Ramp loading using graded-density-impactors as flyers in gas-gun-driven plate impact experiments can yield new and useful information about the equation of state and the strength properties of the loaded material. Selective Laser Melting, an additive manufacture technique, was used to manufacture a graded density flyer, termed the «bed of nails» (BON). A 2 mm thick × 100 mm diameter solid disc of stainless steel formed a base for an array of tapered spikes of length 6 mm and spaced 1 mm apart. The two experiments to test the concept were performed at impact velocities of 900 m/s and 1100 m/s using the 100 mm gas gun at the Institute of Shock Physics at Imperial College, London. In each experiment a BON flyer was impacted onto a copper buffer plate which helped to smooth out perturbations in the wave profile. The ramp delivered to the copper buffer was in turn transmitted to three tantalum targets of thicknesses 3, 5 and 7 mm, which were mounted in contact with the back face of the copper. Heterodyne velocimetry was used to measure the velocity-time history, at the back faces of the tantalum discs. The wave profiles display a smooth increase in velocity over a period of ∼2.5 us, with no indication of a shock jump. The measured profiles have been analysed to generate a stress strain curve for tantalum. The results have been compared with the predictions of the Sandia National Laboratories hydrocode, CTH. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.