TrevorR

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

I have to confess that one of the biggest attractions of getting the Fish Out Of Water deluxe expanded reissue was that it had the original version of this and the B-side on it on CD for the first time! Sorry, Jakko it wasn’t because of your remix!

I put some La Bella Black Tapes on mine. Really like the sound and feel. Tried Whites... they were far too floppy.

I’ve actually got 2. A custom one I had made 30 odd years ago by the Welsh luthier, Tony Revell, which is now a bit too fragile to take out of the house... And a Faith Titan Neptune which sounds and feels great and works nicely fo “unplugged” style events... Here’s the Faith in action (apologies for the very mildly God-botheringness of the tune’s lyrics). Love the Celtic vibe to this song and the bass (resplendent in black tapes) comes through nice and clearly in the mix!

Just put this together on my FB page... The tree’s up. There’s Christmas music in the car... cue Noddy... IT’S CHRISTMAAAAAS!!! Time for a personal top 10 of my fave Christmas pop and rock songs... 1. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day - Roy Wood: let’s face it, this one’s just Wizzard! 😉🙄🤦‍♂️ 2. That’ll Be Christmas - Thea Gilmore: the stereotypical British Christmas to a “T”. 3. A Merry Jingle - The Greedies: 60% Thin Lizzy, 40% Sex Pistols, 100% Jingle! Who could ask for more? 4. In Dulci Jubilo - Mike Oldfield: total earworm. I end up humming it all over the Christmas period. 5. I Believe In Father Christmas - Greg Lake: cynical but still wonderful. 6. Jesus What A Wonderful Child - Maria Carey: cue the lady getting her car serviced meme but played this tune on the bass a load of times and it’s always fun, especially when it goes full on gospel at the end. 7. Carol Of The Bells/What Child Is This - Point Of Grace: I think this was an M&S advert one year but I’ve played bass to this one a couple of times with the orchestral backing track. So fabulously OTT that even for a girl-band it’s practically prog-rock! 8. Ring Solstice Bells - Jethro Tull: speaking of prog, this one’s in 7/8... not strictly a Christmas tune but fab nonetheless... I dare you to clap along with it. Dare ya! 9. Jingle Bells & Run Rudolph Run - The Brian Setzer Orchestra: I’m going to claim a twofer for this one. A Rockabilly/Swing Band Christmas, love it and especially the horn section’s backing vocals on Jingle Bells... hilarious! 10. Run With The Fox - Chris Squire & Alan White: got this on single years ago. Fabulous song. Actually, maybe THIS should be at No 1?

Oh look! It's... ..."The Dark Night Rises"! Ba-da-da-dum Tish!

My only bitsa is my Frankenjazz. Body and neck bought from a guy on eBay called “Build-a-bass”, Hipshot tuners, Graphtech saddles, Audere preamp. Turned our to be a monster Jazz. Was going to swap the pickups but once the Audere was in never felt the need to. Maybe one day I’ll add some split “single coil” humbuckers? Similarly was going to add a high mass bridge but I like the old BBOT bridge plus graphite saddles fine as is!

Katzenjammer! Bonkers band in all the very best ways!

My personal nominations.....

Ooooooh, so wish there was any way I could justify taking it off your hands. Always had a little hankering for an SB900! Loved Neil Murray's back in the day when I was starting out on my SB700.

I’ve always been in the “signature bits as they should be/other bits, recognisably the song and in the spirit of the line” camp like many others. It strikes me that this whole debate never existed (and certainly not to the polarised degree you see in some other places) before the interweb gave the “self-appointed universal law creators” a platform to criticise people. A couple of anecdotes from my wedding/covers band days... We were a really entertaining band who always put on a great show which got a fantastic response each night from the punters (whether bridesmaids, the corporate management team or denizens of the Ferret and Sack). But the main line up was: Singer/Acoustic or Electric Guitar (depending on set/song) Bass/Backing Vocals Drums Sax Female Vocalist Sometimes second electric guitar But we were doing songs by, for example, The Jam (EG/Bass/Drums), The Doobies (3 EG/Bass/Percussion/Horns/2 Drums), Motown (Funk Brothers), James Taylor (AG/EG/Keys/Bass/Drums), Lynyrd Skynyrd (3 EG/Bass/Drums/Piano/Honkettes), Elvis (AG/Archtop EG/Double Bass/Close Harmony Quartet)... and so on and so on across a pretty diverse party set. When the format of cover band and the original artist are that far removed from each other the question of whether the bass player was playing exactly every note and nuance as per the original recording seems a little moot - and, frankly, potentially counterproductive. Despite wanting to get the lines as mostly right or, at the very least, fitting with the spirit of the original there was one song where this was impossible. Going Underground by The Jam - the only song in the set where the lead singer/guitarist fundamentally changed the key to suit his voice - shoving a capo on. That either moved the signature bass riffs so key notes were either down below the nut (if played in the proper shapes) or way up the neck where they really just didn’t sound right. Plus he and the drummer played a funny rhythm which clashed with the bass riff somehow. Bruce Foxton’s classic line just didn’t work. So in the end I just made up a sympathetic bass part which kept some feel, energy and spirit of the song. And boy, did we ever give that song welly, attitude and energy - it was great to play! And you know what... in the 10 years I played in that band can you guess which tune more than any other had punters coming up after the set telling us we’d totally nailed it just like the record? Yup - Going Underground, just about the one that was further from the recording than any other. So when anyone says in an internet debate that “Unless you play it note perfect you’re letting the punter down any they’ll hate it!” just remember this story! So long as they can sing along with tunes they love, jump around, dance and have a good time feeding off the energy of the band the punters couldn’t care less.

Playing the Gustafson basslines isn’t a bad job either! Two of my all time favourite bass players. Very jealous you got to see Alan Spenner before he passed away.

Oooooh olive ash top. They look so gorgeous...