For some unforgivable reason it's taken us almost two years to get together a review of an Overwater. There are no excuses for that, so 'sorry' and, rather shamefacedly, we'll move onto a look at one of their latest instruments.

Due to a recent re-shuffle in his approach to making guitars and basses, Chris May (the man behind the Overwater name) has slimmed down the range of models he offers, more or less concentrating on a few samples which, hopefully, should be easier to find in good retailers. Bearing in mind that he is based in Haltwhistle, Northumberland, this is probably just as well for any prospective customers based in the South or West, who don't fancy a long journey!

Anyway, down to business. The Overwater bass which we borrowed from Chris bore that distinctive offset body shaping which has been a familiar theme on Overwaters for a long while now. Shapes are, of course, a matter of taste, but the general view around the office was that we found it both extremely comfortable when playing and visually very attractive.

Our sample active was finished in a glowing dense black — not the most common of Overwater's colours as it happens, because the majority of them display their exotic body woods — and quite rightly so too. Much as we liked the black finish, it seems a shame to cover these woods up. The body wood, in this instance, was Brazilian mahogany, but a variety of timbers are employed — figured maple, teak, yew, cherry, walnut — and they're all treated to an attractive see-through tinted finish. Still, our bass was black and it looked fine.

The Overwater is a fairly long scale instrument, but the fit of the body is such that you naturally find your arm coping with the double octave neck. In fact ease of playing is one of the most appealing aspects of Chris's bass, because the straight-through construction with a finely crafted mahogany neck provides you with a heel-less cutaway, so that access right up to the 24th fret is far easier than it is on a good many shorter scale basses.

Construction of the instrument from a woodworking point of view was absolutely flawless, with the rather sharply angled headstock (done to provide the optimum tension on the strings) bearing four enclosed Schaller bass machines. The fingerboard was crafted from Thai rosewood, which is one of the prettier rosewoods, a lighter shade than most commonly used kinds and beautifully fretted with Overwater's unique graduated fretting system. What this provides is a thicker gauge of wire at the headstock end of the neck, gradually getting thinner as it moves towards the body. The idea here is to make high register playing as easy as possible. The frets may be closer together at the top of the neck, but the slimmer fretting up there makes for plenty of room for your fingers — it's a neat idea and one that makes the bass even more of a delight to play. To round off the hardware before getting down to playing impressions, the bridge is that excellent Schaller bass device, heavily chromed, sturdily cast and offering not only micro adjustment for individual string height (ultra-solid saddles with two screws penetrating each, the screws terminating in grooves to lock each string saddle against sideways slippage) but also extremely fine adjustment on string spacing too. This is a major plus point. We've sometimes found an instrument which we've really liked but have ended up being put off by the proximity of the strings to the edge of the fingerboard — with this bridge you have control over that feature, which has to make it one of the world's most advanced and an excellent choice on Overwater's part.

"CONSTRUCTION OF THE INSTRUMENT WAS ABSOLUTELY FLAWLESS"

Any more hardware details? Well, just that the strap buttons are of the security locking type (another sign of the care which has gone into this bass), the nut is bone and, if you don't happen to like rosewood fingerboards, Chris will fix you up with an ebony one. The fingerboards are bound, of course.

On the electronics, the Overwater is an active, but it's one of that latest breed which has, thankfully, dispensed with all the gobbledegook and tomfoolery which makes some actives more like the flight deck of a 747 to handle than a professional instrument for use on stage. Whatever advantages having a multitude of controls may theoretically offer, too much to fiddle with on stage can be a hindrance, not a help. The Overwater uses a simple system to overcome complexity whilst still providing all you could ask for by way of controllability.

You're provided with three pre-set adjusters within the back cavity of the bass, which allow you to choose the overall operating levels of the instrument. These can be altered as and when you choose (all you have to do is take off the back plate) and they govern pre-amp gain (each pickup being individually alterable for output level), frequency range (effectively a sweep setting) and an attack filter. Although the bass comes set up for average use, you can tailor its operation precisely to the needs of your own amp, or mixer if you're direct injecting the bass into a mixer.

The controls on the exterior of the Overwater comprise just four rotary pots — the essence of simplicity. The first covers the blend of outputs from each of the two pickups, thus at one extreme position you have the neck pickup on full, at the other you are on the bridge pickup and in the centre you have both on equally. Of course, this system allows you to have an infinitely variable amount of the two pickups blended together, so it's a far better system than the usual flick switch pickup selector.

The lowest of the pots is simply a master volume control (useful, of course) and the other two are each tone controls for the individual pickups. Combined with the variability offered by the internal setting arrangements it's as good a system for providing control over active power as we've seen — much better than most!

To describe playing the Overwater as even a dream come true is an understatement. Obviously individual tastes vary, but this one must surely be one of the fastest long scale necks in production? The neck profile is ultra-slim and the fingerboard just about dead flat — a combination which makes for an alarming burst of speed when you first pick the bass up and try to show off with your Stanley Clarke rip-offs. Unless you've got masochistic tastes (and enjoy instruments with fat and lumpy necks!) then you're bound to find the Overwater's a revelation to handle. Of the British-made basses which we've been looking at lately we'd probably say that this had the slimmest neck of the lot.

That, of course, doesn't make the Overwater better than the others, as what you personally like is down to you — we'd just have to say that this one suited most of our tastes, although we're fully aware that some players might prefer a somewhat chunkier device. If you want a slimmy, though, look no further!

"UNLESS YOU'VE GOT MASOCHISTIC TASTES YOU'RE BOUND TO FIND THE OVERWATER A REVELATION TO HANDLE..."

From a tonal angle the Overwater had us foxed at first. The active circuitry was fine on the neck humbucker but the treble pickup was too hissy (although it certainly delivered some top!). It turned out that this needed a minor (and easily achieved) adjustment to the internal pre-set. No problem. The bass delivers a superb wooden sound, rich with all the harmonic content that you get with long scale basses and running from a very usable high treble down to a low roundness which sounded fantastic through our test Marshall bass amp. Whether this is down to the extra scale, the pickups, the circuitry or the wood we wouldn't like to say, but the Overwater seemed to us to be a particularly fine sounding bass.

From a stylistic point of view, and having a tone which would also suit, we'd say that this is really a fine Rock player's bass. No doubt it could suit a twangy, funky style too, but it looks like a rocker's bass and has a sound which could power along the most dynamic heavy band.

It's hard to predict the life-span of any instrument but one or two details about the way Chris makes his Overwaters do hint that he means it when he offers a lifetime guarantee to the original owner. The whole bass, for example, is crafted from one piece of wood, the neck being formed from two pieces of the original, with the grain set opposing, to prevent twists. The Overwater is a superlative professional instrument. It doesn't pander to fashion and should be the sort of bass that, once you owned one, you'd be most unlikely to be seduced away from onto anything else.

Obviously, not many players can afford to walk out and spend this much money on a bass, but this is certainly an instrument that you should know about because it's the sort of bass that suits a player who's struggled and saved to afford the world's finest and wants to choose from the best. If you're looking for a new instrument and this is in your price range, then on no account miss giving the Overwater a try. Like any musical instrument it may not suit your style, but to overlook it would be to ignore a bass which is one of the most satisfying instruments we've ever played. We reckon that many of you might well feel the same way too. Value for money? With the care and attention that's gone into it, well, that's beyond doubt.

OVERWATER Active Bass. £650 inc. VAT

Overwater guitars and basses can be obtained in a few of the better retailers, and further details of the standard range (of which this was one) or Chris May's custom instruments can be obtained from him at (Contact Details).