Ibanez Gary Willis Signature GWB35 Fretless Review

A joy to play, sounds great with the right strings!

My bass-playing friend referred to the neck as being like a Ferrari. I have to agree that this is as much fun to play as a Ferrari is to drive. Don't be put off by the tuners - they are a good design and I wish my fretted bass had them too - they don't get bumped out of tune nearly as easily as other tuners. When I ordered this bass I had the Sweetwater techs do a full setup on… read more it, with string height set to reasonably low but not too low. It's a lot of fun to play but the strings I got with it were my chosen DR Black Beauties (stainless steel not nickel plated), the same ones I use on my fretted bass. For those who don't know, when you have the techs do a setup they do it with the strings you want on it so the tension is consistent between setup and you playing it. Anyway, those DR Black Beauty strings sound great on my fretted bass but I found the sound on this bass to be way too bottom-heavy, as another reviewer noted. I tried a bunch of other strings by other manufacturers but never found the bright, punchy sound I wanted (and had achieved on another Ibanez fretless bass) until I installed a set of stainless steel Elixir Strings 14677 (clear coated) strings. At the moment we are going through a period of post-covid economic recovery and Elixir isn't making the 5-string stainless steel set. So I purchased a single UNcoated stainless steel .125 B string from another mfr. It worked - THAT'S the sound I was looking for! The stainless steel Elixir strings are definitely the way to go in my opinion. Of course, your mileage may vary, but I was considering making electronics changes because the original sound was that bottom heavy. Now I LOVE this bass!! Thanks for all your help, Joel!

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A pleasure to play

The Gwb35 is a enjoyable bass to play I have been playing bass for a long time and enjoy listening to and watching Gary Willis play The GWB 35 when it is set up properly Is a pleasure to play. A very close action at 2/64th and a awesome sound coming from the electronics from the factory The neck is slim and fast and the weight comes in at about 8 pounds is nice on the back with… read more a 4inch strap I love the feel of this instrument an in my opinion is very nice fretless to own

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Great 5 String lined Fretless for the money

What a great bass. I didn't think I'd aclimate to playing 5 string fretless, but this bass is effortless. Great sounding and the neck is fast. I removed the ramp (4 Screws, had no adhesive) and it allows me to dig in better for my style. Love it, Love it, Love it... what a bargain price too.

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Ibanez GWB35

What an outstanding bass this one is. Lightweight, smooth neck, very useful finger ramp, growling tone - what else can I ask for. Gary's tone at such an affordable price. Happiness all over. Huge thanks to my sales engineer Ben Stokes.

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Lafawnduh... it's all in a name

My Son named this bass lafawnduh (Napoleon Dynamite). He got it for his 18th Birthday and he gets a ton of comments on both the looks and the sound. He loves the fast, fast neck of an Ibanez. It's fret-less, but it's hard to tell with the flattened frets on the fret board. Amazing Sound and quality you expect from an Ibanez Bass.

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