NickA

Be less like a real Wal then. Most of them are a little wonky. Ps: I find my Wal custom very comfy to play, the mk2 less so. Guess 25 years of familiarity helps. But, yes, the necks seem unecessarily chunky compared to a standard Jazz.

Its definitely old ... and knackered. Could be lovely and I hope it's worth doing up. Too many nice old basses ending up in a skip because the repair cost is greater than the resale price would be once fixed. Not helped by some dealers / luthiers trying to make things perfect, when playable would do fine.

Totally true! I didn't mean to suggest a massive increase in volume simply by adding a bigger amp, jut that a bigger amp might be needed to fully drive bigger speakers! Though the man is right that more cabbage (to make better use of the wattage) may do the trick. When you overdrive a cab, it will distort - too much current going trhough the speaker coil will push the cone beyond it's linear operating point (ie just runs out of room to move) it won't just be quieter than expected but will sound bad too ... though it's the initial "thump" at the start of the note that will get attenuated and bass notes will suffer more than higher frequencies (bass notes move the cones more). However rating in watts is a poor measure of transient handling ability .. so not all 200W cabs are going to be equal. Two 8ohm 200W cabs in parallel will provide a lot more headroom and a better sound than 1x 4 Ohm 200W cab and two 200W 4Ohm cabs in parallel will provide nothing extra (the amp will overload). But also totally true is that a 550W into 4ohm EA doubler and a decent 200W 12" cab really ought to be loud enough for an upright; (my 150W PJB flightcase is NOT lound enough whereas the full 400W flightcase + PB300 is as loud as I've ever needed). Something amiss in the signal path? How ARE those pickups being blended?

For sure it's a bass from Saxony ... but they quote SAXON like it's a brand (like Fender). I was actually in Saxony a few weeks ago .. passing through on the way home from working near Prague. Tried to buy a black coffee in a service station and was told "das haben wir nicht; alles kommt mit milch" ... strange (and irrelevant) but amusing all the same.

How loud do you need ot be? What are you playing and with whom? My 400W PJB rig can be heard over a full symphony orchestra (Christmas Symphonic Rock concert !) and is fine with a drummer, electric gurarist, amplified keyboard and a couple of saxes. Adding more cabs won't increae the volume as the amp wil run out of capability to deliver the current; EA don't seem to support 2Ohm loads so you might damage the amp by trying. Largely I'd agree with downunderwonder, but if you really wnat to be louder, it probably does need a bigger amp - cab efficiency will yield a bit, but it's percentages not whole numbers. NB: the fact that you can manage to drive a 200W 4Ohm cab with a 550W amp at full blast means that the cab manufacturer was conservative in their ratings! Remember that cab ratings are usually based on a continuous sine wave output and the bass gives out a highly variable signal level which might cause the amp output to peak at 550W but with a much lower average power ... hence you can get away with it!

😂😂😂 How very dare you! Bass Direct are not quite in the swing are they. "Saxon" quoted as a brand and a listing of the weight. Surprised they don't mention the neck profile and string spacing 😆. Marks for effort though.

Seems bass direct are determined to get into double basses. And indeed, why not. First the Chinese bass (£3500) and now what claims to be a real genuine nice old bass: https://bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/SAXON_Upright.html Is it really a seven grand bass? If so, what's it doing at bass direct rather than Thwaites, Tofts, Turners etc? Not the first place I'd go double bass shopping, but it seems Tom Martin has had a go at it, so who's to argue.

If so, the low bandwidth of the remaining signal path is filtering it all away. The Wals are totally hiss free (unlike some of my own, high bandwidth, designs which picked up the local taxi firms)

My mk2 was sounding a bit crap yesterday ... Left plugged in and attended a bass bash. Battery was down to 7.9V off load. Still worked, just sounded kind of thuddy. I think the distortion does go up as battery volts go down. For years I cascaded part used batteries into the Wal because I liked the sound. Can't be arsed now so they're both getting new.

That looks kind of ... expensive! So much work gone into it compared to the normal slightly complicated plywood. British version of that Anthony Jackson Fodera? about which they say: "The starting list price for a Anthony Jackson Presentation II is $35,200 and after your $10,000 deposit, you will have a remaining balance of $25,200 plus shipping" ahem.

Well all the very best and hope you keep playing for your own amusement at least. And if we manage another double bass bash one day, please come to listen and advise! Also nice to know I might manage another 22 years! Thread Hijack over!!!

Not playing any more?!! What happened? Hope you're ok. Ps: I'll vouch for the amp. Works nicely.

Time honoured "bunch o bananas" left hand technique there. Simandl eat yer heart out. And could someone turn the violin down so we can hear the important instrument.

Octave man appears to be breaching copyright with the use of a Wal logo..... plus it doesn't sound like a Wal ...plus he's playing with a pick. Devil take him on all counts 🤣

Naoto seems to have the treble wound right down, so flats Vs rounds isn't going to make a deal of difference. Personally I still think the rounds sounded best. Though I do think flats have come on since the days when the choice seemed to be roto-sound swing bass Vs jazz bass ( the " jazz bass" being flats!), The one being too bright and catching every finger movement and the other being thuddily dull. Now we have every nuance and an overlap between the two types.

EVERY version of Dean Town! Mostly he's just a brilliant musician ...but I think his sound shaping is quite complex too, hard to say what part the strings are playing. I really like the cobalt's too... but I like the sound of the Wal even more. Wals have a very fat muzzy sound and I think it takes rounds to add a bit of sparkle.

Eb cobalt flats on my bitsa jazz bass. Because ... I never much liked the sound of flats, but the cobalt's are quite bright and zingy. They don't wear out the fretless fingerboard and they feel great. Nice strings tho perhaps a bit too full of their own character. I put some on my fretless Wal and they made it sound like a bass with eb cobalt's on rather than a fretless Wal. Going to try some thomastic jazz flats on the Wal but sticking to the cobalt's on the jazz. ...as old age advances my pro zing anti flatwound prejudice reduces. Though I can't yet agree with Beedster that they're good for slap. Examples please!

Whole threads on this topic. EG: https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/456879-heads-with-built-in-high-pass-filters/page/1/ A lot of double bass players use some kind of pre-pre ( eg that Stan Clarke EBS jobbie), they have nice features like a moveable notch filter that will eliminate an annoying room resonance and so on ..plus acting as a DI box and having a guaranteed piezo friendly input impedance. Bit of a Swiss army knife for sound tweaking. I've not bothered... Checked my pjb flight case's spec sheet and found it has 4.7MOhm input and a 40Hz HPF already... but the notch filter might be useful. Basically, you don't need one but might like one if feeling a bit tweaky.

Well, when I was at primary school (some time ago) a nice lady came and stuck her hand down my pants to check mine out. She never mentioned bicarb or baking powder 😂.

Proving that just as owning a fancy bass doesn't make you a great bassist ... oneing a posh camera doesn't make me a photographer, as I'd evindently pressed a button that did something weird to the exposure and focus (the compostion is just lack of skills!) Anyway, a few could be salvaged: .. and there were only three Wals there but I'm sure they will come again .. so everyone gets a go eventually. I must remember to try a Dingwal again myself ... they sound fantastic but look kinda scarey!

Loadsa photos coming as soon as I download the camera. Late due to waiting for a parcel... so didn't get to try everything that snagged my interest, but enjoyed: that ancient Hofner archtop, the Kramer, getting a go on a Wal Pro IIe ..and hearing my own basses played by other people from an audience equivalent distance. plus Old man's GR cab .. so light! And someone minimark combo... so small and yet so powerful! And Andy pointing out that the action on my 5 string was not, as I thought, a bit high, but near unplayable low ( I'd been measuring it wrong). Thanks all and see you next time

The markbass already has a fixed hpf built in. An external one might be more tweakable, but unlikely to make much difference. If you're suffering from "boom" move the amp away from any walls and maybe raise it up a bit..and there's always the bass knob of the eq to turn down.

Cakes! At previous embb people have brought cake. Are we bringing cake? It will be shop bought in my case ..but still cake.