wombatboter

Just read this topic and though I'm Belgian it also sounds familiar around here...
For me it's a bit of a different situation but the feeling's the same. I have been fortunate to play with well known bands around here for the last twenty years and have had great times.
Lately I feel that the music scene changed a lot and that everyone is hanging onto what he's got and that the smoothness of making music has disappeared and that making money and playing covers (out of safety reasons) is what it's all about..
That has off course always been important but the true spirit of making music and taking risks is difficult to find anymore. Hidden agenda's, hypocrite behaviour, cheap solutions, fake smiles and superficial friendship is all that I can see..
Because I have trouble with these items I have less gigs and it's hard not to become cynical but I still try to find comfort in the instrument itself. I still love playing bass (because that's what it's all about) and I use the time that I have to get better...is it not for a band or a project than it's just for me since it's only me that I have to challenge and surprise. Maybe times will change again and there'll come another opportunity to meet and play with musicians with the same spirit ? I don't know but nothing can stop me from playing bass. I can improve my fretless, I can work on chords, etc...there is so much to do and I don't need a band to get me going although it's always nice to get a good groove going with fellow musicians..
This is all just a passing fase so I wouldn't sell anything..I think I know the feeling and it always turned out ok in the end (sorry for my English, I try to do my best...) Good luck !

I just like to listen to virtuoso bassplayers since I think that maybe their way of playing might trigger a small idea in my head which makes a bit more sense to me than their virtuoso playing.
If I can colour up my playing a bit by using the information they give me in large doses then that's fine with me..I just steal from everyone and try to incorporate it in the way I play.
The ultimate goal is to have my own style, if that would be possible....but the journey is also very nice.

On his other albums it bothers me from time to time that his name gets mentioned so much..."Hey Vic" "Yeah, it's Vic..." etc...etc... Gives me the impression that he likes to hear his own name really a lot. I didn't like the "I saw God" either..
Although I'm a big fan of his playing I'm not that impressed with his composing (rarely a great tune but he does play a nice riff from time to time and has a good energy and vibe).
When I went to see his show a couple of years ago I got to meet him afterwards and gave him a solo-cd and asked if he would be willing to listen to it and send me a comment even if he didn't like certain things...
He was very eager to have it and put it in his bag and promised me to have a listen and send me an email...
I never heard anything from him.. Ok, so he is a busy man but if you don't have the time you can always say that to the people that hand you over a cd. I was a bit disappointed.
I send him an email about our meeting but all I got was an automatic response.
Still a great bassplayer though who influenced me a lot...

Some time ago (two years ?) a drummer I knew played at this Heavy Rock festival in Roeselare (Belgium).. I could get in for free and since I had nothing to do I went to see different shows mainly with rather heavy rock bands..Squeezed in between was Manfred Mann's Earth Band and since I love at least four songs I was curious how they would manage to keep themselves up in between the rest of the bands..
I was floored by the band from the first minute and it was one of the best concerts I have ever seen in my life.
Great players, excellent songs, a great live sound and the whole hall applauded after every song. It was just such a relief to hear true musicianship and a tight band with great songs that gave you goosebumps... Days and weeks later it made me smile whenever I thought of it... That's what music is for ! Thanks a lot...

Not interested in a trade for a fretted Wal MKI from 1985 ?

There is one thing that I realised and that apparently I sold my Stick far too cheap :-)
I sold mine a couple of months ago for around 550 £ (actually didn't get a lot intrest around here in Belgium and it got sold to someone in Holland)

[quote name='markytbass' post='151924' date='Mar 5 2008, 07:30 PM']+1 for Rhythm Stick I think it's an amazing bass line. I can play the first 2 bars and thats it.

I also like doing slap, although not to well. I'd like to learn Tommy the Cat or The Awakenings by Les Claypool.[/quote]

The Awakening is originally by The Reddings...

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QFv4nq9n9w"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QFv4nq9n9w[/url]

Joe Frazier- Jeff Berlin

I would like to know if the Wal logo has also been repainted ?
I remember a black Wal bass that was for sale in Holland and which had been refinished too.
They did a repaintjob on the headstock but I'm not sure if this is the same bass ?
Thanks for letting me know.

He seems to be very active with these pictures since I saw them even in Canada...
I have a friend who works for a sort of Internet-police thing and he said most of these people are really hard to trace. In most cases the lead just refers to an internet-café.
Recently there was this Wal-scammer on a Dutch site and it was amazing how heartless these people are. I started a long email-conversation with him and pretented to be really interested.
I kept it going for more than a month and told him about my "wife" who would be back from hospital around Xmas and who would be very pleased to see her husband with his favourite bass and that after a long fight against illness it was time to treat myself with a new bass even if it meant spending our last money.
Even this invented story didn't stop the man from telling me lies and asking for the money to be transferred. Meanwhile a friend of mine send him emails too and he told him "you are the only person I'm keeping the bass for..."
Horrible people..

[quote name='walbassist' post='147712' date='Feb 27 2008, 12:31 PM']Mk II 5 strings were often notoriously heavy. How much does that bad boy weigh?[/quote]

I have a Wal MKII 5 ...they are indeed very heavy.

This is a scam.....I lost 1800 euros because of an add with the same pictures. A certain "David Winter" in Aberdeen "sold" me this bass about a year ago but to be honest I was too naieve and too pleased that I had this Wal bass...ànd I had never heard of Western Union before. I learnt my lesson.
I filed a complaint against this scammer but in vain. The address turned out to be a paperfactory. Wish I could get my hands on this person...

A friend of mine asked me a couple of years ago to come along to a gig in a bar somewhere around Liege (Belgium).
It was a small bar and it was the Tony O'Malley band with Pino Palladino on bass, Ian Thomas on drums and Neil Hubbard on guitar (what a line-up !)
It was a great gig and they played the next days in Brussel in a bar and everyday I went to see the show because how many opportunities do you have to see a bass hero in a bar and sit on the first row ?
So I saw four shows in four days and during the last evening the singer said "for those who are interested : tomorrow around noon we are playing in the lobby of our hotel to cover the expenses, anyone who wants to come, you're welcome..."
I wasn't sure if I would go but I went back again to their hotel.. The other shows Pino had used his pink Fender Precision but he came out the elevator with his fretless Musicman this time and the playing was incredible... One of the best shows I ever saw and what he did on fretless was beyond belief.
I sat there in the lobby with a cup of coffee and within armlength the band was playing...Fantastic.
Afterwards I was sitting there floored by their playing and suddenly Pino sits down next to me and says "You must be a bassplayer, I saw your face everytime for the last couple of nights..."
It was a great moment : we talked about bass for the next half hour and he was a really nice person and really modest.. I asked why he played here and he said "Tony is a friend of mine and I'm doing him a favour, tomorrow I'm leaving to play with Jeff Beck"...
Years later Tony moved to Belgium and I was asked to play bass in his band and suddenly I found myself playing the same songs as Pino but surely not as good...

[quote name='TheRinser' post='139346' date='Feb 13 2008, 11:43 AM']I had no idea about that side of John Giblin's playing! I asked him to play some bass and he wouldn't I'd downloaded some of the Simple Minds stuff he'd played on and it just grooved nicely... Downloading that fish album now.[/quote]


John Giblin is one of the best bassplayers I know...The bassline on "Babooska" is a song of its own. Fantastic bassplaying on records by Duncan Browne (The Wild places) John Martin, Peter Gabriel, etc.... Plays it bit more upright for the moment if I 'm not mistaken. Inspired me a lot to pick up a fretless bass. A great musician.

[quote name='SpinalTap' post='138489' date='Feb 11 2008, 10:43 PM']As a previous owner of this bass, I must give it a bump...
It plays great, and is very light for a Wal.
Only a few of these Wal midi basses were made, so get it while you can. The seller is also a standup guy, and great bassplayer
...So don't hesitate. [/quote]

Thanks for the support, Spinal !
I still have doubts if I am going to sell this one :-) Have thought about it for weeks now and still it seems the wrong thing to do.. But it's such a waste to keep a Wal hanging on the wall.

Fender Jazz bass Marcus Miller
Fender Precision
Fender Jazz bass deluxe
Fender Mark King jazz bass
Fender squire
Ken Smith 5 Chuck Rainey
Ken Smith 5 BSR
Ken Smith 4 BSR
Wal Custom shedua
Wal Custom shedua
Wal MK I
Wal MKII midi
Wal 5 MK II
Wal Pro 1
Kubicki Factor Bass
Jaydee Supernatural (white)
Jaydee Supernatural (pink)
Jaydee roadie (brown)
Music Man Stingray (brown)
Music Man Stingray (black)
Music Man Stingray (red)
Yamaha Attitude Billy Sheehan
Yamaha BB300
Yamaha Nathan East
Yamaha 6 -string
Yamaha 1500
Warwick
Shack
Chapman Stick
Chapman Stick
Burns bass
Ibanez blazer
Ibanez Musician 924
Ibanez Roadster
Danelectro
Hofner
Ashbory Guild
Music Man with jazzbass neck
Tanglewood (Hofner copy)
Kaas-jazzbass
Spiderbass
Brown bass
Westone Thunder
Stagg Rickenbacker copy
Fender Jazz bas copy (white)
Fodera Monarch
Status king bass
Alembic Spoiler
Zon Sonus 5
Acoustic twinneck Tennessee 5 en fretless
Twostring bass Xtravaganza
Punkbass Precision Xtravanganza
Purple copy Carl Thompson Xtravanganza
Rickenbacker 4003
Singlecut Bruno Traverso (Italian builder)

Basses constructed bij local bassbuilder Belgrado

Belgrado headless 4
Belgrado double neck (5 and 5 fretless met leds)
Belgrado brown jazz bass
Belgrado headless 4
Belgrado 8 string
Belgrado 5 string
Belgrado 5 red
Belgrado headless 5 red

Fretless :

Wal Mach I
Wal pro I
Wal pro I
Le Fay Remington steel 4
Le Fay Remington steel 5
Ken Smith BSR
Yamaha 5000
Warwick Streamer
Collier Jazz bass
Belgrado Jazz Bass
Belgrado headless graphite 5
Ibanez Musician
Yamaha 1100
Fender Jazz bass
Fender Jazz bass
Fender jazz bass
Ibanez Blazer

Wal bass MK II midi (november 1992) N° 3733
Mahogany core, mahogany curl, veneer facings, ebony fingerboard
D tuner
with original Wal-case and the MB midi Wal module.
I bought this bass about a year ago and was very eager to try out the midi-facilities since I'm always ready for an experiment. I have been playing this bass with Roland keyboardmodules and it works really well (every fret is connected with the midi-system so the response is as accurate as possible)
Since then I bought a couple of other Wal basses and this midi bass has stayed a bit in the corner since I cannot incorporate the midi-world into the band I play in. I take my other Wal basses along and it is a shame that those midi-possibilities can not be used. I play it every now and then but I treat the midi more as a toy and it would be nice if it would be in the hands of a bassplayer who can really open up the midi world
This bass has the true Wal sound of its own without the midi being connected and the extra midi-bonus has no influence on the original sound. You can use this bass as a normal Wal (but that would be a shame off course if you think about all the things you might do with it : blend moogsounds with the original bass-sounds for instance).
I have four other Wal basses and each one sounds a bit different (small nuances) but this one sounds a bit more crisp and "modern".
As you can see on the pictures there are some scratches here and there...
My price is the same as the one I paid so I don't want to make any profit but I don't want to lose money either. I paid 3000 Euros (2240 £)
I'm not really looking for trades (I have more than enough basses) and I would prefer a local pick up actually.
That is not an easy solution but if you compare the price of a ticket for the Eurostar and the price for shipment you might be better off picking it up (and trying it out so you know what you are buying). I recently bought a Wal 5 from someone in the UK and it was more expensive sending it than getting it myself. I live about eight miles from Brussels so the connection is not that difficult for true Wal-fanatics. I might consider sending it but I prefer a pick-up since this is a rather rare and great instrument.
For more pictures or information feel free to send me an email
best regards,

Thanks ! Ever since I heard that Wal-sound of Dean Garcia on "This is the House" by Eurythmics and Mick Karn's basslines I knew these British basses were the ultimate instruments for me.

[quote name='silverfoxnik' post='135350' date='Feb 6 2008, 11:43 PM']Glad you've found the one bass for you (or is it, the six basses?). But, 6 Wal basses is a hell of a lot of £££££!! Are the all Custom models?[/quote]

I sold a Pro fretless this year (and I paid for another one but lost the money due to an Ebay scam) but these five are the ones that I still have. But I'm planning to sell the midi Wal since I don't use it and I think some other bassplayer with a vivid imagination can do great things with it..

The trouble for me was that I had so many bass heroes.. I like Marcus Miller (so I bought a Fender Jazz), Mark King (Jaydee, Status, Alembic), Mick Karn, John Giblin (Wal), etc..
In the end I bought around 85 basses during the last 23 years and I own around 19 for the moment. I have been buying basses like crazy the last two years with extreme GAS since I just wanted to have every bass I had ever wanted..I had a lot of gigs so I was able to financially..
Finally I realised that after a long search the one bass that does it all for me is a Wal (I bought six Wal basses last year..) and my GAS is gone, what a relief and I dare not to think of all the money I have invested ànd lost during that long search...

I still live in Belgium but during the eighties there was this big boost with Britfunk and a lot of exciting basses like Wal, Jaydee, etc...
Since it was impossible to buy these basses in Belgium, let alone try them out, I was obliged to go to London if I wanted the instrument of my dreams. There was no internet or youtube (which made everything more charming actually) so I had to rely on brochures I got after writing to Ian Waller or John Diggins (it still brings back memories when I see the answers I got with the signature of Ian below his kind letter).
For me taking the bus, the train, getting on board in Oostende on a boat to Dover, taking the train to London, use the London tube system for the first time and finding out that Wapping was really at the end of nowhere, was very exciting around 1986.
But since I really wanted to buy a Jaydee Supernatural I travelled to the Walhalla of bass : the Bass Centre in Wapping. I was amazed with what they had in stock and which I only knew from bassmagazines. I was also really pleased that I finally could take the money out of my shoes which I had hidden in two small plastic bags under my feet.
I remember that I had expected the shopsellers to be more friendly since I went through so much trouble but I ended up buying a white Jaydee (which turned out to be terrible in the end since the neck was very unstable and I had to send it back to John Diggins who in vain tried to repair it...)
I went back to Wapping around 2000 - 2001 but I was completely ignored by everyone in the shop and it didn't feel too good for someone who went through all the trouble getting there.
I used to work in a musicshop myself and I have always treated bassplayers like I wanted to be treated myself. Good advice, listen to what they were looking for and no lies even if that meant not selling the instrument. I always hoped they would come back because of that attitude and they did...
If you show respect and understanding for a client it always turns out ok and it will beat the internet. I don't go to bass-shops anymore since I don't buy that many basses anymore but I still pity the fact that I didn't buy that fancy fretless Wal that last time I was in Wapping. It costs me so much more to buy them now.
Too bad bass-shops disappear because of certain factors. Around here in Belgium there is only one !