Chris Larkin Reacter 5B Fretless Spalted Maple

Handmade bass by the great late Irish luthier Chris Larkin.

We worked with Chris for about 20 years and we've been lucky enough to sell an important number of instruments made by him. He really was one of the best luthiers we've ever worked with and he was also a good friend. His instruments are really sought after these days so for us it is very special when we get one of his instruments. It's a rare ocassion and we treasure these instruments a lot. Now you can own one of them too.

The Reacter model was Chris' most succesful bass design ever. It has a small and comfortable body shape with unlimited access to the end of the fingerboard. The neck is really comfortable and the long scale (35") ensures a Low B that's string and clear.

The body is made from lightweight mahogany and the neck is really soild as it is made from 3 different pieces of wood: mahogany, flamed maple and mahogany again.

The fingerboard is made from ebony so it is perfect for fretless. Lines and dots make it very easy to play in tune.

The bridge is a Schaller 2000 model made in Germany and it can be tweaked in any possible way. Tuners are are also Schaller and these are just the finest in the maket

Pickups are handmade in the U.K. by Kent Armstrong who makes the pickups for Ken Smith basses and many more high end builders. These are really open sounding humbuckers with zero noise and the clarity of Single Coils. Really wide palette of tones here. The bridge pickup alone produces that beautiful singing and vocal-like sound that's excellent for all sorts of lines and solos. The neck pickup sounds beefier but with an added detail to it, really clean and clear. And when you blend both pickups you get a perfect all round bass sound that can actually sound like a fretted bass if you don't use glissandos or slurs in your playing. Pretty amazing.

We really dig the EBS 2 band circuit. You get 2 excellent Bass and Treble but there's an added asset: a two way switch that acts when you act on the Treble pot. In position one it doesn't do anything, but in position 2 it boosts the low mids when you cut the Treble, giving that instant Jaco sound. And when you boost the Treble it cuts the Hi mids for that cool scooped modern sound. Really smart. Incredibly easy to use and very musical.

This is of course a used bass but it is in really good condition. We have installed fresh strings and have set the bass up for perfect playability with no issues. It really plays and sounds just great.

Hardcase included.