Kev

Lovely gesture, hope its gone to someone who needs it! 🙂

Welcome! Swear I've seen your face, what band(s)??

Musicman basically did that, I'd still say Musicman basses are of a higher standard than Fender but still, can see it going that way.

Absolutely Instruments in the Far East in particular are built to a budget and, unlike the West, the quality of the product is almost directly proportionate to the cost in my experience. If the budget set by the big company is high enough, they will be excellent instruments. If not, they won't be. Profit margins are another matter.

Its just the usual mark up for the non-US markets. They all do it, its just the norm now. Its not a Brexit thing though, no different exporting to UK and EU.

Unreal. These are £1,299.

Are you talking about live use, or compression in general? And have you ever recorded music, or been recorded?

Chat to an audio engineer about how he uses compression for bass and mixes in general, and believe me, he will. To say you don't need it as you can control it with your fingers is just as the other member put it really, not accurate.

No experience with a bongo, but I did not find the Stingray Special 18v pre to be especially hot. The 18v is only headroom really, and at extremes of EQ it may be louder. The Neomydium humbucker is more likely responsible for the clout, but nothing the Scarlett shouldn't be able to handle.

Too scared to update yet. Gig on Saturday and session job on Sunday 😂

Given the frankly ludicrous levels used Wal basses have reached, I feel the price will crash in the medium term future. Find one still being sold for £4k ala 5 years ago and that'll be a tidy investment. But I can't see how they can possibly balloon higher or even stay where they are for long, unless he closes up shop for good.

Can't see it?

Swear I've heard that name before, a bit torrent client or something similar?

Just the 3 for me 🇵🇭 RJ JazzCaster 🇬🇧 Alpher Instruments Mako Elite "Blackburl" 🇬🇧 Alpher Instruments Mako Elite Thinline "Blueburl"

Beautiful! Can't wait to see how this turns out!

I made an ugly laugh sound when I read this, what on earth was the rationale?

That's the kind of toilet i'd treat myself to a sit down wee on, lovely stuff! Although I'm not sure my experience of Bongos is a polite sound? Remember them sounding pretty gnarly when digging in!

Turn into? It's literally how the thread began

If everyone had my attitude, Wal basses would still be £3k used and you may have been able to afford

Ah I can see you have to expand the dropdown, or at least on my browser. So, you're added to a waiting list, and they'll contact you when you can order. So my point remains unchanged really. I just can't relate to that level of impatience I suppose! True, but Wal basses today are built in almost the exact same way as they were 30 years ago, which is why it differs so much from value attributed to vintage Fenders and the like. It isn't disputed by any Wal owner that the current build are at least equal to the builds of old, albeit you get the occasional chancer who tries to ask more for one built by Ian Waller, but doesn't really succeed IME. And noble preamps are a whole other discussion

It's just reached this uniquely silly position that anyone taking delivery of their new Wal bass in January will instantly make a sizeable profit if they wanted to sell it on. I just don't really know who is buying them at this price, and what their justification is. Has anyone on here paid £10k+ for a used Wal who can fill us in? Again, the comparison with Fender and investment calls back to value attributed to it being a vintage instrument, which doesn't apply here. There are hundreds more Wals in the world now compared to 10 years ago, whereas there will likely be hundreds less 70s Fenders due to their advancing age.

Is the book closed? I wasn't actually aware of that, didn't see anything on the order form on their website? But if so, its still a patience thing (you missed off the bit about waiting for years on my quote). The point is, if you want a Wal, you can get one, its just a matter of how much time you want to wait. But the end result is getting one, its a certainty. You don't have that with vintage or actually "rare" instruments. I'd totally understand the value of Wals going crazy if they closed the workshop, but they haven't. But if they have closed their book, that may be contributing, but when the real boom happened they were certainly still taking orders.

The primary driving factor behind the value of 70s Fenders is in the name; they are the value they are because of the era they were built in and their age. Take a Wal bass that was built in 2019 and another built in 1989, second hand value now will be very similar, but if anything the 2019 will go for more. The Wal value is nothing to do with its vintage, but with Fender its everything to do with that. I just don't see how they compare at all.