NickA

Still wondering how @fishman came upon a pro 1e without its body or bridge! That carbon strip in the neck btw is unique to early Wals. The customs, mk1s, 2s, 3s and pro 1 reissues don't have it. The necks changed from hornbeam, mahogany and maple to just mahogany and maple at some point too. "Engineered" indeed.

Regarding double basses.. also not very loud. I think they have to be that big not so much to get the scale length as to get a body big enough to couple such low frequencies into the air and project them away from the instrument .. and THAT determines the long scale. Same reason a 1x15" cab will generally project better bass than a 1x 8" and why my not that loud pjb rig needs 10x 5" speakers. it's about impedance matching and diffraction to be technical. So yes I agree, depth probably isn't a major factor, but size of the table surely is. Hence a shortish scale but big bodied Mexican guitarra is louder than an abg and a double bass louder still. ...doesnt explain, though, how my mate's barritone sax has a bottom note lower than my double bass, yet is much louder, despite a bell diameter of less than 6"..

Look good. Bigger usually being louder. 6" or 8" depth! ( my tanglewood is only 4" at the top and 5" at the bottom. bet they're quite pricey.

Me too. Of everything I could find to try in shops, this was the best. The fenders only worked well plugged in. I'd have had an ovation if I could have found one ... the sort with the round hole very good acoustically and the b768 style great plugged in. The tanglewood is a big beast, so comparatively loud, but still too quiet to be heard against even a couple of guitars and a fiddle. Interested to hear I could use electric bass strings on it. Might try an old set of nyxls.

I shouldn't worry about the neck profile too much. There are bigger issues with playing a 5; namely: damping, fingering patterns and relearning coordination between the string you fret and the string you pluck! For one thing, with a five you can play most things higher up the neck, so though the neck is wider, the frets are closer together. Main probem i found with buying a 5 was finding one whose B string didn't sound like it was a different instrument from the other 4 strings (fenders and rays included to an extent).

Me too. Think the seller told me it was the only electric bass made by a Bristolian acoustic guitar maker. But a search of acoustic Luther's didn't help. Amazing "Smith plus" build quality and a great sound, but ugly as .... and not that comfy to play.

Indeed ... that's where I got to try one. It was near Luke and opposite me. It was an enfield (cannon?) with a "super 8" pickup I think - two quads in one casing, but with less flexibility as to where you put the coils along the strings. Not sure they make those any more. I quite liked it set in Jazz bass mode, in which it sounded quite like a normal Jazz bass. So if I wanted that sound, I'd probably buy a jazz bass. Same bloke was selling an amazing red bass with three sets of american built pickups which sounded incredible, but looked ... just weird. Cannot track that bass or its maker down.

One Sims quad = 3 ways (4 Inc off) Two sims quads = 15 ways (4 X 4 -1) Three Sims quads = 63 ways ( 4x4x4-1 ) He missed a trick by not having positions for a) reverse p, b) both j locations. Then you could have 6x6x6-1 ways = 215 different basic pickup options. Look forward to seeing it at the next Midlands bass bash!

That one is real. Elite vintage guitars selling under one of their pseudonyms ... https://elitevintageguitars.com/2018/09/03/wal-bass-mk-1-1983/

Played one at a bass bash. So many pickup options! Liked it best set as a jazz bass .. it sounded like ..a jazz bass. I guess if you want one baß to make all the standard sounds ( p jazz stingray h or HH ) then it's a good idea; but if there is one sound you want then buy the bass that does it anyway. This so called MK4 Wal that's up for sale (;if you have £8k) is interesting because you get the woods and solidity of a Wal with a lot more sound options ... Doubt it sounds like a Wal, but probably does a LOT of other sounds, some of them unique.

Doubt anyone has a circuit diagram .. and the PCB is surface mount; not easy to repair. Maybe rip it out and go passive into a piezo pre-amp (sans amp or similar). You'd lose the on board tone control and headphone socket is all.

Shall have to revisit those later releases ... got a bit stuck on the middle years ( aka the "stupid girl" phase ). No one like Don Juan's reckless Daughter then? Don't think I've ever made it through all of Paprika Plains ... but there are good bits in there. Weird Guitar tunings and one, otherwise great, track where Jaco just fails to think up a bass line.

Ooooh. How very dare you! Though he's not on many (most) of the tracks I like best, he certainly adds to those he's on. Coyote for instance, would not be the same; though Amelia is none the worse for his absence.

That is an issue, especially that ott whiny vibrato on the early stuff. She got better though.

Album? Hejira No1 . No question. I rate Mingus higher too, maybe no 2 for me. They didn't even mention miles of aisles which is excellent and has many of the songs from blue done better. Anything after (and including) wild things run fast is not much good for me.. gave up after that. Best tracks? Edith and the king pin probably, hissing of summer lawns maybe (the rest of that LP isn't close to those two). Almost anything on Hejira ( Jaco on bass aside: he's not even on some of the best tracks ) Even without the great music, some of her lyrics are brilliant " Richard got married to a figure skater, bought her a refrigerator and a coffee perculator" a particular fave ( when I'm sitting up most evenings drinking beer with the TV on 😉 ).

^^ indeed. I do like and own some "coffee table" basses; but wooden knobs and pickups ...bit odd. Like do they have wooden windings and pole pieces .....