NBD: Greg Barcus Custom 6-string fretless

[tauzero]

Tempted by a 6-string fretless on the Gardiner Holgate, I put in a low bid (below the lowest estimate) and won it. Went down to their auction house today to pick it up, and also picked up a guitar that one of my guitarists had bought - saved him a 5 hour round trip which would have been difficult as he works in the week, so it was just me with a 5 hour round trip (a different 5 hour round trip to his). Anyroadup, it came in a rather nice Gator case (£150 quid).

 

Description for the auction: 2018 Greg Barcus Custom six string fretless bass guitar, made in USA; Body: chambered mahogany body with figured maple top and figured myrtle back; Neck: seven-ply maple and bubinga neck through; Fingerboard: ebony; Electric: working, Bartolini quad-coil pickups, John East five knob preamp; Hardware: good; Case: Gator hard case; Overall condition: very good.

 

As some may have noticed from the photos, it's a single cut. I never thought I'd buy one but my tolerance to the looks has increased gradually. It's also got a headstock. Well, there's no such thing as the perfect bass.

 

On taking it out of the case, at first I thought the neck was a bit thick, then I realised it's an asymmetric cut which works really well for me - more perceptibly asymmetric than my Sei Original 5-string. It's lined with faint lines (if it's got to be lined, I far prefer these) and also, admirably, with the dot markers on the fret positions. Action was a bit high for my liking but a small tweak to the twin truss rods and adjustment of the bridge saddles has it nice and low. Strings are roundwounds with colour-coded ball ends - I guess D'Addarios. As I like rounds on fretlesses, they're staying. I'm pretty sure the strap buttons are Schaller, I'll check that with a strap or two tomorrow.

 

I haven't yet plugged it in - the five knob (two of them stacked, two of them push-pull) preamp will provide hours of amusement, and I have to find out the functions of the three switches. This will be tomorrow's fun.

 

The logic behind getting it is that with the originals band, I'm using a fretless as it's the most flexible for me. Currently a 5-string but I'm wondering whether I can push myself into more exploration with a 6-string.

 

 

 

 

[Hellzero]

Very nice, and I like an aesthetically well designed single cut sixer bass (Anthony Jackson fan here).

 

The back is more beautiful than the front and it reminds me of my former JPBasses Lucii aka J-Lo, which is now with @diddywah (just look at his avatar).

 

I guess it must be on the lighter side with a chambered body.

 

Congratulations!

[neil___lien]

I love 6-string single-cut basses! Wish i had one!

[Owen]

Very interesting. I have often thought about putting comedy bids across a bunch of stuff at Gardiner Holgate and seeing what happened. I had not thought it through far enough to realise I could undercut their lowest starting price. That is a proper niche (in a good way for us) instrument for an auction house. But clearly a very nice piece of kit. So you have to roll in to pick stuff up? They will not courier? I suppose not, there is all sorts of packing etc. 

[tauzero]

1 hour ago, Owen said:

Very interesting. I have often thought about putting comedy bids across a bunch of stuff at Gardiner Holgate and seeing what happened. I had not thought it through far enough to realise I could undercut their lowest starting price. That is a proper niche (in a good way for us) instrument for an auction house. But clearly a very nice piece of kit. So you have to roll in to pick stuff up? They will not courier? I suppose not, there is all sorts of packing etc. 

 

The starting bid was lower than the estimate (applies to most if not all GH auction items) - I did see one auction for a very expensive guitar where the auctioneer started at £18k but had to drop that as there were no takers, eventually went for £17k+.

 

They will courier - £55 + VAT for a bass. My time is my own, my diesel I have to pay for, so I saved a few quid by doing that and saved our guitarist £50 + VAT by picking up his Ibanez at the same time.

[Owen]

9 hours ago, tauzero said:

They will courier - £55 + VAT for a bass.

Ruh-roh!

[tauzero]

Finally got round to plugging it in. Total silence. Twiddle the knobs, nothing, then I remember about the mute switch on my John East equipped Sei Jazz and switched the bottom switch - sound! The other two switches are parallel-series-single coil switches for the two pickups. Knobs are volume, blend, stacked treble/bass, stacked mid-sweep and boost/cut, and a pull for passive control that is also the passive treble cut control. A real variety of sounds available, and I may even be tempted to use the passive option on occasion. Despite the close pickup spacing, there's a fair difference between the tones on each of them (rather like the Warwick Thumb 5 with its two closely spaced J pickups). The treble and bass controls give a very powerful boost and cut but it's nicely progressive rather than all or nothing.