TrevorR

I blame Markbass with their thoughtlessly named New York range of combos!

Not gigging at the mo, but this is my rig for gigs... sparkly curtain optional. Nowadays a pedalboard might be included. Might not though. The Markbass replaced this fella who served me for a couple of decades...

We used to do The Joker by Steve Miller and slip in a touch of Don't Fear The Reaper. A chum of mine used to play organ at a church I went to and would improvise around a classical piece for the collection. After the service when we were having coffee I would be challenged to identify the "classic" on which his variation might be based... "Money makes the world go round", "Money, Money, Money", "Ain't too proud to beg", "Money" (Pink Floyd or Flying Lizards versions), "Ain't nothin going on but the rent"... convinced no one else in the congregation sussed.

[quote name='funkgod' timestamp='1477653628' post='3163585'] Hi trev prob pending how much time they had on their hands at the time, mine is 82 and is definitely wax polished finished, i remember pete talking about it when i had another refinished, if i had another one made i would go for body stripes and a hand finish [/quote] Cool! That's the thing with Wals, being hand built there are loads of variations and anomalies. Partly because they were open to people making non-standard orders but also because they were the types who would try stuff out... vis the transition Pro/Custom models with the inlaid coach-lining etc. However long I've been geeking out over Wal basses there's still always something new to learn!

I suppose I should join in... About 5 years ago... About 10 years ago... Before the flood! Still own and play all those basses!

Just had a squint on their eBay shop and they're consistently selling mid range gear at £2-300 over the usual market price. A natural Cort A4 for £900 anyone? £800 for a Washburn AB10? As others have said, nothing strictly illegal but it does make me frown a bit at that attitude, caveat emptor or not.

Actually, do you have any idea how little good audio/video quality footage of Japan post '81 is available on YouTube? Most of it is not available on mobile platforms or has been blocked by BBC Worldwide. And on their really good OGWT show Mick's playing oboe for half of it!! But have stuck on a few more verifiably Karn/Wal tracks...

[quote name='matski' timestamp='1477659437' post='3163652'] Not to be too much of a pedant, but actually the (original) version of Quiet Life on Trevor's Playlist features the Travis Bean and not the Wal shown in the video. This clip was filmed later when the song was re-released and Mick Karn was just swapping to using Wal at that point. [/quote] #shock! Surely you're not implying that he's miming in the video????? #lol

If I get your requirements right... main stereo out plus 4 separate aux outs per channel you do just need to go up in spec and up in price... there is a Behringer desk on GAK that has 4 dedicated aux per channel plus monitor and fx sends for each. However, that's in the £600 price range. But a compromise might be this https://www.gak.co.uk/en/behringer-zenyx-qx2442usb-mixer/101213 , the Behringer Xenyx QX2442USB Mixer. Each channel has 2 dedicated aux sends plus a monitor and an fx send. You could use the monitor send and the FX send as Aux 3 and Aux 4 (because that's all they are really). Price for that one is £327. Dearer but not that much dearer...

I've never had the opportunity but it would be really interesting to have the chance to have a compare/contrast between the two - esp if they were similarly specced . As you said, clearly some inspiration behind the design/approach (which is fair enough). I keep looking at ACGs and thinking that they look like really nicely put together, well built basses and very reasonably priced for what they offer at all spec levels. However, for me they're just one of those brands where the aesthetics of any of the models don't do it for me.

[quote name='casapete' timestamp='1477341294' post='3161624'] 73 is no age either. Always loved his version of 'Take good care of my baby', one of Carole King's best pop songs. RIP. [/quote] I forgot that was a Goffin and King number!

If the OP has been playing trombone for years and has learned his way around a bass neck by ear I would have thought there was some simple cross application of knowledge. From trombone presumably he knows what major and minor scales sound like, and how the intervals within those scales work in relation to the tonic and each other? A first step would be to learn the notes on the bass neck up to the 7th fret on each string and then expand that to the 12th. Then learn some basic movable scale shapes (major, minor, and pentatonic). Then from that work out the shapes for each interval in the major and minor scale. In combination those would give a lot of info and codification of what was being played even by ear, what chord tones were included in the lines being played and what intervals. It would also provide suggestions for other notes within lines both for working out songs or creating lines. Now I know... before anyone says, "Play the notes not the shapes". That's all well and good, but scale and chord shapes are a good way of starting to relate notes in lines to the physical space on the fingerboard, to internalise the board and build intuition and muscle memory. They have a very useful place in starting out. In this context the transposing nature of the trombone vs the non transposing nature of the bass is a red herring. If the music or chord sheet says C then play a C. If the chord is a C major play notes and intervals within the C major scale, to begin with, adding whatever blue or grace notes feel right... Don't over think it.

Another top voice of the early years of rock and roll has gone. Maybe never in the league of the Presley's, Vincent's etc but he recorded some fine tunes. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-37756170

Like others, all are important to me. However, my prime concern would be the bass. That's the primary interface between me and the sound and so I really want it to feel right under my fingers. It's the sound source... GIGO... Amps I have almost always run flat or near flat anyway. Cabs I've had less experience swapping and changing. But all my gear is Of at least a decent quality. That's a must for me. Thing is I don't want any of the items in the signal chain to be completely rubbish. And with any averagely good gear, of course I'd be able to play fine although maybe with less ultimate pleasure in the playing. However if it's a choice of 1 brilliant element and the rest perfectly servicible I'll go with a great bass every time. If it's a choice of 1 brilliant element and the rest of the gear absolute dogs... I'd probably still go for bass...

Thanks. It was great fun to do. Nick's idea for last year's Bass Bash. Some unashamed geekery!

[quote name='spectoremg' timestamp='1477261199' post='3161020'] Which is the case for many other basses at a quarter of the cost. I'm starting to smell Wal-elitism (Walism). [/quote] Nope, those of us who love Wals love them because we really rate them and they do it for us look, feel and sound wise. Others may hate them (and there are plenty of threads here that espouse their fuglyness), consider their tone controls too complicated or find their design or neck shape ungainly. There are plenty of basses that for me have been hit by the ugly stick too whether they are Bongos, ACGs, Foderas or pretty much any modern single cut. Doesn't mean that those who extol their beauty, playability or sound are elitist either... they're just fans too. Cf the response to any other enthused after bass on here whether it's P bass fanatics... "They just sit in a mix like no other bass", "Its only one sound but, boy, what a sound." "It's not just a one sound bass, they're really versatile." etc etc or whatever. I'd call that enthusiasm not snobbery (inverted or otherwise). As to Wals. I'm a fan. No arguments there. Does that mean I look down on other basses or those who play them? Don't be ridiculous. However, I will say that, for me they play beautifully ("for me", underlined twice in red pencil with a ruler) and I am able to get a range of tones out of my Wal bass that I've genuinely not found on any other active or passive bass I've tried out. They are exquisitely hand built in small numbers using almost only proprietary hardware (the tuners, strap buttons and fret wire being the only off the shelf items I can think of on a Wal). The OP asked what it was that Wal fans love about Wal basses and why they seem to be so highly rated by many. In that context a bunch of posts from past and present owners saying, "I know I'm biased but in my eyes they're fab because..." really isn't elitism. It's justifiable enthusiasm in response to a request for enthusiasm from a bunch of enthusiasts. I love my Wals and I love playing them but it doesn't mean I look down on the Aria SB700 I was playing this morning and this evening - though I will concede that, as lovely as it played and sounded in my eyes the Wal is a better more versatile bass. Just is.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1477218475' post='3160578'] We are told (with some vehemence...) in another topic, that, with judicious EQ from a Good PA System, one may get a more-than-adequate bass drum sound from a humble biscuit tin (this may be slight exaggeration...)... [/quote] Yeah, but you didn't ACTUALLY believe that did you? ;-) [quote name='funkgod' timestamp='1477223609' post='3160628'] There are some sounds a wal can get that no other bass on the planet can get. here is one if your into dub reggae or ragga, pick up pot to neck pick up only neck tone to "0" pot pulled out vol pot 10 also pulled out for pick attack. that sound is the lowest bass sound i have ever heard but still has a high click to it, but still tight sounding, you wont find that on any other bass. wal players will know what i mean big fat and lush, [/quote] Used pretty much that sound (though I had the tones on 2 and 8) every time we ever played Roxanne, Walking On The Moon, No Woman No Cry, One Love or It Must Be Love! A lot of people talk about "The Wal Sound" which it true but they often kinda follow that with "But what if I don't want to sound like Geddy Lee in the late 80s?" which misses the point completely. The Wal is a hugely versatile bass with an astonishing range of amazing tones which it can produce. It can bark but it can purr and roar too. Compare Percy Jones with Geddy with Bruce Thomas with Lol Cottle with Colin Moulding, with Macca, with Colin Edwin, with Colin Bass, with John Illsley... many colours of chalk with many flavours of cheese.

[quote name='spectoremg' timestamp='1477205916' post='3160459'] You really like Wals don't you. [/quote] #favebassever Bah! That YouTube playlist doesn't show how much I like Wals... ...THIS shows how much I like Wals! http://youtu.be/Cot2EN0JrS0

Alan Spenner... what a bass genius! Mind you, Gary Tibbs wasn't to shabby on his Wal nor was Johnny Gus on a Wal bass built by Wal before he built Wal basses... Thoroughly Waltastic band, Roxy!

Those deserve a proper embed... [quote name='funkgod' timestamp='1477172310' post='3160389'] If you want a bass to punch through the mix tight and punchy a wal is as good as it gets. here is the late [u]great [/u]"Alan Spenner" showing how to punch through a mix, you gotta love his playing....enjoy [url="http://www.youtube....h/?v=o2V-VzQ8kV0"]http://www.youtube....h/?v=o2V-VzQ8kV0[/url] [url="http://www.youtube....h/?v=1pv-Iokvimc"]http://www.youtube....h/?v=1pv-Iokvimc[/url] [/quote] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2V-VzQ8kV0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pv-Iokvimc

The Wal sound couldn't be further from that... Famed for their growl and their middle but humongously versatile too. You might want to have a browse at my blog which should give you quite a bit to chew over... [url="http://walbasshistory.blogspot.co.uk/"]http://walbasshistory.blogspot.co.uk/[/url] Then check out some Wal tones in action. Here's my Youtube playlist... [url="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGIYNBxcSZ3uo0Dv4GUoVf-4yKXu7xmKT"]https://www.youtube....UoVf-4yKXu7xmKT[/url] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1d4r9awjKE&list=PLGIYNBxcSZ3uo0Dv4GUoVf-4yKXu7xmKT[/media]

[font=Calibri][size=3][color=#000000]My “go to”…[/color][/size][/font] [font=Calibri][size=3][color=#000000][/color][/size][/font] [font=Calibri][size=3][color=#000000]And my near as darn it “go to”…[/color][/size][/font] [font=Calibri][size=3][color=#000000][/color][/size][/font]

Tidied up to take account of some cut and paste oddness... Glad you like it. Oddly, it really is the best, most accessible explanation I've come across of how different effects work!

For those who wonder how a chorus or compressor or whatever works and makes the sound it makes I thought I'd post this fab explanation from a sadly defunct effects company. This is just brilliant. Enjoy! [url="http://www.monkeyfx.co.uk/guides.html"]http://www.monkeyfx.co.uk/guides.html[/url] [b]Guides[/b] The MonkeyFX guides were created by Andi Allan as a response to a request for a simple explanation for how an envelope filter works, posted on the Harmony Central forums (acapella.harmony-central.com). Due to enthusiastic response, they grew quickly to the format you see now, i.e. very scruffy indeed. [b]Envelope Filter[/b] Envelope filter is a bit like an automatic wah (not to be confused with auto-wah). Imagine that you have a wah pedal and a well-trained monkey. When you hit the strings hard, the monkey pushes the rocker pedal forwards. As the volume decreases the monkey pulls the rocker pedal back. So the volume envelope of the guitar signal determines the position of the pedal, via the monkey. Now imagine that the monkey is a tiny monkey hidden in a pedal, and that the rocker pedal is a rocker pedal hidden inside your stomp box. Then it's a simple step to imagine that there's actually no monkey or rocker pedal, and that it's all done in electronics. So basically, if you hit the strings hard you get a treble boost, and as the signal from the strings dies away the boost fades. If you regulate how hard you play, you can get a similar sound to how many people use wah, emphasising the upper frequencies as you hit the strings. [b]Harmoniser[/b] A harmoniser is a specialised pitch shifter. I'll break out the monkeys again for an analogy-rich description, if I may. Imagine that there is a well-trained monkey. This monkey has a pair of headphones on, through which he can hear what you're playing. He also has a guitar that sounds just like your one. There's a dial on the front of the box where you choose what key you're playing in, and another that lets you choose what interval you want (e.g. a fifth, a major third or whatever else). The monkey looks at what you've chosen on the two dials, hears what you're playing and plays a note at that interval in the scale you've chosen. His signal and yours are mixed together and fed back out. As in previous analogies, imagine that the monkey is inside the pedal/rack unit, and is tiny, with a tiny guitar and a tiny pair of headphones. Then simply imagine that there isn't really a monkey, and that it's all done with some very clever electronics. Ta da! [b]Analog Delay[/b] Imagine a line of laid back, hippy monkeys, each with a guitar just like yours. They're sitting on little stools in a cunning arrangement such that each monkey can only hear the monkey sat before him. The first monkey hears what you played, turns to the next monkey and plays it back to him. He then turns, and plays to the next monkey. At each stage, little mistakes are introduced due to the hippy monkeys' inherent laid-back-ness. At the end, the last monkey plays, and his guitar is connected to the output. The monkeys are in a big big circle, and the first monkey, as well as hearing what you're playing, can also hear the last monkey - but not very well. There's a baffle between them, which cuts down how much he can hear. The first monkey plays both what you're playing and what he can hear of what the last monkey is playing, and this is passed on as before. Now imagine the monkeys are tiny, as before, with tiny guitars and tiny stools and a tiny baffle. They're in a box. A knob labelled "feedback" controls the baffle. Then, kapoosh! The monkeys disappear and are replaced by a Bucket Brigade chip, and off we go. [b]Digital delay[/b] Exactly the same as analog delay, but there are many more monkeys, and they're all actuaries and very precise. Some people miss the laid-back-ness of the hippy monkeys, but many like knowing that little actuary monkeys are taking very good care of what they're playing. Some of the monkeys know special tricks, like making what they play come out of the output even though they're not the last monkey. [b]Chorus[/b] Thousands of monkeys are sat on stools in a large hall. Each has a guitar like yours (getting repetitive yet?). They are all sat at different distances from you, and hence hear what you're playing at different times. As soon as you start to play, they all copy what you're playing. In an analog chorus, laid-back hippy monkeys (see analog delay) are used; in a digital delay straight-laced actuary monkeys are used. Because they are all playing just slightly out of sync with you, it gives a much richer, fuller sound. In most types of chorus, the monkeys are actually sitting on an old-style fairground carousel, and therefore each gets nearer and further away from you, hence playing with a different delay as the carousel turns and giving a warbled sound. Yada yada tiny tiny monkeys yada yada. Nice knob controls how fast the carousel spins. Ta da! [b]Phaser[/b] Similar, overall, to chorus, but there are only, typically, 2, 4, 8, or maybe 12 monkeys in total. Phaser gives a sucked, whooshing noise. [b]Flanger[/b] Two monkeys. One has a guitar just like yours, but with a tremolo bridge (if yours doesn't have one). He plays the same notes as you, but the other monkey is quite mischievous and is constantly wobbling the tremolo arm up and down. When the sound of the first monkey's guitar is mixed with yours, the subtle pitch differences create a whooshing, almost jet-like sound. Some flangers use several teams of monkey guitarists and tremolo wobblers. [b]Compression[/b] Picture the scene. Sicily, 1947. A monkey. With a volume pedal. He has tinnitus, so he doesn't like loud noises, but needs things to be a certain volume level in order to hear them, poor little mite. He is wearing headphones. When you play, if it's too loud, he turns the volume down a little. If it's too quiet, he turns it up. He can do this quite quickly if he wants, but there's a big dial in front of him, telling him how fast he's allowed to turn the volume control. There's another control that determines how loud his headphones are compared to your guitar. Pop the little chap in a box and paint it (traditionally) blue and off you go. Oh, it might be a good idea to replace him with some sort of electronics gubbins, to save his poor hearing. Some compressors allow you to have a little effect loop in between your guitar and his headphones, so that you could (for instance) have him only listen to the bass part of your guitar sound, but work the volume control according to that. [b]Solid State Overdrive[/b] Take an infinite number of monkeys, each with a guitar. The first is a third the size you are, and plays notes at 3 times the pitch of yours. The second is 1/5th the size of you and plays at five times your pitch, and the third is 1/7th the size of you and plays at seven times your pitch, and so on for the rest. The smaller monkeys are quieter than the larger ones, as you'd expect. They all play along with you, and the sound from each guitar is added into your signal. This gives quite a harsh fuzzy sound. [b]Tube Overdrive[/b] As above, but now the monkeys are different sizes. The first monkey and guitar are half the size of yours, and therefore play an octave higher than you. The next is a quarter the size of you, and plays two octaves higher, the next 1/6th the size of you and plays at 6 times your pitch and so on. Again, this gives a fuzzier sound, but one that's much smoother and easier on the ears than the SS overdrives. [b]Fuzz[/b] Essentially the same as solid-state overdrive, but the monkeys play louder, with the end result that the sound coming out is very very messy indeed. The monkeys particularly like this, because they get to play good and loud and generally make a racket. Fuzz monkeys are generally fed the most bananas. [b]Boutique FX[/b] Boutique FX function in basically the same way as non-boutique FX, with the following differences: 1) They only use free-range monkeys, who are very well fed and trained and love their work. 2) They are almost exclusively made with analog, hippy monkeys. 3) The monkeys, instead of having stools, have comfy designer chairs to sit on. Lay-z-boys are particularly popular. The boxes they live in are also brightly decorated, which the monkeys love. These factors combine to make many people think that boutique FX produce better sound, due to the happier monkeys. However, these monkeys are very expensive to raise, and so the boutique FX tend to cost many more bananas to buy. There is much debate as to whether it's worth it. [b]Univibe[/b] Again, a monkey sitting on a stool. He plays the same thing as you, but there's another monkey spinning the first monkey's stool rapidly. This makes the first monkey dizzy, and the sound his guitar makes is therefore rather warbly. It's like a combination of flanger and chorus. Univibe is seen as rather cruel to the monkey on the stool, and therefore many guitarists prefer the sound of a Leslie speaker cabinet, in which a speaker (or two speakers) is/are rotated by a motor. Many say that the Leslie is much superior in sound as well, but they're bigger, heavier and more expensive than even a boutique monkey based univibe.