide, wellrounded neck feels
great to the hand and gives a comfortable playing feel, with the healthy neck
mass providing a favourable tone development. .....the hard maple combined with
the swamp ash body creates an airy-present tone while delivering a supportive,
contured fundamental at the same time.
...worth mentioning the single coil-like open sound coming from the J-pickups
which work extremely noise-free. Without the nasty hum of your usual J-pickups
you can enjoy a wiry-woody sound of strong character while always having an
identifyable typical jazz bass sound. The low B fits very well into the picture...
the Hot Wire Fivestring delivers a singing and lively jazz bass tone with a
long harmonic sustain and lots of character.