DISC Ibanez GWB1005 Gary Willis 5-String Fretless Bass

Full Description

Ibanez & Gary Willis

Ibanez and Gary Willis have been collaborating since 1999, when Ibanez first introduced Gary’s signature bass which had been in development for over 2 years. This first bass offered players an instrument built to Willis' exact specs, letting bassists achieve that classic ''Willis sound''. Each consecutive model built upon the last, providing small upgrades to deliver a truly innovative performance.

Swamp Ash Body

The Ibanez GWB1005 bass features a lightweight swamp ash body, offering excellent comfort and minimising the strain on your shoulders during long performances. The swamp ash tonewood provides a sweet, airy twang, with plenty of resonance and openess for singing chords and powerful punching notes. Its firm lows, pleasing highs, and slightly scooped midrange suits a range of playing styles, but favours the harsh strikes of metal players.

Maple Neck & Rosewood Fingerboard

As well as a lightweight body, the GWB1005 Signature is also equipped with a maple neck and an ebony fingerboard, offering an incredibly stable and smooth performance. The maple tonewood provides the overall tone with a beautifully bright characteristic, creating a sizzling high-end with plenty of punch. The rosewood tonewood provides a very responsive bright, snappy attack, along with a smooth sustain and an open midrange.

Fretless Design

This Signature Ibanez’s fretless design provides a unique tone that fretted versions can’t achieve. By removing the frets, the strings can vibrate more freely and interact directly with the ebony fingerboard. This setup also offers players a naturally smooth slide and a double-bass style vibrato and microtonal intonations. While the fretless bass is used mainly in jazz and funk since it offers a similar feel and tone as an acoustic double bass, it can work well in a wide variety of musical styles.

Curved Bartolini GWB Pickup

Designed in collaboration between Ibanez, Bartolini, and Gary Willis, this custom pickup is designed especially for Gary’s signature bass to accommodate his innovative playing style. Its curved designed features separate coil, offering the ultimate precision and string balance for a truly stunning performance. Its deep, articulate sound lends itself to many musical genres, offering a versatile performance while enhancing the natural tones of the body and neck.

Bartolini’s NTBT 2-Band EQ & EQ Bypass Switch

Accompanying the custom pickup is Bartolini’s classic NTBT 2-band EQ, with an EQ bypass switch on the volume control to shape and craft the tone of your guitar with maximum control. With controls over the treble and bass, the 2-band EQ lets you to mould every nuance of your sound to find the perfect tone for your playing. The bypass switch flicks between the original and affected tone, letting you experiment and create a range of tonal possibilities.

About Ibanez Basses

Over the past 30 years, Ibanez have always been at the forefront of developing the right tools for players pushing the boundaries of music. For decades, Ibanez designers and luthiers have been the embodiment of this ideology, pushing their skills to the edge of imagination, consistently creating some of the most versatile and unique instruments ever. Ibanez basses have been used on some of modern rock's most poignant albums of recent years. The preferred instruments of many awe-inspiring bass players, amongst them Fieldy from Korn, Paul Gray from Slipknot and Peter Iwers of In Flames, Ibanez Basses continue to be the first stop for learners and professionals alike, no matter what musical genre they exist in.

Specifications

Body & Bridge

• Body: Swamp Ash
• Bridge: Standard (16.5mm String Spacing)
• Construction: Bolt-On
• Finish: Natural Flat

Neck & Fingerboard

• Neck: 3-Piece Maple
• Profile: GWB
• Scale Length: 34’’
• Fingerboard: High Gloss Rosewood
• Radius: 305mm
• Frets: 24 Fretless
• Inlays: Off-Set White Dots w/Fret Markers
• Nut: PPS, Black
• Nut Width: 45mm

Electronics & Hardware

• Bridge Pickup: Bartolini GWB (Passive)
• Controls: Volume (Push/Pull EQ Bypass), Bartolini NTBT 2-Band EQ
• Tuners: Custom
• Hardware: Black
• String Gauges: .045, .065, .085, .105, .135
• Factory Tuning: 1G, 2D, 3A, 4E, 5B
• Case Included: Hardshell