NickA

Also here. Though it tends towards orchestral and hence rather higher end stuff than basschat. https://www.musicalchairs.info/double-bass/sales

My case says Wal on it. Most people haven't a clue what it means. I get asked " is that a Warwick"? " Who made that?" Even a professional jazz bass player asked me what it was at a jam session.... before begging a go on it. Disappointing but reassuring lack of recognition! Anyway WE know exactly what it is and are very pleased for you. What year? Did you get it / check it on the Wal database? http://www.nedcom.nl/WAL/ PS: Good to see a tool fan not insisting on Maple facing, only 4-strings, mk2 body. You chose wisely imo 😉

Re Eudoxa .... Used to use them on my cello but price aside, they went out of tune with the slightest weather change and the silver winding first turned my fingers black then wore through, freyed and made my fingers bleed. ...if they didn't just randomly snap first. Bunch of crap ... But they do sound lovely under the bow, especially if you like that slight "chuff" as they start to sound and aren't too bothered about volume. £230 for my db's set of Eva's was quite enough cash ..and they're so good I've stopped swapping back to Spiro's for jazz.

Indeed class B or class AB was the trad hifi amp. Class A being better but much too lossy. Class C high efficiency but lots of distortion. Class D (pwm) getting so good now that A and AB likely to disappear. The gnome, the elf and the pjb power amp in my pb300 and flight case are all class D. Run pretty cool. It's true that my 450W of pjb is quieter than my old 350W of trace ( class ab) ...but trace watts were always bigger! No-one would use class C for audio surely. Awful distortion.

Chaps. It's in Maltock, Derbyshire. Tim Batchelar has the photos and is considering what's best. I trust him with basses beyond anyone else ( in driving reach ). I did play quite a nice Czech laminate at a double bass bash. I'd always denigrated laminates before that, but my prejudices were modified. Generally though ... and in the case of any real quality ... carved spruce all the way! Re the "look of the finish" ...I think it may be ronseal, applied by our principal bassoonist whose wife had care of it for several years. When I first met it, it was a warm honey brown ( and buzzed like f£_&). The basoon family generally did it good..but the finish is not that of a top bass builder.

All Wal pickups are passive in that voltage come out of them without putting any in. ..gotta say, this Wal obsession is getting a bit crazy. As a Wal nut, Wal fanboy and owner of two of them I follow it avidly .... But is there a similar thread where people are trying to re engineer an Alembic series 2 or a Smith black Tiger. And if not, why not?

Well that one fell in the right hands! Wish I had technique like that. Embarrassed to own nice basses now.

A half size will likely struggle with low notes. My orchestra mate is about 5ft0" and plays a lovely 3/4 Bryant 5 string trouble free, which is quite deep and wide, so going to half size probably isn't necessary. Plus I'd never buy a bass unseen and unplayed. You need to spend a few hours with it... maybe if you're going to amp it up then a good setup, well fitted pickup etc are more important than changing the Stentor? I've found getting the pickup right makes a massive difference.

We're going to get it done ... without epoxy / araldite. It's been neglected for decades. Might be nice with some tlc. Calling Tim Bachelar later this week.

Nice offer. Thanks. Which innovations are they ( assume not silver slaps!). Think we'll try my old helicore hybrids first and see how we go. Cheers.

You mày be right. It's better than I originally thought. The table is pretty good, one mended split and no warping. But until we spend a load on it we won't know. Hopefully the orchestra coffers will get the end pin and sound post sorted, we'll get a better tail piece on there and then we'll see if it's worth doing the bridge. Thing is, it total repairs go over £1200 we could have bought a decent 60s Czech laminate.

They were quite reasonably priced once. You just have to be old. Anyway, looks like you can make your own!

Build tech beyond Electric Wood's cowshed there! Lasers indeed 😯 Though one of my Wals has a black plastic cover and the other a home made aluminium one ( the original was cracked and I reckoned ally would be better shielding; it is, but it makes no odds ), so not essential to the sound 😉

😁😁😁 It's an age thing maybe: In the 80s we'd all moved on from guitar bands ( and the word "cool" ), having discovered synths, sequencers, Wals and Alembics. In 1981 I really wanted a sunburst fender jazz bass and an Ampeg amp. By 1985, following 4 years of post punk funk & indie and a degree in electronics, I really wanted a Wal and a trace gp12smx. Not a passive bass in the house now ( double bass aside). Now ( passive instruments & cool )..THEY'RE BACK. Actually, the word "cool" ( briefly supplanted by "stealthy") has now been back for longer than it was ever away.😁. Same likely true of Fenders.

Think we're getting the block bored and a whole new 10mm end pin fitted. We found a useable tail piece on an old laminate bass that is even more broken. Dyneema is what I'll use to fit it; beats wire on basses and on boats! Interesting it improved the sound; maybe I should replace the wire on my own bass with dyneema ( yards of it in the garage). Might try changing the strings for an old set of helicores have. Bridge can wait for now - at least till we know what it sounds like!

Went to visit the orchestra's bass tonight. It's actually not a bad little thing beneath the bodges and the long list of things it "could do with". In truth it needs: A new end pin assembly fitting (probably about £250), the existing block is solid, but the hole is the wrong shape. It needs filling and properly reaming out to fit a larger end pin. A new tail piece (about £40 for the tail piece, another £10 for the wire and who knows for the fitting). The esisting one is a very badly modded 3-string one, painted wood, held to the end pin with think inflexible wire. A new set of strings (£220) A new bridge fitted (£150) ... the bridge on it has been turned 180o so is back to front, somone has then modified the curve of the bridge to match the fingure board; if we turn it the right way then the action is all wrong! The sound post putting back (£?? mabe £30) All told maybe £700 of work. On the other hand, it's a solid little 3/4 fully carved bass. Hard to tell what woods due to the heavy stain and varnish, bu the fingerboard is painted "hard wood" and it's a bit wider than the rather worn neck (which is narrow and probably the original 3-string one). There is some filler on the stretcher that supports the sound post (see photo of the inside), but otherwise the inside looks in decent order. No idea how much it would be worth if fixed up. I've known this bass for 20+ years and never had a good opinion of it, but maybe with some TLC it would be OK. We could bodge it by gluing the end pin into the block (West Epoxy! ... good idea, I have some in the garage), re-attaching the tailpiece using rigging wire or dyneema rope, putting up with the reversed bridge and re-using the existing strings. Then all we need is the sound post re-erecting. Opinions ladies and gentlemen please. Pictures below:

The warwick sounds very thin in passive mode as there is no bass or treble boost (though it's not quite passive due to the pickups having little buffer amps in them - and needing a battery even in "passive" mode)... I always play it with the bass and treble turned well up; thin sounding MEC pickups I think. I could put a "smile" on the amp's EQ, but it doesn't seem to work as well. I did nearly buy a Sandberg California and that sounded the same in active and passive modes. If passivle, combined with a favourite amp, floats your boat then great. And there is a particular sound you get out of a standard Jazz bass due to the pickups loading eachother so that the output of the parallel pickups is something like tha average of the two; whereas on an active bass (Foderas aside) the pickups are effectively in series whether you like it or not. Still don't see the point of the slab bodied, chrome pickupped, thumpy sounding, passive "Florence" though. The world has moved on. 🙂

Nerd alert! Dont read if you are set on vintage passive basses 🙂 The on board electronics work pretty well in my Wals and in the ACG-EQ-01 bitsa Jazz bass. The advantage on those is that the two pickups can be seperately filtered .. which you can't do with an external preamp without two preamp channels and a stereo wired bass. Even on the Warwick which has bass and treble cut and boost which the amp could do; Warwick would argue that the bost/cut frequencies are carefully chosed to match the bass ...which maybe true. On a single pickup bass it's not so much of an issue; though it's still nice to know that your cable and amp input impedance aren't affecting the sound. Still, I noticed this rather tasty MusicMan Joe Dart bass (https://www.music-man.com/instruments/basses/joe-dart) I could quite fancy one of those for some reason. Nowt but a volume knob and no "electronics" at all. Maybe becasue the stingray pickup is good and the body has some contours.

Yes that's the stuff really. My dad had care of all my local area's school cellos ...there was usually something fishy bubbling on the stove. Bass bags want to, ideally, replace the bottom block, or failing that, fill and rebore the existing block then taper fit a new end pin. We're talking £300+ for the latter, lots more for the former. Suggesting a whole new tail piece too £30+ for the parts). I just don't think it's worth it. Given the state and quality of the bass, I'm thinking "araldite". But going for a proper look later. Photos to follow.

A capacitor and a variable resistor = " electronics " .... Hmm. Debatable. Wikipedia says: The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification and rectification, which distinguishes it from classical electrical engineering, which only uses passive effects such as resistance, capacitance and inductance to control electric current flow. ..and that dolphin is a thing of beauty to hold and to behold. The sound is quite " distinctive " I agree 😁

Can't do that on a Wal! Bonus. ... well its slap sound's ok, but I'd not die for it.

Looks awful doesn't sound any better. Why would a good company like Sandberg make such a thing? Is it really cheap? Erm no. Maybe I'm just too retro myself these days to appreciate "retro". ...and will reviewers stop saying "passive electronics". A. Like this is a "good thing" rather than a missing thing, and B. If it's passive it doesn't have electronics.. it has wires.