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Took possession of this lovely a couple of hours back 🤩 Built for me by the extremely talented, and local, Mark Provan of Bonnywood Guitars in a remarkably short space of time. Link to the build diary is below.

I’ve been reading this tread for quite a while now and it’s really interesting! Fantastic analysis of the preamp too! I'm building a copy of a MK1 too at the moment, i own 3 Wal's (MK1 fretted, MK1 fretless and a ProIIe fretted). As a Wal addict i've always wondered if I was able to build one with the same quality... This one will be strung BEAD. I'm gonna use a lusithand double NFP special preamp with Turner Multicoil PU's, i'm gonna add a Jensen Jt-db-e transformer fot the balanced output. An ABM 3704 MKII bridge. I just had aluminum knobs lathed and black anodized, and made a copy of the wal output (Neutrik chassis with switchcraft jack). Mahogany body with ebony facings.. Still a lot of work ahead! I will soon start a new thread with my build diary.

I talk a pretty good game and probably come off like I'm trying to be a big shot. And things are going pretty good for our band Maple Road and our acoustic offering " She's Right I'm Left" Me; "Proper stages, lighting rigs, and competent sound guys have become increasingly important to me in my advanced years. Lol" We played anacoustic gig tonight a In Delafield at The Befre. Good gig however the accommodations smacked me back into reality. Lol Daryl

So I popped down to Bass Bros yesterday and came away with a 79 Fender P bass. It's a bit of a mutt, with a non-original scratchplate and a nice Lindy Fralin pickup. In addition, I've swapped out the bridge for an old Badass 2 and put on heavier gauge strings. As you can see, it has been stripped, but thankfully they did a much better job than I did when I stripped a 77 P bass years ago! It plays nicely, but I think that it could do with a touch more relief in the neck, which I hate doing myself on old Fenders so it might be going to a tech for a pro setup as soon as I get a chance. Not exactly one for the purists, but it has the feel and vibe of an old Fender, sounds great and as a bonus is reasonably light compared to my old 78 Precision.

I hoped he'd be selling his 'And Justice For All' bass.... but it doesn't exist..... I'll get me coat..... 🤦‍♂️😉🤣

Just a follow up from this gig and on the subject of fees etc, Speakeasy have re-booked us for 2 dates next year with an increased fee with the comment that they're happy to pay more as we're 'well worth it" Makes all the rehearsals and late night load-outs worth the effort when venue owners say things like that and back it up with their own cash.

Another Ashdown. ABM this time. I have been having trouble with a couple basses not sounding full with with my Ampeg tube heads. I always liked the warmth of Ashdown (had a MAG years ago I took on trade then sold). Used a RM-300 evo ii I bought used and that really helped. Was offered a great deal on an ABM EVO III and jumped on it. I've only had it a few weeks, but I love it. Big, warm and punchy. High praise from me since I strongly dislike virtually all SS heads, which seem to sound two dimensional. Ashdown has the only hybrid amp I've even used that isn't just a gimmick. I used the ABM with the '55 Pbass (w/SIT Power Wounds) last evening via Ampeg Heritage 410. It was to the fantastic level. The '55 never sounded so good. I'm still learning what to adjust on the head, but after a couple songs, I had it about where I left it the rest of the night. I can't emphasize how much an improvement it was for that bass. I was super impressed and wasn't expecting anything like that kind of amazing tone. So far I have only used the ABM with the two basses that were troublesome, so I'm really curious how something like my '64 Thunderbird will sound with it. I'm not sure how it can be improved upon since it didn't need any "fixing," but who knows. Maybe even it can sound even "more betterer!"

Orange TB Mk 1 in custom sleeve, made by @2x18, on top of OBC112cab.

I know exactly what you mean, but the exercise is good for them and they'll all sleep really well tonight

Catching up on some Glastonbury sets on iPlayer and spotted Fat White Family’s bass player on a black BB414

I plan to make a series of recordings to show some of the features of the wal circuitry. Zobel filters play an important role in forming the frequency response, and my friends' opinions differ greatly - it's almost 50/50 for and against their use. However, I believe that they have found application due to the protruding lower midrange, since the wal pickups are located along the string, and this will inevitably lead to amplification in the lower frequency range. In addition, there are at least 2 nodes in the circuit that introduce distortion, and I think it would also be very nice to show how each block works separately. I hope that today I will be able to make simple sound examples!

Are you new here? 😀

Nice Kazoo!

Think it has a BA-TER-RY in the preamp now.

Oh, you've played Henley Regatta then ? 😎

Without weighing in with an opinion one way of the other, with all the times that this subject arises, does anyone actually change their mind? My guessing is no. What we inevitably end up with is pantomime, “Oh, yes it does!” “Oh, no it doesn’t!” In addition, it creates some bad feeling. Maybe we should have a no politics, no religion, no tonewood ruling. 🤔

Luxury. Sometimes it's the lower corner of a boggy field. ...

Hi Dave, I was sort of laughing at myself. Here I am going on and on about playing gigs with cool stages, lights and sound. That's what I mean by accommodations. Last night the venue provided us with a small plot of gravel to play on. Lol The gig was in Delafield a very upscale town . Tips were very good last night. We normally have no more than a 30 minute commute one way to gigs. Jenny & Dave usually pick me up in the van ( they don't trust me driving lol). I rarely drive to gigs. Daryl

Thought I'd test the theory using Bing's AI bollocks image generator. The prompt I used was the ad title, plus 'fretless' as that seemed important, even though the seller didn't appear to think so. So - Warmoth Short Scale Fretless Bass Neck with a Blue Headstock. This was the closest to the prompt - and honestly, the more you look at it, the better it gets.

Thanks. Personally, I could never justify dropping more than a couple of grand on a Fender (this one was a bit less than that), but I still like the feel and sound of old Precisions. I've never had a Fender that I haven't modded myself (one exception - a 2015 Am Std Jazz in sunburst that I currently use for a Led Zep tribute and probably won't keep once that band finishes), so I've been keeping an eye out for a non all original 70s P bass that isn't too expensive. Hopefully when I get this set up properly, it should be a nice bass and get a fair bit of use.

I don't know about the rest of the Basschat massive, but I'm loving this thread. A lot of the electronics talk goes straight over my head but its great to see the technical knowledge we have here. To me, this reverse engineering of the Wal sound is like watching chef's reverse engineering the KFC blend of 11 herbs and spices. Fascinating stuff, keep up the good work! 😎

Absolutely fine with me, it’s a useful and relevant part of the overall investigation into Wals.

I hope these instruments do not become Floatsam and Jetsam

One of the benefits of these cabs ( I have the Monaco ) is the dispersion of sound and how well you can hear the cab even though it’s a smaller cab Very impressive cabs

This is the next one for us, on Sunday 4th August. https://www.wickhamfestival.co.uk/artist/fine-lines/

Great band! Loved the BBC documentary....👍 They were a lot hairier in the 70's though.... Sorry, couldn't resist.....

Jason Newsted To Part With 60+ Guitars in Official | Reverb News https://reverb.com/news/jason-newsted-artist-shop-preview?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=linkinbio-jasonnewsted&utm_content=bass He's got a load of rare Alembics. I'll never afford one but I can't wait to see them all photographed for the sale.

Somewhat delayed report of four gigs over the last 10 days. First was with the covers band Bandwidth (not my idea) at Blakeney Harbour Rooms beer festival. It wasn’t actually raining when we set up, so they had us playing outside under a gazebo in the beer garden. The venue hired a very good sound engineer with excellent kit, so my LFSys Monza and Blackstar U700 were more than I needed. I could have used a preamp direct into the desk and I am sure Mark would have made it sound fantastic. Unfortunately, the weather intervened. It was pretty cold (around 14C) when we started and about half way through our 2 hour set, it started to rain. We decided to play through without a break. Most of the tables were occupied when we started but by the end our audience had dwindled to about 6 stoic individuals huddled together. I later learnt that this group included the ex-British High Commissioner to Nigeria, the former Financial Times Nigeria Correspondent and the former President of the Nigeria/Britain Association. Blakeney is that kind of place where the great and good retire. Gig number two was at the Necton festival with Checkmate Kings blues band at the Necton Festival. It had been lashing down that Saturday but about an hour before were due to go on (early evening) it stopped a the Sun came out. The stage was a trailer but they had an amazing sound system with two very competent sound engineers. I had come prepared to make enough noise to be heard, which turned out to be completely unnecessary because of the amazing PA. I had my BF Two10, plus LFSys Monza stacked under a Blackstar U700, which can handle the 2.7 ohm load. We just had a one hour slot but the crowd had grown due to the sun and were appreciative. The backstage organisation was great as well, somehow turning the bands round in 15 minutes! The money was pretty generous by local standards as well. All in all an excellent gig. Gig three was playing in the “house band” for a blues jam organised as part of the Dereham Blues Festival. I brought along the LFSys Monza and a Mark Bass LM III. Another great combination and easily able to fill the pub with bass, without having to go much above 10 o’clock on the master. It was interesting to hear the rig from the audience side during the general jam, when the house band weren’t playing. It sounded great with a number of different basses: P bass, Mustang P/J and a Jazz. We had quite a few participants and plenty of punters. Everybody seemed to enjoy themselves and there was some excellent playing. One or two oddities but overall a great night. Shame about the cricket on the massive TV behind the band! That’s pubs for you! This brings me to gig four at the Dereham Blues Festival with Checkmate Kings. This is our third year playing at the festival and we were delighted to be given a prime slot: 9-11pm at the Kings Head on the Friday evening. The Kings Head has a massive beer garden and puts on a real ale tent plus catering during the festival. It is normally packed on the Friday of the festival but this year it lashed down. We asked the manager if we could play inside in their back room three times but they insisted on us playing outside on their fixed outside stage (it is covered). Consequently we ended up playing to about 10 people in the garden and another 20 or so in the pub (which had the garden doors open). Be careful what you wish for! On top of everything else, they have a decibel limit because of local residents complaining about noise: the complainants moved in recently, next to a pub that has been putting on live music since the 60s! We had to turn down a couple of times, so I doubt the folks in the pub could hear us that well. It turned into a paid rehearsal but the last gig for our current vocalist/guitarist. Not the greatest way to go out! No photo of that gig unsurprisingly.

That's nice, but in general we do what the venue asks us (and indeed pays us) to do. Up our way, that's 3 hours. The night often ends up being a game of two halves and we (well, I) talior the set accordingly - somewhat lighter stuff in the first half, getting heavier in the second.

They travel long distances in US so you never know. They probably have one of these i bet. The Maple Road van Dave

Not many are suggesting that there is no difference at all, just that, for solid-bodied instruments, the species of wood has such a tiny difference that it cannot be either heard, nor measured, in the 'real world'. Changing air pressure makes a difference, as does temperature. Does one have to get to quantic level to decide which sounds better..?

Have we reached Godwins law yet?

Why don't you and Mr Balderdash get a room and sort it out together until you love each other again, rather than doing it here?

I'll take technique and experience over just about any tech/materials, all day long. For eg, when I started playing P basses 45 years ago I couldnt get them to work at all... mushy, boomy, indestinct..I couldn't make it work. I play a VM P bass now with its stock PU and I can make it punch and grind like crazy. Technique/experience.

Great work Stas! This is the best, properly measured, analysis of the Wal preamp I have seen shared online, well done!!

Yeah, injured his shoulder really badly, when he instinctively tried to catch his falling old original Ampeg VST head at a gig, which left him invalid for a while, and ultimately caused him becoming addicted to painkillers, an addiction he later got out of, and unable to gig on a more serious level again, why he started painting instead as a creative outlet. Moral: If your just about 1 Ton heavy old tube head falls from the top of an 8x10 "fridge" cabinet don't try to catch it, least of all in one arm.

The low slew rate of the op amp will realize the roll-off at high frequencies, but it will not give you the desired sound color. For the sake of experiment, you can put a capacitor in the feedback circuit of the output op amp, and I doubt that you will get wal.

Wembley Stadium played. Drops mic. Leaves room 😎

I think they were named after an old novel: Fanny Hill. This track is just fantastic:

Urm, just cut them to the desired length and always pre-drill before screwing in anything. 😉