Ordered a T-style bass and I absolutely love it! Response time on emails can be a little slow at times

It took a really long time to get here... plays great, worth the wait.

Altus Short-Scale 5-String Bass - The detail of the woods, the bindings and the finish is perfect...the bass is beautiful and the tone is amazing.

I just tested the bass out and it is so versatile and to my specifications... I think this is probably the best bass I've ever purchased and will not need another bass anytime soon. Heck, I'm thinking about selling most of the collection that I have since this thing is so good. The tones, the capabilities about how to play with it, the overall style it offers...

Halo really knocked it out of the park.

It is what was dreamed three years ago! Sweet sound and awesome professional workmanship. Thank you for this axe guys!

This is review of the bass only…

Arrived in a very properly packaged box.

The bass itself is beautiful. It was made to how l specified and has an amazing finish to it.

Coming in under 8 pounds, it has a nice balance to it and is comfortable in your hand.

As for as the tone, there is no dead spot on this bass. Fret work is spot on, carries the note forever, incredible resonance, plays like butter.

I did however change most all the electronics for one reason or another.
Most every bass l have, l had to make mods to, so it doesn’t bother me that much.
I give Halo 5 stars in the build for the following reasons:
The did ultimately deliver a custom 5 string, lightweight short scale bass with two registers, made the way l wanted, which is truly a one if a kind custom bass.

The crew at Halo did everything to make it happen, all the way to completion, and l am grateful.

Thank you Jeff

Wanted to believe...
So when I ordered this 5 string short scale bass 2 and half years ago, as nobody was making this type of instrument, which they now do.
It appealed to me to have a custom bass made, thinking customization was taking place in California, but it doesn't seem to be the case.
Three months ago made final payment, being told everything was finished, only to find out it wasn't.
It turns out my custom pickguard comes from overseas as well?? and has been delayed due to lockdowns.
Honestly, I would have thought that they would have been able fabricate it at their facility.

Keep in mind I never badgered them as to when it would be complete, so when they said they are ready to ship it, and don't because it has issues to be resolved,
and the months go by, it starts to concern me, hence the review.

*** Hi Chubba - we only perform final fret work, component assembly, and setups in our California shop. Everything else is done at our factory in China (as mentioned on our FAQ page https://www.haloguitars.com/store/FAQ.html). We strive to offer very high customization and to deliver the highest build quality we can. This can sometimes result in lengthy delays and we apologize, but we are working hard every day to do better. - Halo Custom Guitars ***

Absolutely awesome bass (Octavia 6 string fanned fretless bass). Truly a work of art. Incredible tone.

If you have a custom bass or guitar design in your head, something that you can't find anywhere because It's your own design, chances are that Halo Guitars can build it for you ! I provided a drawing of my idea (including a scale refence on it), and the final result is 100% accurate to my original design. I wanted every detail to be exactly the same without any changes made to my design (these details are very important and means a lot to me).
I’m very happy with my custom made 6-string fretless bass, It’s really amazing ! Since the whole process takes a lot of time, we need to receive a few order status in the wainting period.

Thank you so much for your hard work. It really does show. I absolutely love the bass. I am very very very happy with the results. The time put into this bass really shows. Your dedication and hard work really shows and I am absolutely amazed by the craftsmanship and detail but into this bass. Thank you again so much"

When I was first looking at company’s that offer custom basses, they all seemed overly complicated and hard to contact. Halo not only was easy to email and communicate with, but the instrument design tool on the website is completely awesome and really allowed me to see all of the amazing options they had. I got my bass about a week ago, and it is exactly how I imagined it. It looks amazing and sounds great. If I ever ordered another custom instrument then I would definitely go with halo, and would also suggest them to anyone looking for a custom bass/guitar. Halo is a great company, and my bass was definitely a dream come true.

(Custom Covenant 4-R-Bass) I just wanted to say thank you, my bass sounds great, (warm, fat sound, I was looking for). You guys were a pleasure to work and do business with. You did everything you promised. Again it was a pleasure doing business with a company that deals from the top of the deck. I wish Halo Guitars nothing but the best in the future. Enjoy, Guy

Ordered a Tele bass. It's awesome and is as cool as I imagined. Shorter lead times could be an improvement.

Got a Custom 4-String Fretless Bass-Guitar. The service is exemplary, the correspondence was prompt, friendly and always helpful. My instrument is built perfectly and sounds absolutely amazing. Even the manufacturing process was astoundingly fast. I couldn´t imagine a better company for building your dream instrument, that´s for sure! I had a wonderful experience, hence there´s no need for any improvement as far as I´m concerned. Thank you very much, it was a pleasure!

Ordered a Custom made replacement bass body. Overall, the Halo Guitars team did a very good job! The replacement bass body is well done, very lightweight (for a swamp ash body) and 100% accurate (I provided a picture showing the dimensions and specifications). The only thing that I could have said is the waiting time period that was a little bit too long. While it has been a while coming, it is well worth the wait. A big thanks to the Halo Guitars customer service which has been keeping me informed when it was needed!

At the end of the day, Halo guitars love guitars and try their best to deliver customized guitars.
There are a few takeaways that new customers should be aware of:
1) They're not experienced with creating graphics. After already being charged, It took me 2 months to nail down a design and I had to do most of the design legwork.
2) They will be late with the delivery. They're a small shop and almost never turn down orders. They will make mistakes. My order was delayed 3 months even after periodically (3 months gap) checking in. I was given the same excuse multiple times 'letting the guitar adjust for a week' and ultimately they told me they forgot.

Although Halo does have these drawbacks, I would still order from them again. The guitar plays great and I have a more realistic insight on what to expect when dealing with Halo.

HALO ADMIN RESPONSE: Thank you for your feedback as it will help us improve.

1) Regarding graphics, as of February of this year (2018), we switched over to a new substrate and process for applying custom graphics to all our instruments. The result is the final product is even better than before because it conforms to more contours, can be applied over top transparent finishes, cuts cleaner, adheres better, and is significantly thinner overall. We experimented successfully with several guitars last year using this new process so it is now our standard process for all guitars ordered with custom graphics moving forward.

2) We are a small shop indeed. Last year, we brought in a new Production Manager to improve processes and implement changes so we could build better guitars faster and on schedule. We are just now starting to see the results of the changes and we're doing much better in this area.

Thank you again

- Jeff Lee, Halo Custom Guitars
P.S. please contact me if you place another order and I'll be glad to apply a discount

The guitar is absolutely beautiful, the craftsmanship is second to none. The instrument was well worth the wait. I'll be a customer for life! Several setbacks outside of Halo guitars control led to a long build time. Not a big deal given the overall complexities of crafting a completely custom instrument. Upfront communication and updates from the company would have been nice. That being said, Jeff was prompt in responding and was always helpful.

Very happy with the bass I received. It took approximately 11 months to receive but given the price and that they are fully custom instruments, it doesn't bother me at all. My only constructive criticism would be for more realistic build time estimates; though I do understand not everything always goes as planned. All in all, I would recommend to a friend and I'll definitely come back for my next custom.

7 string basses would be awesome. More colours, bursts, shapes, inlays and woods would be very cool too, along with more fret count options, including 26, 30, etc. Image is a Warwick Streamer LX #16-3141

Was searching for a bass custom shop on google. I ordered a bass and I love it! Halo can improve by giving a little more info during the build on the instrument.