TrevorR

Another vote for an Aria SB! They’re lovely (if weighty) basses. Here’s my SB700. My first ever bass. Still love it!

We refer to them as “transitional Custom series” or “transitional Pro” basses - when zeal we’re still tying down the Custom design. Other than the Pro neck it’s a standard Custom series in all other ways. They made quite a few like that around 1981..

Also in Staines and would have been happy to help but we're all shielding at the mo. Glad that it looks like Mr H can help.

When people say that the bass sold for $384,000 it’s not really quite correct. The vintage 1969 Fender Mustang bass sold for $1,000. A thin layer of Bill Wyman’s sweat and dead skin cells sold for $383,000!

Mine will be this one... had it since 1992ish...

Looking forward to the video on the Wal!

A chum of mine (who is into wilfully quirky music) got a basic hurdy gurdy made for him (before people like a Robert Plant made it “cool”). He was showing it off to me and some chums when one of the others said, “Cool Tim. You’ve just spent 500 quid so you can sound exactly like a 50 quid monophonic synth. Nice!”

1 Bass: Well, a Mark III Wal 4-string would be nice (to go with my Mk I and Pro) but I'd also be looking at an Overwater, an Enfield and a Sandberg. An Amp head with 1 or 2 cabs: I'd porobably want to cehck out a Quilter Bass Block (but I can't decide if it would be the original or the 802) and match it with a couple of nice Barefaced 1x12s. A combo amp: Probably a Markbass CMD Super Combo K1 (or go right the other way with a teeny weeny Micromark A preamp pedal: well, it would be nice to know if the Noble preamps are really as wonderful as folks say they are. Or maybe a Shift Line Olympic MkIIIS - they look like nice bits of kit with a decent emulation circuit.

Yes, it was while he was getting increasingly ill... but it was his and Ian’s legacy!

Maybe it’s “mockney” then! 😉 By the way, when I’m chatting on the phone to my dad or my siblings on the phone I start off pretty much with Surrey RP but develop an increasing Norn Iron twang the longer the call goes on!

I'd definitely keep it for a while at least. Then I can see it being sold off to fund a nice custom build... maybe a Sandberg and an Overwater... or even a Mk3 Custom Wal to add to the collection...

Maybe he was talking about the construction of the G and D strings on the mandolin and it's just his funny Scots pronunciation of the tiny phosphor bronze wires that go around the steel cores on the two lower courses... Wind - as in rhymes with "find". If so, then it IS about time he changed the mandolin wind (and plain strings too, just changing the wound strings is a false economy and the plain ones will be just as dead)! 47 years is way too long to have one set of strings on there...

There is if you use the mandolin to slice aubergine... in my experience anyway!

And Simon Singh’s original column on it is here... https://www.theguardian.com/education/2005/sep/30/highereducation.uk

Given the inexorable rise of globalism and the movement of heavy industry to territories with lower wage costs it is looking unlikely that Nigel has much of a future in British Steel. And Stevie, your assertion in the early 80s that “peace has come to Zimbabwe” may have been a touch premature.

PPS buy second hand and then subsequently sell and you’ll probably make money, not lose it the way prices are going, even second hand.

This is very sage advice @chris_b. Any Wal will sound like a Wal with the wood choices changing the aesthetics and giving subtle modifications to the tone. But at heart... it’s still a Wal - the important elements are there. So, if you want a Wal then buying second hand is a very good choice. I love my Wals but I’d find it hard to justify paying the new price - although I appreciate the economics of what Paul is doing with just him and an assistant (only him during lockdown), hand crafting almost every element and outsourcing only a few elements (mostly to his own bespoke specs) and giving the wood elements longer to rest/settle/season than most between operations. His order book is very healthy and so I would reckon build times and prices are only going in one direction. So if what you want is a Wal then second hand is a really good option. If you MUST have a Wal with THAT wood, THAT custom neck profile, THAT colour tuners, THAT finish etc etc then you are self selecting commissioning a new bass at full price with a 30+ month lead time. It’s a choice. Keep an eye out here for them coming up for sale, similarly on Talkbass and if you’re on Facebook I moderate the Wal fan group on there. A lot of basses get offered there before BC, TB, Reverb or eBay. PS yes, the neck profile is a bit unusual and certainly not like a P or J but I find it really, really comfortable and easy to play both thumb around and thumb behind (even with my wee, stubby fingers).

Yes, ultimately Pete didn’t trust them not to keep on diluting them... a Wal with Duncan Designeds, generic preamp and a Schaller bridge would be a fine bass but not a Wal. Paul’s simply not interested and is hugely protective of the brand and hand building to his own high standards.

Trust me that is NEVER going to happen!

So much great bass in CS’s discography... you have been missing out!

Fabulous thread. Reminds me of this fabulous tune...

Neil just sent me some custom bouzouki strings through mid this week. When I ordered them a couple of weeks ago he apologised in advance to say that there was only him in the workshop (Social distancing) so it would take a couple of weeks. May just be busy on his tod

For the band's last tour in 83 promoting the Thunder and Lightning he was playing this bass... Never entirely worked out what it was. An awful lot of knobs for a guy best known for rocking a P bass! Saw them twice - in 81 when he was playing the Ibby (never liked that headstock) and on that last tour with this bass.

The two big questions marks for me on the Eastwood "repro" would be replicating the brass bridge and the MBI, MBII or MBIE pickups. if they can't/won't replicate those then it won't look, feel or sound like an SB. It's one thing to tool up for the woodworking for a mid-price shortish run model. However, I find it hard to see them doing anything but slapping a generic high mass bridge and soapbar pickup in it. They're sure as heck not going to be going to Rautia or similar to get a proper replica pickup at $899 per bass.

And a fantastic choice of music too!