De Gier Soulmate Classic 5 Burgundy Mist Relic

Soulmate Classic 5 Burgundy Mist Relic

Sander de Gier has been building instruments in his workshop in Heinenoord, just south of Rotterdam, since 1996. The Soulmate is his take on the split-coil bass, and the Classic is the version for people who want the old recipe left alone: thin nitro, small frets, a steel bridge with threaded saddles and a neck with some real wood in the hand. In his own words, compared with the standard Soulmate the Classic has more of that authentic P growl.

This is the Soulmate five-string in Burgundy Mist, one of the great sixties custom colours. It’s a dusty metallic that sits somewhere between rose and plum depending on the light, and here it carries on up onto the headstock. A deep red tortoiseshell guard and a dark rosewood board finish the picture. The relic work is on the gentle side, so it looks like a well-kept old bass rather than one that has been dragged behind the van.

Body, Neck & Woods

The body is alder, which is what you want under a split-coil pickup. It gives a firm, punchy low end, a midrange that sits forward enough to be heard in a loud band, and a top that stays open without getting glassy. Alder doesn’t push a strong character of its own, so the pickup and the neck get to decide what the bass sounds like.

The finish is thin nitrocellulose, aged by hand. De Gier’s relic work is mild as standard, and on this one it is mostly a matter of softened gloss, a little wear around the edges and hardware dulled down to match. A thin finish like this lets the body resonate more freely than a thick poly coat, and the bass feels played in from the first day.

The neck is hard maple, bolted on, with a warm amber tint and a C profile that De Gier himself describes as the fatter but comfortable one. There is enough shoulder to give your thumb something to lean on, which pays off in sustain and in how solid the low B feels. The rosewood fingerboard has dot inlays and a 7.5″ to 12″ compound radius: round and vintage-feeling by the nut, flatter as you move up so the upper register plays cleanly.

There are 20 frets in small, vintage-size wire on a 34″ scale. Low, narrow frets put more of your fingertip on the wood and less on metal, and that gives a woodier, more immediate note. It’s one of the details that makes a Classic sound old rather than just look old.

Electronics, Sound & Feel

The pickup is a Lindy Fralin split-coil, hand-wound in Richmond, Virginia, in a five-string layout. Fralin’s version of this pickup is known for keeping the thick low mids and the bark of a good old one while staying clear enough that notes don’t blur together. On a five-string that clarity matters. The low B comes out with the same weight and definition as the E string, so you can play down there without changing your touch.

The circuit is Volume and Tone, passive, straight to the jack. No battery and no preamp. With the tone wide open you get the growl and the click of the attack. Roll it back halfway and you’re in warm, round soul territory, and all the way off gives you the thump that works so well with flatwounds and a bit of palm muting. Because there is nothing else in the signal path, the bass follows your right hand very closely. Play soft and it’s gentle, dig in and it barks.

The hardware follows the same thinking. De Gier’s own steel bridge with threaded saddles keeps the note focused and the sustain even, and the Res-o-lite tuners take weight off the headstock so the five-string neck stays where you put it on the strap. Everything is aged to match the finish.

We think this is a bass for the player who loves the sound of an old split-coil four-string and needs the extra low notes without giving any of that up. Soul, Motown, roots, rock, singer-songwriter work, pit gigs where one sound has to carry the whole night. It comes in the De Gier leather gig bag, and in this exact spec, with Burgundy Mist, matching headstock, tortoise guard and Fralin pickup, it’s the only one we have.