TrevorR

Of my 4 electric basses, 3 fall into this category. My Aria SB700 - my first bass back in 1982. An 18th birthday pressie from my mum and dad. My 1985 Wal Mk 1 Custom. Bought in about 1992 and my No 1 ever since. My 1979 Wal Pro IIE. Bought in about 2001 and a lovely bass. My other bass is a Frankenjazz and I’ve no idea if anyone would ever want it. Fab bass too, though!

And, of course not forgetting the converse - brilliant comedy output from a musician... Guy Pratt and his My Bass And Other Animals book and show!

He did a cut down version of this on BBC Radio 4. Bloomin’ brilliant. Love Mitch. Fabulous parody performer.

Back around 1990 my college folk band got a residency at a local comedy club (the guy who organised it fancied our singer!) so we did a 30-45 minute warm up set for the two headlining acts. We supported (among others) Eddie Izzard, Linda Smith (RIP), Mark Thomas, Hattie Haydridge and a duo called “The Rubber Bishops”. I recall thinking that the beardy one in the group was really good (comedy and music-wise) and would go far. A certain Mr Bill Bailey. So he’s been a bit tasty on guitar and keys and jokes for a good old time.

I reckon that Norah Jones’ offshoot fun band, The Little Willies nailed it with their slow version. I love this! Norah’s voice just drips with emotion. And the album version...

Absolutely - my approach too. My preferred gigging basses are my two Wals, always have been and they've been through all sorts of venue with me, big and small, salubrious and dodgy. I might take along one of my other basses instead of one of the Wals but only because I fancied playing it, not because I'm worried about damaging or losing the other ones. Only one I don't use live is a custom acoustic but only because it was built for home use, doesn't have a case, doesn't have a pickup and is now probably too fragile for gigging.

Radio 3’s The Listening Service is always a fascinating listen. In this one they explore why we’re so addicted to bass and how it works in music... https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07vwg5w This little 3 minute video snippet gives a good taster... <iframe width="400" height="500" frameborder="0" src="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p049y9gb/player"></iframe>

In fact, I’m pretty sure that the credits don’t list... Bruce Thomas - Bass ...they list... Bruce Thomas - Wal Bass EDIWTB is one of my all time fave basslines and was even before I realised it was a Wal!

Seen in closer detail being used to good effect here... He used a Wal for pretty much all the Punch The Clock album.

Absolutely agree. Paul’s a really nice person whose desire is to build really high quality, unique basses - no compromise. Yup, Paul’s not interested in the corporate “dream”. When he left Wal the first time it was to set up as an independent sole luthier hand building hollow bodied jazz guitars... he’s in it for the craft, not the cash! Well, if you fancied a trip down the M6 and M40 if we ever manage to have another SE Bass Bash there will definitely be a couple or more there which you’d be welcome to have a go on!

Back in the days when a new one was £5k and second hand was £2.5-3k, I used to say “one thing’s for certain, buy second and you’ll not only break even but make on the deal if you do sell.” Its so hard to know how things will go with current crazy second hand prices - some listed recently than more than the new price. I guess that these days sellers are effectively pricing in the value of jumping the queue by 3 years, as well as any reflection of the intrinsic second hand value/desirability of the bass. Where can second hand prices go from here? They’re already pretty insane. But that’s market forces for you!

Aaah, but I fooled ya! My wrench ISN'T rusted! It's came in that matt brown/grey colour and has always looked like that! Mwah ha ha ha ha! Gets 'em every time!

It was such a shame when Schaller canned the MB4s but so good that the light versions they replaced them with are direct replacements. And so easy to fit. Simple enough that even I trusted my cack handed bodge-it skills to fit Hipshot D-Tuners to my two Wals! Great tuning heads (old and new!).

Ha! Ironically this query post just popped up on the Wal Facebook group... @Andyjr1515 I don't suppose you've confirmed the spec or sourced where you plan to get the neck bolts from yet? Or @Fishman have an original spare set of bolts?

Only just found this build thread so late to the party - and redundant now - but the original brochure refers to 3 carbon fibre strips in the neck... Hi res scans here... http://walbassarchive.blogspot.com/2013/04/1970s-wal-pro-series-brochure.html Watching the rest of the (re)build with great interest...!

That will go nicely with the Pro Bass ethos, given the originals were ash bodied and natural was one of the standard options.

Was really looking forward to reviewing this one but found it very patchy and underwhelming. Crowdsourcing the music was an interesting idea but apart from 2 or 3 tracks I found it very average.

Given that I review for R2 Magazine I listen to a lot of new CDseach year. However, the two that stood out were rather backward looking in a lot of ways... The Absence Of Presence, by Kansas showed that even with minimal remaining original members they can rock with the best of them. America Live At The London Palladium showed that great songs are always great songs. Other notable mentions... Rachel Sage - Character Kathleen Edward’s - Total Freedom, some cracking indie country

The beauty of Amazon wishlists and being able to order from Amazon Japan (for the box sets produced this lovely little selection which will keep me nicely occupied for a while... Have finally got all the discs pulled down onto my MP3 player! There was a cool Thin Lizzy Jailbreak t-shirt too! I got another book too by Simon Garfield (the one about maps) but some errant clicking by my lovely lady meant that it arrived on my iPad Kindle app instead of under the tree!

Standard for all Wal double necks, and as @4000 said, inspired by Hellborg’s one (the original Wal double).

And my Little Mark amp has one jack and one combo Speakon so if I want full output and two 8Ω speakers connected to the back (as opposed to daisy chained cabs) then it’s either two jack leads or one jack + one Speakon!

Fab! YES!!! That’s it! Thank you!

Aaargh, was watching this clip of Steve Winwood educating his young whippersnapper of a second keys player in the finer arts of the B3 when I thought, “Oh, I know that bottle blonde bass player with the Wal 5-string, that’s... erm... um... ah...” and I can’t for the life of me recall his name. So I’m throwing it out to the combined wisdom here. Pleeeez put me out of my misery. Who is that?

The cheap, knock off Speakons are getting a nasty reputation of getting stuck in sockets and only being able to be removed with brute force and ignorance (with a 50/50 chance of knackering the socket on the way out). Much Talkbass and Facebook chatter on this. I’d only ever use kosher Neutrik ones - anything else is the definition of a false economy. My Cleartone speaker cables have given me well over a dozen years of uncomplaining, reliable service.

Also highly recommend Cleartone cables... https://www.award-session.com/cleartone_cables.php