TrevorR

Very tempted by those Bass Collection basses - sadly no reason to justify one (hmmm... never actually owned a P bass though... hmmm). For many years we had a great sound guy who cut his teeth working doing engineering on albums by OMD, Queen, Steve Hackett, Gary Moore etc. He always made things sound great and rocky and he loved the combo of my Wal and MarkBass amp.

Been there with a previous (sometimes tetchy) worship leader. We kept getting this low frequency boom/feedback type sound on stage in rehearsal which was annoying the Leader. He told me to turn down a couple of times. I did until I could just hear my amp over the drums. It kept happening and I realised it was the keys amp resonating the acoustic guitar into low frequency feedback.It happened again and the worship leader was actively annoyed (at me) by now. I told him what I thought the problem was and he, effective told me to shut up, stop making excuses and just turn my amp down. Having had enough by now I quietly removed my bass, placed it on its stand, turned off the amp, unplugged the cable and coiled it neatly on the floor in front of me, turned to the drummer, winked and tapped the side of my nose and stood with my hands in my jeans pockets. The band started to run through the song again and the low frequency noise started again. The worship leader was furious by now and yelled while starting to turn around to confront me, “OH FOR GOODNESS SAKE TREVOR WILL YOU JUST DO AS I ASK YOU AND TURN YOUR AMP D...” I sweetly smiled at him, shrugged and said, “You really do need to do something about the acoustic guitar feeding back.” He never said sorry though...Bit of an ego issue, that guy.

Me neither - sounds fab, though!

Setting the bass peak at 40hz seemed bonkers to me. Do most active circuits do that? Seems unlikely. Thought I’d have a look at my Audere preamp’s spec... I do love how that preamp sounds!

Yup you read it right. Now you can get your own little mini Lemmy to make sure you get no sleep ‘til Hammersmith. https://www.nme.com/news/music/lemmy-action-figure-unveiled-for-ace-of-spades-40th-anniversary-2789684?fbclid=IwAR1lHDHuKywi8Jm60zQ0t_VBy4wpfVZTj9fQjFYPcHTcsZgETTEYemN3JDw Just make sure you buy yours quickly before Mr Hall and his m’learned friends kick the door in and slap an injunction on it for selling fake Rickies, infringement of trademarks and trying to pass of the teeny plastic accessory as the real thing!

White chocolate or Classic? 🥴

Her trio work is pretty stunning. She’s got such a great feel as a player. She certainly has the bass chops but she always strikes me as so much more melodic and tuneful than a lot of the shreddy jazz bassists out there. Worth checking out some of her live gigs on YouTube...

Already mentioned but for me my “Do” doubles are: Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of War of the Worlds, and Out of the Blue, ELO Probably cheating but I’ll add it anyway: Star Wars - Original Soundtrack, John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra. Got it for my birthday in August 1977. Loved it then, still love it now.

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).