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Nice to hear that you like it, Oliver !
I'm sure it is in loving hands...
I wish you lots of great musical adventures with it and thanks for the cake you brought along (I haven't eaten since then ....)

Thanks a lot ...
Hope you don't mind me using it... I'm recording my fourth solo-cd and I was looking for a plain pulsating drum track to put some stuff on and this worked really well.. It really inspired me (bass drum patterns alter a bit which made it less standard...)

[quote name='jensenmann' post='268331' date='Aug 23 2008, 09:48 AM']Hi
I just found this board while searching for a Wal for sale. Is it still available? I´m very interested since a Wal Midibass is very long on my wishlist.
I´d be glad to hear from you
thanks
Jens[/quote]

It got sold to a German bassplayer after being advertised for a long time on al lot of bass sites... no one seemed to be interested in it.
I got the price back which I paid for it so I didn't want to make any profit also..
Sorry that you didn't get it..

What surprised me a lot is the additional demo on one of the cd-releases...
You hear early tapes of some songs without the production of Quincy Jones and they are really close to the original...I thought that Quincy's influence would be massive but those early demo's just show that Michael Jackson had already a lot of the production and arranging in an early stage..Great album though.

I've been playing bass for the last 26 years and I have owned around 85 basses...
Last year I had around 29 basses and I realised it was just too much...I started selling and now I have 19 basses...Two years I was an ebay-addict and bought a new bass every month (Sadowsky, 7 Wal basses in one year, Status, etc...).
I finally realised that a lot of basses were not used enough and that they deserved to be played.. Now I think I could do with my Fender Marcus Miller, Wal MK I, Lefay Fretless and my Rickenbacker 4001..the others I have are great but I hardly use them (I have a Wal MKII 5 string which I haven't played for more than an hour during the past year, I think that is a shame though)

I saw Steve Swallow live with Carla Bley twice in concert in Brussels...incredible bassplayer and great music to listen to..And what a charisma...

Drums : Stewart Copeland, Steve Gadd, Vinnie Colaiuta, Manu Katché

Guitar : Steve Lukather, Jeff Beck, Mark Knopfler, Larry Carlton

Keyboards : Stevie Wonder (those bass-synths....!)

Horns : Frank Deruytter (Belgian sax-player, I don't like saxophones a lot but he makes me forget that)

[quote name='leftyhook' post='257427' date='Aug 7 2008, 05:47 PM']Hey guys
I posted on a few other places and I have had interest, mostly from a guy in Holland who is stil in contact, but until I'm absolutely sure then I have to keep my options open, though I am a man of honour. If he comes up with a definate plan to pay for and receive my Wal very soon then it is his.

Joe[/quote]


He is already planning his boattrip so I think you will be seeing him real soon...
He is a trustworthy person too so I'm sure there won't be any problem whatsoever...

I saw this bass on the Yahoo Wal-group and I send a link to a left handed bassplayer in Holland...
I heard that he contacted you and that you agreed to sell the bass to him.
It is a bit weird to see the bass here on bass-chat now ?
I hope your deal with him goes through since he is really looking forward to own this instrument...

A couple of months ago I bought a Wal fretless from someone in New Jersey, USA...
While the bass in itself wasn't expensive (1500 Euros), the taxes and the shipping really increased the price... Import duties were around 475 Euros (had to be paid in cash on delivery, they called me a day in advance to inform me about that) and the shipment was around 150 Euros, if I remember well.. So the rather cheap Wal costed me 2125 Euros in the end...
It's still worth the money since it is an amazing bass but I never thought it would be so much in the end...

If your band is hired to play in the garden of a hotel and the manager insists that the band doesn't come anywhere near the swimming pool : before you jump into the water during the gig as a sign of protest..be aware of the fact that jeans suck up the water and that it's not easy to swim the whole length with heavy wet trousers...
Watch out for electric shock when you plug your bass back in after the swim..

I can agree with that point of view and indeed everyone has the right to say what he wants about a certain player even if his status is rated really high...
What I miss in a lot in these comments is an explanation why they don't like it ... I feel that most of them just easily put it down without any justification, it feels disrespectful and arrogant sometimes. It's that bold "pfff" without saying anything and is really impolite..
You might not be a Wooten fan but you certainly can't say that he is not musical or an adventurous musician... Whatever you like his music or not is not important, as long as I get a comment which is a bit longer than "I just can't listen to that crap for more than a minute" or "I think Geddy Lee plays a lot better than Jaco..."
As soon as you point out to someone that his comments are weak and pointless you get the answer "But I've got the right to be like that since it's a free world" Indeed it is but before you write something down think about if it's of any use to someone...
Sorry for my choice of words but it's not that easy in English..

I couldn't have said it any better ...(except in Dutch)

What bothers me sometimes is that through the power of internet I experience bass-players picking on musicians like Berlin, Wooten, etc... with comments like "That playing sucks" "Terrible" "worst playing I've ever seen or heard".
When you do have the opportunity of meeting these anonymous bassplayers with their big opinions about practically everybody and you see how théy play (with sometimes the occasional sloppy octave as their biggest sign of any musical imagination) I sometimes wonder where those people get the nerve to criticize world famous musicians who have worked their asses off to get as good as they are..
I'm not saying that well-known musicians are closer to God but before I post any comment on somebody's playing I think about my personal goals, the commitment of certain musicians, their struggles and achievements.
What certain bassists have accomplished (and that goes for Cliff Burton, McCartney, Mick Karn, Lemmy, etc....) should be slightly considered before one posts any cheap or quick comment imho...

[quote name='Oscar South' post='251760' date='Jul 30 2008, 11:54 PM']Soliloquy is yet to be toppled as the greatest solo bass achievement, and somehow I doubt anyone but Manring himself has the ability to do it.[/quote]

+1 : a unique bass-album, far away from any hype of specific style. Best thing I heard in decades.

As for S M V : I think they will add more and more dates and probably also in the UK..
In the beginning there were a couple of dates in Holland but now also Belgium (Ghent) was added so surely the UK will also be on the list...Enjoy !

[quote name='spiritchaser' post='251837' date='Jul 31 2008, 07:56 AM']Thank you for your encouraging words! Imagine: two days ago I was playing the bass at home and having "asked" our cat whether I should sell it, she came to me and didn't stop cuddling the fretboard ... Strange and also a little eerie come to think of it. So it was actually her that "talked me" into keeping the bass in the end. So, see you tomorrow then! Looking forward to seeing you and your WALs!
Best regards
Oliver[/quote]


See you tomorrow ...I have eight cats by the way !

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='251642' date='Jul 30 2008, 07:58 PM']I think a lot of you are completely missing the point here...

The same as the old saying, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder", no piece of music or soloing can be described as "un-musical." The content of music can be whatever we want it to be, whatever out imaginations can come up with, [b]whereas it's how we interpret & play it that causes it to be musical or otherwise.[/b]

As for limitations... Yes, sometimes we have to sit back a bit & admit that we can't play something. But I tend to think more on the lines of, "I can't play this [b]yet[/b]." Actually not being able to play something is a spur for us to learn a new technique, find out a way of doing it. This is the whole point of being a musician. Not playing the same old boring sh*t for decades, but pushing the boundaries and finding something new and interesting to play.

This is why people like Victor Wooten & Jeff Berlin are so important. They inspire us to be better bass players. Period.

Did anyone noitice Victa's little response on his site? Very subtle & very Wooten.

*Climbs off soapbox*[/quote]

+1 ... well said

At least it is a big advantage when you're able to write down that great bassline you just found instead of having to call your own mobile phone to play it on your voice-mail...
I met Jeff Berlin a couple of years ago after his gig in Belgium, talked to him for awhile and he was a nice guy, not pretentious or anything... He played really well and I have never heard anyone play bass so melodically ànd so fast...He is in a league of his own and he challenges himself everytime..
I heard from the sound-engineer that he was a bit demanding about the hired amp set-up and he wanted to have the cabinets changed during the soundcheck and then back to the same set-up again and so on (4x10 on top, 15 on the floor, back again etc...) but the playing was amazing ànd he is a funny man...

I think that this is a good decision...you'd be sorry sooner or later to have sold this one.
I sold a Wal MKI in the nineties because the neck seemed not to be fast enough for me.
I still regret it, it had nothing to do with the neck but with my own immaturity..
Wish I had it now, it combined beautiful wood with great electronics.. I still have a gig with that Wal on video and I still feel sorry when I watch it (also because I was a lot thinner in those days...).
So stupid that I am still looking to own that sort of Wal while I had it but sold it..
I own five Wals now but none of them has the looks of that particular Wal.

And he just deserves more respect if you think about the tasteful bassplaying Jimmy exposes when he plays with James Taylor..
True musicianship if you can be a master in every situation and every style..Far from the latest hype but just a household name you can depend upon on..
When I watched the Holdsworth video I was thinking how great it is to hear a nice arrangement, excellent musicians, some great chordchanges...
What a cold shower when I turn on the radio and get the feeling like I'm being insulted by cheap marketing tunes far from the spirit of musicality and its sheer power to soothe.

Thanks a lot for this... i used to listen to Holdsworth quite a lot in the eighties, this all brings back memories.
Especially the groove of Metal Fatigue is a killer, what a bassplayer and what a drummer !

Bump for a good colleague of mine...

Funny how as well in the UK as in Belgium the same problems and topics surface...doubts about playing, commitment, covers yes or no...?
It's the same thing everywhere I guess... whatever happened or happens I still play bass.

I just noticed that indeed I have a beard, play fretless and that I like fusion !

[quote name='bremen' post='235026' date='Jul 8 2008, 03:33 PM']I'm sad to hear that, I'd always heard that the mainland European music scene was a bit healthier than ours.

Your English is better than a lot of the native-English speakers I know :-)[/quote]


Thanks ...
It's "easy" to build a bass-career upon the universal repertoire like "I wish", "I'm so excited", "Kiss" etc...but it's a lot harder to get something started that is unique and combines the talents of all the bandmembers.
Sure : everybody around here in Belgium likes Jamiroquai or Earth Wind and Fire, etc...but as soon as you talk about writing songs, rehearsing ("not paid ? you must be out of your mind !") and being creative even the best musicians take the easy way and commit themselves to being background bandmembers doing an ego-less but efficient job. Most of them prefer the quick buck to locking themselves in a rehearsal room without the certainty of success or an impressive tourlist.
I feel like I'm talking to a wall whenever I am enthousiastic about certain records, dvd's to fellow musicians..They only go to other gigs if they can slip backstage to present themselves and start the flattering.
In the alternative scene it's not that much better (a bassplayer told me that it's forbidden to slap in certain bands since it is considered "not cool") and I sometimes dream of ideal situations where I am sitting with my bass next to Joni in Laurel Canyon, hear Ringo practice his drum roll on "Come together" or see Robert Palmer do the programming for "Looking for Clues"..
It is important that there is still something happening and that you might be involved in it, you never know...
Last summer I had around 30 gigs in two months, now I have only 4 because I try to be true to myself (I just resigned in a band because the singer works on a cd with a producer who prefers his own session musicians and I can't believe our singer doesn't stand up for her own musicians). So be it..
I replace in other bands for the moment and I work as a receptionist during the day so I don't have to be worried about my income. One thing remains : the love for music and knowing that it all has been worthwhile..