Thursday 18 November 2010

Gordy Headless Bass. . . . . . .

You don't see many of these - in fact, I had never seen one until this
turned up for sale, a couple of years ago.
I had no idea what it would be like when it arrived - tried to find out
something about it but without any luck - Google "Gordy" and you get
details and images of all the people in the world called "Gordon"!!






So, when it arrived, I had a completely open mind about it, no
preconceptions no reviews, no comparisons. . . . Nothing.
Picked it up, gave it the "once over" and my first thoughts were how
well it was made, real quality and the fretwork is as good as I have ever seen.

The strings on it were VERY light, which at the time was not something I was
used to, as my usual preference is around 40 - 100.
Sat down, had a quick go - unplugged and found it so easy to play - thin
gauge strings encouraged a bit of bending, which is something I never
normally do - smiles all round.

When I did get round to plugging it in, smiles turned into frowns!
Nothing, dead! Bah - either there is something major here or we need a
new battery!
Battery installed, plugged in - WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was certainly a VERY powerful beast! It had a big punch to it, a lot of
depth plenty of brightness and loads of tone.
Put it on a strap, stood up - balanced perfectly and felt very light - just the job!
The strings were getting on a bit, so I ordered some of the same gauge,
having found that I liked the feel of them on that particular bass.
After fitting them, it sounded even better.
In a few words. . . a Cracking Bass!!

As I said, I know very little about it - from what I have found out, Gordy was
Gordon Witham and was originally part of Gordon Smith, who have been
making guitars for many years and are still very active.
I think it's a mid to late 80's and from what little I have found, they were very
expensive at the time - mainly used by pro bass players when in that era,
loads of players went headless.

Since I have had mine, I have only seen one other and the only image I
can find of it, is from the back, in a very tasteful red.



If you ever come across one, it would be well worth a second look
and I'd seriously doubt you would see another one, in the flesh,
for a very long time.

Back next week with something Japanese.

Cheers. :)




5 comments:

Unknown said...

I owned the red one and I took that photo. I have other photos taken from all angles

Unknown said...

The red one was mine and I took that photo. I have other photos from various angles

Flat Eric said...

Mark, Hi. If you got to my latest post you will see contact details.
Would love to hear from you.

Cheers. :)

AR said...

I have a black one of these - bought MANY years ago.

Flat Eric said...

Hi. Would love to see a pic of yours. : )
contact flat eric (all one word) at gmail.com
Cheers. : )