I tried both the 35 and 1005 Mij, I thought both sounded great with more pronounced throaty mid forward perfectly suited for Fretless tone. I really like the 2 knobs simplicity of it all 3 simple functions. What preamp are you thinking to replace it?
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When i played it before it was super smooth. They had a 5 and a 6 in stock, but I’ve got the stingray 5 i got from @PamPurrs and i I’m just plain skeert of the 6 string. I’ve never even picked one up.
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The preamp on the GWB35 is not very good, it’s got a lot of high end hiss if you turn the treble up at all. Many people replace the pickups or just convert it to passive, replacing the opamp SMC with something like a TL062/TL072 is a cheap mod to improve the sound.
There are some other pups/preamp you can swap in, unfortunately you can’t buy the ones from the more expensive model GW basses new without owning those basses. Apparently GW prefers the sound of the bass as a passive but Ibanez wanted it to have a preamp.
this thread has some good info https://www.talkbass.com/threads/gary-willis-sig-bass-black-one.315223/
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Ah, OK, so this pretty much pertains to the GWB35… I have the 205, which has the Bartolini pickups and pre-amp - those sound fine to me 
Good luck with the mod!
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Yes, the 205 and 1005 are really nice, significantly better (and more expensive). I got my GWB35 used locally for a pretty good deal so i don’t care too much, it plays/sounds good enough for me… but if i’d paid full price for it new I probably would have been disappointed. I like the ebonol fingerboard on my older model, it gets really dry here and it requires pretty much no maintenance 
If i was buying a fretless new i think i’d probably go for an Ibanez SRF or SRH, i like the sound of a piezo pup on a fretless bass.
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Welcome Marcus to the small party 
Edit: Day 1 of fretless report:
Sliding - very fun
Scales - 95% accuracy
Shifting - Not so accurate…!
B string - Mind blown but love playing diatonics across another 5th jump
Songs - completely different sounding with pickups, FL, etc; but I can see entirely new ideas to write now
To quote McDonald’s, “I’m lovin’ it”
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Big congrats! Have fun with the new beauty.
Is that a roasted maple neck?, too cool man congrats @wrxloaf I love the warm tone of the Maple fingerboard.
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Yep, that’s Roasted Maple, @Al1885. And it comes standard on most Sires these days. Amazing at their price points, but Sire materials and build QC are off-the-chart great.
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It means almost next to nothing to me because, they are not really available to buy, the right color and model that is, lol. I’ve thinking about one but it’s sold out.
Which one?
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Last I check was the cheapest with roasted maple neck, forgot the color. It’s the V5 or the V5R. The regular color is available but the nice ones are sold out.
Did you try slide harmonics?
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For all you budget minded fretless wanna-bes…
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So i could have saved 550 usd and made several of my basses fretless, while not actually modifying them at all…
Meh, it’ll be ok. When i get the new fretless it’ll need a place to live. That gives me the opportunity to get a new guitar rack.
I’d be interesting to see how the tone plastic works. I have my doubts. Thoughts @Al1885 ?
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I think it would sound fantastic it looks like a hard Lexan and you can see all of the frets. My issue would be the setup. Do you have to make any adjustments? So it’s for any jazz profile neck and from the looks of it, it would probably accommodate short scale too. Cool idea.
Anyways what’s up with the free shipping after $85 or more on a $50 product?
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Ebonol boards are plastic and they sound great I’d say the bigger issue is that the Flatter isn’t fully secured to the neck so it’s probably going to dampen some vibrations but it’s something fun and cheap to play with if you don’t want to commit to buying a fretless bass. Samurai Guitarist did a quick review of the guitar version on his YT channel, he said “I have a fretless guitar and hey, I’d say this gets you 75 - 85 percent of the way there”.
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They are actually a paper in epoxy composite I believe (and I love mine).
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