NickA

Doesn't sound like my Wal at all. Then again, mine has no frets and doesn't get played with a pick 🤔. More fun than a squire Jazz bass tho ...

I also pretty much use one fixed setting for everything on my active twin humbucker bass ... but that fixed setting needs two humbuckers, two active filters and a blend control! 😂. Amp dead flat EQ, no effects. Joe Dart seems to use a direct wired, usually single pickup, bass but a whole truck of off board processing. Many ways to kill a cat.

The realist sound clamp is also ok for Arco with a sufficiently hifi amp, I've used it on my cello too. Needs a fair bit of experimentation with placement, weights and tension though. I use a bit of bike inner tube twixt it and bridge to soften the sound too. Bit disappointed in the copperhead, as trying it at home it sounded great; then playing in a band it lacked treble. Found a little mixer in my bits and bobs cupboard and blended the sound clamp with the copperhead ..and that sounded really good.... at home anyway. But too much faff for me. As said, matching to the bass really matters!

Go active. Trouble with passives is that you're drawing current through the pickup, which robs the high frequencies. The more low pass filter you put in the worse it gets, plus you get a change in tone when you turn the volume knob down. Precisions aren't noted for tonal range, after all. Sure some people like all that, but you get a better tonal range with a few buffer amps. Or like NancyJohnson says .... straight to the (high impedance) amp and let the amp do the tone shaping. 😁

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So many people making Wal clones! Wals sound great, I live them myself,.. but you don't see anyone much playing them these days. Why the sudden enthusiasm?

I have a borrowed bass right now (1880s German, swell back, viol shape). It's set up purely for jazz (spiros, low action, no bevel on the fingerboard) it came fitted with both a shadow and a realist pickup. The shadow is really harsh and clacky ( the reason I stopped using my own shadow pickup), the copperhead has loads of warm bass but is very light on high frequencies. I took it out for a gig and tho the copperhead sounded lovely it had no projection. Ended up using my usual realist sound clamp .. still much darker than my own bass, but ok. So it's a very warm sounding bass.... but are copperhead pickups usually so bassy? I wondered if the idea is to use both pickups ( shadow and realist) through a mixer. Is that "a thing"? I'm sure plenty of people use just a copperhead tho.

For new laminate and hybrid basses in the uk you can't beat Bassbags.co.uk. But I doubt his shipping costs are cheap. For 2nd hand, thedoublebassrooom.com ... But that's a place you really need to visit to see & try.

Good tip. No-one in my orchestra does that! From Monday they shall! Think my mutebisna fake ( no Torte lettering !! ) but it works just fine.

Tough one... I realised you're in Norway after posting. I think it's a long jouney in the UK if I have to go 100km to see a bass! Hopefully someone here has played one; as just being the same construction as the Hora doesn't mean it's the same quality; some plywood basses are better than some hybrids. I guess it'shis one? https://www.danmusikk.no/arvada-db-820-kontrabass But if you go to Oslo at least you can try these for comparison: https://bassanova.no/butikk/kontrabass-1/3-4-4-4 ..or come on holiday to England, we have lots of bass shops within a distance you probably think of as a short walk 🙂 Good luck.

Whatever the recommendation, don't buy anything until you've tried it...and some others for comparison. Seems it's only available in Denmark, so I'm guessing it's Chinese made for a Danish import company. Unlikely anyone outside Denmark has one. Looks ok and certainly cheap for a hybrid. Bu, you might get a better / more interesting bass second hand ... and one that's properly set up too ; basses from Thomann etc generally need a lot of work doing to them to get he best sound.

I dropped my bass. Broken neck right up at the peg box. It's with Max at Tim Tofts...it could possibly be pinned and glued, but being well insured it's getting whole new neck. .. so while it's in the workshop and in pieces, I wondered about getting some new tuning machines to replace the bent and rickety ones it's always had. Looking around I don't see much on offer. These are lovely and just the job: https://www.mjbl.co.uk/double-bass-tuning-machines.... But over £500 even without a brass plate and the cost of fitting. These are modern versions of the "Tyrolean style" tuners on it now: https://www.thomann.de/gb/roth_junius_tyrolean_bass_machines_3_4g.htm. Only £48!! Must be rubbish surely. It will need the brass plate as the peg box is not pretty ( it always had a plate over it and hence there are many screw holes.) Has anyone replaced their tuning machines? Any recommendations?

My phase switch only has two positions ... On & Off. IE reverse and not reverse. Hard to have a partial reverse. I guess you're talking about some kind of digital phase shift thing?

..yup. reckon I've broken even on my payments to Allianz over the decades. They'll win in the end tho.

phase switch will sort it ..but it sounds a bit weird to the player as the amp cancels out the bass itself. best bet is getting the singer turned down to a lower volume!

Too right...leant mine against a wall in a pub last week, while setting up for a gig. Now there's a £3000 bill to mend the neck that cracked when it fell forward, hitting its peg box on a table. Good job it was insured.

I've never asked about insurance ..I just pop the bows in the tube sent by the mender and get royal mail to collect. I guess that bow has its own insurance is enough. My best bass bow is insured for £1000.

Lots of bells and whistles for £320!

Maybe not the right thread. Try the "Wal Lovers of the World" Facebook pages, someone there will have a pro2 or pro2e ( whichever yours is) and be able to read the part number. Or ask Paul at Electric Wood; they're really helpful to Wal owners; they've not made a pro2 in decades, but happy to mend them.

But they've ganged up all the coils inside the pickup. Hopefully in series, otherwise the coils will load eachother and rob you of high frequencies. Not Wal like, but likely still pretty good.

I had one on loan from Turners for weeks. I had to pay them £40 for insurance and they kept my own bass for "evaluation" and as security. They were in no rush for me to return it. I got to play it at home and take it to orchestra a few times ... well worth £40. Didn't buy it, the price differential was still too much for the difference in quality.

Excellent. My bass is evidently worth a fortune 😁.

For second hand basses .....it's the wild west out there. There are no rules. Dealers charge what they can get away with. But all prices are negotiable and knowledgeable buyers keep things in check. You try lots, you decide which ones you like and if you're willing to pay the price you can get it for. It's more like buying a house than an electric bass. Unfashionable things (Eflat necks, long scale) / cheaper construction ( flat back, blockless ) / not being pretty ...all bring the price down without affecting the sound. Anything with a "name" does the opposite ..but I guess known builder basses are out your price range anyway ( out of mine!). Rattles and buzzes or distorted fronts are NOT worth saving money on as they cost a fortune to fix. The insurance value is usually the most that a similar one has sold for...ever, plus a bit; so based on the most you'd have to pay for a replacement if it was written off or stolen. Not so far from what you would have to pay a dealer but a lot more than you could sell it for yourself. Dealer mark ups are generally 20% or so. But they will almost always find "work" that needs doing before they can put it in their showroom, "work" being expensive. My big German bass was insurance valued at £7.5k. I've seen apparently similar basses for much less, but having tried some others at dealers, I'd have to go to £10k-£12k to get one I like more than mine....but have only been offered around £5k in px and told it would sell "if brought up to scratch" for £6.5k. Go figure. Excellent post 👍...like the man says, go out and try lots

Mustabin nicked 🙂 my MK1 was £830 from our lgs in 1998.. and it's a bit bashed too. They were out of fashion for quite a while.