joe_geezer

When you say Can you be more descriptive and break down exactly what aspects of a modern Wal attain your 'level' status, thanks. Have you had the opportunity to play a modern Wal and & compare it to an original Wal?

Thanks, also, if you compare Wal to 2 other great english bass manufacturers - Status & Jaydee, both with reasonable wait times and excellent value, as well as excellent build quality, I have a new Jaydee and it's up there with any Alembic, the level of detail is unreal! I would have liked a Wal because i like the fretless sounds of Percy Jones, John Giblin and Laurence Cottle... Im a jazz bassist so a Wal fretless is a great bass for that genres but under the current situation, its just not feasible for me.

Thats funny, yea i went the opposite root, had a career in music until i hit 40 and then switched to become a software developer... I have 7 bass guitars now & 2 Jaydees on order haha!

It's not a stereo type in my case, they are some of the people i know... I used to be a pro musician myself and all the top level pros played mid priced instruments as they were all broke, including me at the time.

Great story!

I can't argue with that, its just a shame younger gifted players won't have the opportunity to carry on the Wal legacy, the Wal ownership club will continue to be only for middle aged doctors and lawyers that can barely string 2 notes together

There are some folks that cannot afford the £6000+ for a bolt on instrument. I'm not rich but I could afford one tomorrow, no problem, but I would never condone the prices and you can't force me to either, respectfully. I wonder if Waller and Pete would have wanted Wal's legacy to live on as a company that only creates bass guitars for the privileged few...

And that's a shame that under Wal's current owners & business model (which is not the same business model as Waller's, who made affordable basses with reasonable wait times) you will not own one.

Great comment!

So, would the general consensus be, that folk, are happy that they probably will never have the means or the finances to own a Wal & that keeping the prices very high and the wait times very long is actually a positive sign that Wal are making great instruments - even if none of use will ever own one... ? If we compare Wal to Alembics then Wals seem cheap as Alembics go for £18,000. Alembic basses are constructed with more exotic woods, a more time consuming process, lots of mother of pearl and gold plated metal work .etc - they are like the Rolls Royce of basses. Wals are bolt on & if you compare other top end bolt on basses like Pensa, Sadowsky .etc they are in the $5000+ range. Wal's were always competitively priced back when Waller and pete the fish were running the show... and those instruments were fantastically built, i'm not sure I agree as some people have mentioned that they were sub standard - if that was the case then Geddy Lee, Paul Mccartney, Percy Jones etc. etc. wouldnt have played and loved them.

I played many original Wals and never found any to be second rate, on the contrary they were at least as good as a Fodera, Alembic... i must have been lucky

If Wal were to hire an extra 2 contractors, that would at least halve the waiting times, would that be a positive move or do you think even that would degrade the quality of Wals?

I remember going in to the Bass Gallery in the early 2000s and seeing a wall of secondhand Wals, i think they were prices at £800 - £1200 back then. Then Waller died & the prices started creeping up as demand grew with the help of ebay etc. So is the price hike reflective of supply and demand, not on the actual materials or man hours building? Here's the Wal prices from 2001 https://web.archive.org/web/20010813174714/http://www.thebassgallery.com/index2.html click on the top left broken image link, which links to the bass page, then click on "Other Basses" , scroll down and youll see the Wal prices

Do you know how they were able to use the brand name, did they purchase it off Ian Waller's family?

I'm good thanks in camp Jaydee... but thanks for caring

Good point

Should Wal scale up their operation, employ a few more makers / apprentices to meet the demand at a more affordable price? Are the current owners of the Wal brand starving the market of an iconic English bass guitar manufacturer? Do you think if Wal scaled up their operation it could potentially reduce the quality of their instruments? OR are you happy that only a few Wals are made a year and then that keeps Wal prices high? Making a Wal bass a great investment. Would you rather the Wal owners sell up to a team that could reduce the 4+ year wait times to order a bass? Love to hear you thoughts on this subject?

Wow, that reminds me of the tone that John Giblin use to get from his Wal! Looks stunning!

Thanks for that

Are the GA's 34" scale length?

Wow, it reminds me a bit of one of Mark King's Alembic Series 2 basses... do you own or have you owned any supernaturals?

I love this bass & there is also a few others built in the last few years, i think there's also a quilted maple version some one ordered... Just out of interest, how long did your build take & what model is it based (or is it based on a ga24 but with all the custom extras?).