Meridian Horizon 5 Fretless
*We took this bass to the 2026 Guitar & Bass show in Birmingham, see our Instagram page for more on this*
The Meridian Horizon is a beautiful and originally designed and conceived bass guitar, entirely hand made by master luthier Davide Cardone in Avezzano, Italy.
This Meridian Horizon 5 fretless is a truly beautiful instrument on every level. As fretless basses go, this is one of the most versatile out there and will give many different tonal options from those favourite 80’s pop lines right through to warm mellow jazz whilst also being a real head turner!
This bass features a beautifully flamed Curly Mango top over a Bahia Walnut body and a lovely figured fingerboard made from ‘Secret Wood’, (more on that later). All in all the woods selected for this bass make a really beautiful combination. As with all Meridian basses, this is a unique one off top quality hand built instrument with craftsmanship of the highest possible order and is something to behold in terms of finish, appearance and style, a real one off. In fact, every Meridian bass stands out on its own in terms of looks and design and this one as you can see, is very much no exception.
The Meridian Scarab dual coil pickup is truly exceptional, it delivers a warm and detailed tone and is a perfect pickup for a fretless bass with various selectable options. In terms of style and for a single cut design, the Meridian Horizon has to be one of the most pleasing on the eye that we have seen, not only from Meridian, but anywhere! With it’s subtle curves and understated lines and top bout, it has the ability to impress even the most traditional of bass guitar lovers.
The different tone options on offer are mind boggling and with the ability to switch the superb Scarab pickup into a series/parrallel/single coil state, gives you access to pretty much any kind of tone combination you might want, allowing for a truly versatile instrument, either on stage or in the studio, where is really does shine with it’s incredibly quiet John East active/passive electronics offering many further tone shaping options.
The neck has a lovely slim to medium profile with a super fast action and the action itself based on the superb hand crafted nature of the instrument, can be set to however you want with precise minute perfection for the most discerning of players. Every part of the bass can be setup to be exactly how you wish. The bass is shipped with the superb Dogal Carbon Steel round wound strings for great feel, tone and a full range of right out of the blocks.
This bass is now sold. Please contact us for more details of incoming Meridians.
*NOTE: We not a traditional high street guitar shop and viewing of our basses is by appointment only at our studio or demo facilities located very close to the A1 in Bedfordshire. If you would like a private viewing and demo of this bass, please contact us to arrange.
Please have a look at the video below by Meridian player, Andrea Balasso for an idea of what a Horizon 5 Fretless sounds like.
