White Cloud

Lakland 5 string basses tend to be exceptional. Nice bass!

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1386956204' post='2306853'] Ha, cheers. Beedster, it was a serious offer - look, I pulled out a wenge board today - 5ft x 7in x 2in Nipping a bit off the end is no trouble. Let me know.. [/quote] Wow, that is a serious Wenge Board indeed!

Congrats on the basses. I am a big Lakland fan, having owned several myself...great basses. The Burns just isn't for me...but I love the colour.

To be honest I wouldn't disagree with the merits of any of the aforementioned! For me....Rush "Moving Pictures". Blew my mind.

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1386792841' post='2304722']It's the sonic equivalent of a woman with red hair and a nice bottom. [/quote] Lol, my missus has red hair and a nice bottom - but sounds rotten!

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1386788876' post='2304609'] If you want a piece of wenge, send me the dimensions and I'll send it to you FOC. My payment will be seeing this wrong righted ASAP [/quote] You sir, are a gentleman.

Geezer Butler was one of my main formative influences on the bass. I regard him as one of the greatest rock players of all time...superb!

Nice one" Beautiful bass...the replacement is even nicer looking than the first one. I have had my 1205 for 18 mths and is my no.1 gigging stalwart....

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1386706925' post='2303487'] I too remember writing to Wal for a catalogue back in the days when computers were the preserve of kids who couldn't go out of the house because they were at too great a risk of being bullied.[/quote] Lol...nowadays it has bred a bunch of kids (and adults who really should know better) that are invincible, hyper intelligent and all knowing keyboard warriors - just take a look at the Off Topic section here for proof! [quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1386706925' post='2303487']When I left school my main aim was to somehow get my hands on enough money to buy a Wal , but it took me quite a while to save up , from what I can remember, and they were no where near as expensive in those days, even allowing for inflation. I used to go look at the basses in the Bass Centre at Wapping and wonder how I could possibly wait another six months or a year to get my hands on one of the basses I lusted over. Nothing ( nothing) nowadays gets me so worked up. I wish I could get that excited over a bass nowadays, but I just can't, I'm afraid .[/quote] I am starting to think that you are actually me in a parallel universe! [quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1386706925' post='2303487']I remember I had just saved up just enough to eventually buy one ( £790) and then they went up a hundred quid. I rang Pete to check it wasn't a misprint or something ( it wasn't) , and he sold me a bass at the old price a hundred quid cheaper anyway. [/quote] That is incredible customer care way above and beyond the call of duty. I am now realising just how decent Pete and Ian were. I paid £750 for mine...the price of a decent 2nd hand car in 85.

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1386703981' post='2303427'] What I do remember clearly is they were the nicest, most decent people you could ever wish to meet. They treated everybody as if they were important, and they were generous to a fault in not charging much at all for servicing and repair work quite often, and giving away things like free sets of strings.[/quote] That is what I call customer service. I contacted Wal via the written word (the internet was the stuff of sci-fi then) when I was a young man and they kindly sent me oodles of stuff...I bought my mk1 soon afterwards - I traded my Rick 4001 and put the rest on the never never. I literally did not drink, drive, copulate or socialise for six months to pay it up. Thanks very much for sharing your experience with us.

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1386695336' post='2303199'] That's why when they got serious about making basses they ended up in High Wycombe. Everything they needed in terms of tooling the wood for the basses was in one place . The workshop for most of their time was a space in a pretty big old factory unit, from what I remember( it's twenty years since I was last there , near enough) , and then towards the end, (if I understand correctly because I wasn't playing Wals anymore by this time, ) Pete had a space in the corner of another furniture factory, and I think they let him use some of the machines and woodworking facilities. Wenge is widely used for marquetry work on fancy furniture, apparently, so should be pretty easy to source as a veneer. [/quote] A visit to that workshop must have been magical. My current Ibanez Sr1205 has a Wenge neck with stringers and it is a gorgeous wood. I have promised myself a Wal with Wenge facings before I die (still regret moving my old mk1 custom on!).

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1386692398' post='2303152'] Just about all the exotic woods used for fancy tops on basses are what are commonly referred to as "fine furniture woods", and are available either as planks or veneers from fine furniture wood suppliers, of whom there are quite a few. It is no coincidence the Wal were based at High Wycombe , which is the epicentre of the British furniture making trade has traditionally been. The basses were, for much of the time Wal were there, made in a corner of a furniture making factory, with the company being able to make use of various facilities that were of common use to both guitar building and furniture making trades. In light of that, if you try searching on the internet for U.K suppliers of fine furniture woods, you should have no problems tracking down a suitable piece of wenge. [/quote] Wow, I never knew that about Wal...thanks for sharing. Every day is a school day!

[quote name='Beedster' timestamp='1386685907' post='2303063'] Thanks for your advice. I agree 100% and I hope the cost is doable. I have a budget for this bass (which is in part why I'm selling the case) and the board and PUPs are the first point of call. The PUPs will require work to the area in question so it would likely be a false economy to do half the job now and then come back to it later (e.g., to install PUPs now and then do the work with the Wenge in a year). Do you know where I could get the correct wood in such a smal quantity? [/quote] It is certainly doable and in theory shouldn't be too expensive at all. I have personally never used Wenge, but it is reasonably commonplace. Why not drop Jon Letts (a member here) of Letts guitars a line...he is a great guy and uses Wenge quite a lot. He will point you in the right direction, and might even have off cuts to offer you of the appropriate size!

[quote name='Beedster' timestamp='1386682818' post='2303018'] It can't be worse than it is. Of all the questions I have about the modifications to this bass, the one I find hardest to answer is that of why put a rectangular lump of maple in the middle of a beautiful dark wood veneer? Stain's not the best solution for sure, but it's a first step on the path [/quote] Listen, the solution is simple. Simply have the maple routed out, source some Wenge (your top is Wenge btw)...match the grain as closely as you can, shape the Wenge, glue into place, plane then sand smooth for a perfect patch up. Its not exactly the low cost, or simplest way to go...but it is the best way. Any luthier worth their salt could do it in a day. Trust me, I build furniture.

[quote name='Beedster' timestamp='1386663480' post='2302686'] I'm thinking however that some well applied woodstain might do the job sufficiently well to avoid the cost of this [/quote] Dude, in the name of all that is holy...NO WOODSTAIN!!

[quote name='eude' timestamp='1386670383' post='2302753'] [/quote] Ooooh, this is better!

I am normally not squeemish at all....but I am currently looking away!

[quote name='BassApprentice' timestamp='1386601600' post='2301998'] Ah cool! Did you have a jazz pickup too? Or just the woofer and P pickup in stereo? [/quote] Sorry for the confusion - no it had a Kent Armstrong woofer pickup at the neck and a Bartolini P pickup. The famous Jimmy Moon of Glasgow did the work and he strongly advised me against it beforehand, but once complete he admitted that it had worked really well. A great bass!

I did the same thing to a Tokai "Hard Puncher" P bass back in 1991 and it worked a treat. The bass is long gone however I currently own a BB714S and it is a top notch alternative to the Attitude (I had one of those too a few years ago)..

They are really great, totally underrated, instruments. I love the Dyna and Foundation series. Keep your eyes peeled for the Palaedium model that Jeff Berlin designed...quite rare but very cheap and VERY good.

I was lucky enough to own two 4001's (at different times) in the dim and distant past and they were both great basses. The fashion of that time dictated that Fenders were extremely "untrendy". It's funny how things change.

Darryl has an extremely close working relationship with Albey Balgochian of "A" basses....looks like one of their creations!

It's all about opinions and personal perceptions...mine is that you should forget Fender and turn your attention to the Lakland Darryl Jones. The best jazz bass that I ever owned by a distance (and I owned several vintage F's).

Would have loved to have partaken but work dominates my life right now so gigs are on the back burner until April