In these so-called barless mealies, the bars are simply not seen under the Spread 'overcoat'. It's similar to what we see with blacks. We normally can't see the bars under the Spread on those birds either. It's recessive red. Actually, I shouldn't be so didactic about it not being spread, it MAY be underneath that red color.
Recessive red is epistatic to spread.
Just get a black pigeon. Therefore, any particular black pigeon is either a barless, barred or checked pigeon. By getting a bird already in the pigment series you're working with, you don't have to worry about the sex-linkage of the pigment series. Of course, you can use any spread bird to introduce the mutation to your stud, though you might have to wait for the segregation of the genotype and phenotype you're looking for. But then, that's often part of the fun of breeding.