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NBD - Gary Willis GWB205

AL_BASS

AL_BASS

Nov 10, 2015
130
237
Central Valley, California
#1
I took delivery of a gwb205! After taking some time to acclimatize to my environment I opened the package. Wow, first thought is what a nicely designed bass... this from a staunch Fender style passive player. Gary calls it a user interface in one for the videos discussing his design choices and this makes sense to me. Overall, first impressions are positive as the bass plays very nice with the out of box setup and action(may need to tweak as I continue to play with it). I actually like the pre-amp and controls which can easily coax a nice even tone with minimal knob fiddling. The machine head tuning knobs are very well thought out for quick fine tuning. The narrow string spacing with take some getting use to but I see the benefits for nimble maneuverability. I do wish that it shipped with a hard shell case rather than a gig bag.

One thing that strikes me was Gary states his bass design includes a lightweight ash body but it feels a bit on the heavier side. I weighed it on my scale - not sure how accurate it is but the bass came back at 9lbs 15.5 ounces. Do any of you other 205 owners notice it being on the heavy side?

Here is the customary picture:

0CC5D2EB-EEBD-4A46-83A3-ACD34ED58230.jpeg
 
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#2
AL_BASS said:
I took delivery of a gwb205! After taking some time to acclimatize to my environment I opened the package. Wow, first thought is what a nicely designed bass... this from a staunch Fender style passive player. Gary calls it a user interface in one for the videos discussing his design choices and this makes sense to me. Overall, first impressions are positive as the bass plays very nice with the out of box setup and action(may need to tweak as I continue to play with it). I actually like the pre-amp and controls which can easily coax a nice even tone with minimal knob fiddling. The machine head tuning knobs are very well thought out for quick fine tuning. The narrow string spacing with take some getting use to but I see the benefits for nimble maneuverability. I do wish that it shipped with a hard shell case rather than a gig bag.

One thing that strikes me was Gary states his bass design includes a lightweight ash body but it feels a bit on the heavier side. I weighed it on my scale - not sure how accurate it is but the bass came back at 9lbs 15.5 ounces. Do any of you other 205 owners notice it being on the heavy side?

Here is the customary picture:

View attachment 3812697
Click to expand...

I really like those. Does it have an ebony fingerboard?
 
#11
AL_BASS said:
I took delivery of a gwb205! After taking some time to acclimatize to my environment I opened the package. Wow, first thought is what a nicely designed bass... this from a staunch Fender style passive player. Gary calls it a user interface in one for the videos discussing his design choices and this makes sense to me. Overall, first impressions are positive as the bass plays very nice with the out of box setup and action(may need to tweak as I continue to play with it). I actually like the pre-amp and controls which can easily coax a nice even tone with minimal knob fiddling. The machine head tuning knobs are very well thought out for quick fine tuning. The narrow string spacing with take some getting use to but I see the benefits for nimble maneuverability. I do wish that it shipped with a hard shell case rather than a gig bag.

One thing that strikes me was Gary states his bass design includes a lightweight ash body but it feels a bit on the heavier side. I weighed it on my scale - not sure how accurate it is but the bass came back at 9lbs 15.5 ounces. Do any of you other 205 owners notice it being on the heavy side?

Here is the customary picture:

View attachment 3812697
Click to expand...
Congrats! Beautiful bass!

I have the older one, and mine is 7lbs 4oz. I've adjusted the ramp and the pickup so that they exactly follow the fingerboard. I also removed the finish from the fingerboard, shielded the cavity (the stock shielding was ok, but I had a really nasty playing situation just before the pandemic where something was causing an audible buzz - now taken care of).

A71F3BB4-8138-4D25-A587-7686E842CF3B.JPG
 
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#12
Koshchei said:
Congrats! Beautiful bass!

I have the older one, and mine is 7lbs 4oz. I've adjusted the ramp and the pickup so that they exactly follow the fingerboard. I also removed the finish from the fingerboard, shielded the cavity (the stock shielding was ok, but I had a really nasty playing situation just before the pandemic where something was causing an audible buzz - now taken care of).

View attachment 3864841
Click to expand...
Nice! Thanks for sharing great info. Do you ever think about owning the gwb1005 or are you content with your model. I think about it from time to time but the cost is so great in comparison.
 
#15
Lackey said:
Those Willis models are fantastic. Strings are a bit tight spaced for me but I'm still a huge fan.
Click to expand...

That's me with most Ibanez basses. 16.5mm or 17mm is too narrow for me to be comfortable on; I'm firmly in the 19mm camp. If I had the money I'd love to grab the Thundercat signature, or one of the ebony fingerboard GWBs if only they had the TCB's wider spacing. Everything else about them is just wonderful.
 
#16
Eli Brockway said:
That's me with most Ibanez basses. 16.5mm or 17mm is too narrow for me to be comfortable on; I'm firmly in the 19mm camp. If I had the money I'd love to grab the Thundercat signature, or one of the ebony fingerboard GWBs if only they had the TCB's wider spacing. Everything else about them is just wonderful.
Click to expand...
Who knows? Maybe Adam Nitti will come out with a fretless, then there will be wide spacing.
 
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#17
Dr. Cheese said:
Who knows? Maybe Adam Nitti will come out with a fretless, then there will be wide spacing.
Click to expand...

[insert vague, pointless ranting about 18mm spacing still being too small here]

Jokes aside, that would definitely be nice, other than how much it'd set me back in the funding department. At this point I'd be better of sticking with my Precision and finding an Ampeg rig to use with it! Afterall, there's no kill like overkill, especially with a little bar room jazz gig, right?
 
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