New Gary Willis Signature Bass

http://www.wildwestguitars.com/ibanezhome.htm

They aren't cheap.

 

Willis addresses this, somewhat sheepishly if you ask me, on his website here.

 

i don't ever think I will ever find an ibanez that I would be willing to pay 3K for...maybe I would pay that much for 7 ATKs

 

Sounds like this will be like the previous GWB, but on steroids! These Barts also sound great. I have the 6 string version in my Conklin.

 

I thought it was interesting that they stuck with the Ebonol board even at that price point. Not that I have anything against Ebonol, I really don't have an opinion about it at all - but I sense that people spending that much on an instrument might tend towards wanting ebony. I could be wrong.

 

Sure, ebony is more expensive, but ebonol tends to have a slightly brighter tone and is more durable than ebony. I might have liked to see something like Dymondwood personally.

 

well, at least they have a lefty version for special order... i'd love that bass, but not going to pay that much for it.

 

I've never played one of the GWB models; can anyone tell me if the "ramp" functions as a fingerboard extension? Or is it just there as an enormous thumb rest?

 

No to both. Ramps allow you to have a very fine fingermovement, which can be utilized for speed, ultralight touch, stacato sounds, etc.

 

All I know about the 1005 is that it kept me from buying the 105 as it went out of production right as I was about to pull the trigger. What a shame...

 

This one...



...can be yours for £2499 from the Bass Gallery! What a rip!

 

Who is Gary Willis? Seriously. His website is brutal to navigate.

 

Gary Willis is a bass player out of the University of North Texas who became famous as a part of the jazz fusion group Tribal Tech, with Scott Henderson. He is a very technical player, although also very innovative in my opinion. His fretless tone is pretty identifiable, it's a combination of the classic fretless mwah tone with some growl.

Willis also happens to be vocal as an advocate of certain playing techniques. He uses an atypical right hand approach that employs three fingers versus two.

The Tribal Tech stuff started out as chops-oriented, but arranged, electric jazz fusion and progressed into less composed and more experimental stuff. Willis has released three solo CDs, each less compositional and more experimental than the one before, with the most recent one hard to classify as jazz but rather as electronica heavy on the bass.

He has also recorded as a sideman on a myriad, mostly in the electric jazz scene.

 

Yup, Gary is an amazing fretless player. I borrow a lot of my left and right hand technique from the man. Instead of using a ramp, I use radiused pickups to get a similar effect. Even if you're not into his modern jazz style or fretless, his vids are very valuable for the technique.

 

A few upright players aside ( and their instrument is not really a fretless as we understand it...) he's the best fretless payer I've heard.
But 3k for his signature model ...I don't know.
Well not for me.