stu77

Hi, Thanks for the reply and yeah, that's about as far as I've got as well. Same body shape and headstock etc but different spec! I'll get there in the end unless mine is some kind of prototype but I think it's a production model, just not sure what one?!!

Hi All, Been a long time since I last posted but trying to pin down what model bass my new Aria is? Closest I get is the SB 404 but that's a multi laminate through neck and this is a bolt on. I'm sure someone out there will recognise it immediately so any help greatly appreciated. Cheers, Stu

...........but then i just found this info and a pic of paul turner, so looks like maybe another dead end (is it me or is that jazz bass yellow as well?):

Sunshine

Bass – Paul TurnerConductor [Strings], Arranged By [Strings] – Nick IngmanContractor [Orchestra Contractor] – Isobel Griffiths Ltd.Guitar – Graham KearnsKeyboards – Peter GordinoMixed By – Jeremy WheatleyProducer, Keyboards, Clavinet – Mike Peden*Programmed By – Charlie RussellRecorded By – Martin HaylesWritten-By – D. Mar-Molinero*, S. Keith*

ok, further to trevor's brilliant initial detective work i've just done a search for "gareth gates.......musicians, backing band, who played on...." etc etc and unfortunately so far nothing coming up? why is is that backing musicians don't get the credit they deserve sometimes? i guess if it was just a paid session then ok but they still should get a credit somewhere. anyway, i've even just emailed a guy selling a dvd of the 2003 concerts on eBay to see if the personal are listed! be great to find out who the guy is in the clips and see if he's still playing the same bass elsewhere (if he even is a bass player as trev suspected as well?). anyone with a gareth gates cd that lists the personal get back to me (anonymously if you prefer, haha).

On 1/13/2018 at 19:14, TrevorR said:

And they keep on coming thick and fast...

 

 

 

WOW, WOW, WOW!!!!! that must be it but i'll contact paul and see if he knows of any other yellow ones as unlikely as that seems? so anyone know who this guy is and did he hire it or own it? you'd think from the many appearances that it may have been his own but then again maybe it belonged to the production company (you know their budgets back then) and that's why it's in limbo so to speak, company goes bust, no-one to actually claim it, office clearance guys come around and toss it in the back of the van?! further research needed i think. so what year was this and pardon my ignorance but what's the gallery (i'm assuming a shop somewhere down denmark street but it doesn't ring a bell)? nice one trevor for dragging up that memory from gawd knows where!!!? the mystery continues!

8 hours ago, mikeswals said:

I'll pile on to say 'wow', very nice bass you got. I like the color. Yup looks to be made after '89. 

The only control that doesnt have a pull up feature is the mixer pot. If one of your tone pots isnt pulling, then its stuck, which certainly can happen. I freed one of mine up by removing the knob up top and dribbling a tiny bit of Deoxit on a toothpick and carefully channeling a couple of drips down the shaft, reinstall the knob and work it in.

As for the eq controls, my normal playing style is leaving the knobs down 99% of the time, just filter off high end a couple of notches. I only pull up when I want something pretty extreme...my Mesa amps are very bright as-is, so very rarely do I go looking for more trebly. 

Great, thanks for the advice on the sticky pot, i'll give that a try. I have a can of servisol switch cleaner which I'm guessing is similar to Deoxit? 

4 hours ago, NickA said:

UNIQUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  :-)

Re:  what the heck do all these controls do?  

Top Neck end is volume: obviously.  But pull it out and it boosts very high frequencies, gives a bit more "pick attack"

Top Bridge end is balance between the two pickups:  also obvious. 

The two bottom knobs are individual low pass filters for the two pickups, knob position sets the low pass frequency - so you can have bass only from the neck and full range from the bridge pickup (which is a popular Wal sound).  Pull out the filter knobs and it boosts the volume at the low pass frequency - and a bit below - also messing with the phase of the pickup so that some frequencies add and some subtract, all kinds of weirdness there; to be used with caution and discretion.   I only discovered recently, from a fellow Wal player, that setting the LP filter to 10 (full range) and pulling it out does boost the high frequencies a bit - should you need more twang.

 

Aha, now that is what I needed to know, thanks for the info. I've tried playing around with the controls and discovered some amazing tones but it's all been purely random chance. Now maybe I can see what really happens. One thing though, the top neck end control isn't a push pull on my bass or else it's seized (which is perhaps more likely). 

13 hours ago, NickA said:

Real shame about the paint job ... there may be lovely tropical hardwood beneath the banana milk!  Does it have facings or is it "just" solid Mahogany? 

Anyway, the sound IS THE THING and I'm sure it will sound fantastic.  Setup is a simple matter of turning screws and there isn't much to go wrong with the electronics.  Truss rod adjusted to give you about a business card thickness of relief.  Bridge height to get a nice low action according to taste.  Pick up height low enough to stop the strings buzzing the pole pieces but high enough to give some punch.  You can tweak the individual pole pieces of the (16!) pickups - to follow the curve of the finger board - but I'm dubious about the worth.  Certainly squirt some switch cleaner into the pots; take off all the brown plastic connectors that join the pcbs together and give them a squirt too before reconnecing.  Have a twiddle with the little blue "pre-set" pots that you can only get at with the cover removed - one changes the "pick attack" setting and the other sets the overall volume - but moving back and forth will clean them up.  And fit a new battery.  Oh ... some (particularly US based) Wal players reckon the electrolytic capacitors can start to leak and that not only spoils the sound it can damage the circuit boards; so have a look at the little black cylinderical capacitors and see if they are either bulging or leading sticky stuff .... if so, get the circuit boards off to Electric Wood ASAP.

.. and enjoy! :¬)

Welcome to planet Wal.

 

Ah, just a plain mahogany body, no facings mentioned on the back of the plate and originally yellow from the workshop according to Paul at electric wood. I love it and i've got it pretty well set up now. It is a truly remarkable bass and I'm so happy to be a citizen of planet wal, I just wish my playing was up to the quality of the instrument  . Thanks for the heads up about the capacitors, i'll have a check of the circuit. 

1 minute ago, Bass Culture said:

Is it a refinish or original do you know? It’s such an unusual colour for a Wal.

according to the plate and the records Paul has at electric wood it's all original. Weird huh? I really like it and I think with the black hardware it really goes in a strange way. Not your usual Wal for sure!

1 minute ago, aguacollas said:

Just curious, does it have the tag in the preamp compartment with the woods used in it?

yeah, it's a mahogany body. It weighs a ton but still comfortable to play on the strap. Absolutely fantastic instrument but what the heck do all these controls do?  

Happy New Year to all Basschat members. 

Ok, so I’ve been dipping in and out of the site for the past month or so to see what’s what (and to read some very interesting / funny threads) but there's nothing new been added to the thread about the Wal and with no news from anywhere else I think it’s time I can actually call it my own. 

So, as promised (if anyone is still interested) here are some pics. As soon as you see them you may understand why I didn’t want to just post pics etc but rather wanted someone to come forward and say “is it serial number $%^$&* and is it such and such a finish?”. Being such a distinctive bass nobody could have guessed the details i don’t think so it would have been pretty apparent that they actually knew the instrument! I can’t imagine there are many like it out there?!!!

as I haven’t heard a thing from anyone about it or even a hint of a mention of it anywhere I’m really hoping that I’ll be it’s new custodian from now on but if these pics throw up any new leads i’ll follow them up for sure.

A little bit about the instrument. It was virtually unplayable when I found it; action was through the roof and the neck was so loose in the pocket it would move from side to side with little effort. I appreciate some people may have liked and played a set up like that (apart from the loose neck perhaps) but I got the feeling it hadn't been played for a while. It all just needed a little tweaking though and now it plays wonderfully, though it does still have some electrical problems. a quick once over by electric wood at some point will sort that I’m sure.

Ok, so over to the pictures to tell the rest of the story. Not a beautifully exotic wood faced instrument and perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea (or glass of banana milk?) but…it’s….a….wonderful…..WAL (and definitely not something you ever expect to find at a bootsale so keep your eyes peeled!). 

On 12/6/2017 at 13:59, TrevorR said:

He said that he had set himself a random date of around the new year after which he'll presume that no-one's coming out of the woodwork and count it as properly his... Patience Mr Fox!

hi guys, sorry not been on here for a while, had a week in bed and not for good reasons, haha! anyway, yeah, patience is the word. if i haven't had any definite claims from anyone by new year i'll accept ownership and plaster the site with pics! i promise you it's not a fake (well not according to paul at electric wood and he should know) and no matter how many of you make offers it's NOT for sale, sorry !

in the meantime, hope you all have a great xmas and new year. btw as i said initially i am mainly a guitarist (and a drummer, though no longer actively playing ) and a terrible gear hound and hoard all kinds of instruments inc basses so thought maybe you'd like to see one that i bought maybe 25 years ago? it's a guild M-85 from the mid 70s i think and has a distinctly "woody" tone! not something you see every day and it may keep your curiosity sated for a while, at least until i reveal the mystery wal anon!  

14 hours ago, NickA said:

Wals are pretty obviously wals. Very hard to fake I'd reckon (specific hardware and particular woods)like andve never seen a fake one.  Outside the bass world of course no one would know what one was or that it was special. But You have to wonder how the seller came by it.

It seems only fair to check the serial number, and maybe get a photo of the internal label and, if you don't want to post here then at least tell electric wood you have it in case anyone reported it lost.

For someone to claim it they'd have to provide proof of previous ownership and a crime report surely.

Hopefully it's all above board and you got lucky..

yeah I already contacted Paul at Wal but no reports there. I put the word out to a few specialist shops also but likewise, nothing reported. It is a mystery for sure!

28 minutes ago, walbassist said:

I once bought a used Wal from a shop in London.

Took it to Pete at Wal HQ for a service and he said it had been nicked a few years earlier.

I gave it straight back to him, and he gave me a brand new Wal as a thank you

wow, that is cool, good for him. from all accounts he was a great bloke. i had a chat with paul at wal about this but he had no records of it being nicked or missing so this old wal will have to do for me i guess! 

1 hour ago, Bass Culture said:

Maybe some partial information to encourage someone who might, just might have parted with it in ignorance to think again - the area of the country it was purchased in, perhaps; number of strings; colour of fingerboard, something which would still need an awful of dots joined to definitely ID it?

Yeah, you're right, might help though I can't imagine anyone who actually played this bass would've got rid of it knowing what it was! As I've said before I think it was passed down to someone who had no idea, maybe a relative / landlord etc. Funnily enough, I was just in a charity shop earlier chatting to one of the staff about records etc and she told me she'd just given away a couple of banjos that belonged to her late husband that had been stuck under the bed for years. Didn't know what make, could've been anything, Gibson, Vega who knows?! Anyway, 4 string, fretted, rosewood board, South of England, made pre-2000. cheers.

1 minute ago, CamdenRob said:

I'm sure you've the best intentions, but to be honest not publishing any details just makes it look like you're concerned it's been nicked and worried someone will be able to identify it ... Then you'll have to give it back.

I'd be trying to find out if it was legit ASAP by putting all the info out there. Although I obviously wouldn't be handing it over to anyone without extensive proof that it belonged to them.

Anyway hopefully it all works out and you've got yourself a wonderful bass, none better in my book

ah, i think i've just figured out how this reply thing works now, you have to hit the quote option yeah? 

yeah, i get you i just thought it's not like anyone would hold back for any reason in telling me the details straight away (though not a peep yet) but the clincher is ONLY they would be able to ID it. i gave paul at wal the serial number to check out but i asked that he please not divulge any build details for the very same reason but if anyone at all can throw some light on this then maybe he can at least tell me the original owner and see if they can add anything (or if recently deceased, though morbid perhaps,  at least that would be a clue). i'm getting new ideas to try everyday so i'll pursue it further and i may be wrong in my approach here but i'm just going by what i feel is best at the moment.

thanks kev, i appreciate that. it's never happened to me before either by the way and like you i never thought i'd get this lucky but i'm sure you'd do the same. i just thought i needed to do something just in case it was the "unaware relative" scenario as i have been there myself as i said. actually now you've got me thinking, maybe someone has been trying to track me down on some art forum somewhere? you know i never even thought to look!!!? 

In all sincerity I think you're missing my point. put it this way, if I posted "I just found a £50 note, it's pink and it's serial number is such and such" what's to stop anyone just saying "yeah, that's mine"? However, if I say I just bought a wal custom MK1 and if anyone can prove it's theirs by  telling me the details and what happened with it, without knowing any details of the instrument I have, then there's no way it could be anyone else's as only "they" would know the specifics. Does that not make sense? 

Thanks Tubbybloke68, I'm trying my best. CamdenRob, That's the whole thing, it definitely would have flagged up somewhere but there's nothing, and it's obviously a pretty specific item and would be hard to miss!!! You're not the first mention it but if I put up the details anyone can just come along and say, "hey that's mine, blah blah blah" (though they'd still have have to prove it I guess) but that's not the idea. If someone PM's me with the details then I'll be absolutely certain they know this instrument intimately. I got in touch with Paul at wal basses this morning but there were no reports of any missing wals there so I still think this forum may well be the best way to go. If the seller just didn't have a clue, as it appears, then there will be no report anywhere anyway and this may be the only way to let them know.

Hi Chris, that would be a brilliant gesture whatever and no worries, I can understand the scepticism (possibly not helped by my first "mysterious" post but I'm getting there!). Please put the word out to anyone you think might help the search. My main thoughts are that someone has died and their relatives don't know what it was, or maybe someone died intestate and the landlord cleared the house / flat so if anyone knows of someone recently deceased who owned a wal, maybe this could be it? Let's see if we can find out one way or another, Cheers, stu.

Hi Skybone, yeah, going to try them tomorrow, see if anything has been reported but I reckon this forum probably has a wider reach overall and surely such a rare Instrument would have flagged up somewhere by now which makes me think whoever had it really didn't know what it was and so isn't actually looking for it? 

Highfox, that's exactly it. And yeah, what a find if it's all cool!!!!  By the way, I'm not sure what I'm doing here, with replies I mean? if I want to reply to individual posts how do I do that (I told you I was new to this, haha)?

Thanks for the replies guys. I can't really put any pictures or details up at the moment because someone could just say "oh yeah that's mine, can I have it back please!" If you see what I mean!!!? I'm really trying to see if someone is missing it for some reason and can send me the spec / serial number etc so I'll know it's definitely theirs and if so connect them back up. It is a fantastic instrument for sure, though it is a bit bashed up!

not sure if this is the right part of the forum to post this but here goes (moderators, if it would be better seen elsewhere please let me know)?
ok, here’s the thing, i mostly play guitar but i recently bought a very interesting bass and wondered if any of you people could assist me with something? When i got home i did some research and i’m pretty sure it’s a Wal custom MK1 and the reason i’m posting on here is because i want to check to see if it was really supposed to have been sold or if the seller made some mistake because it seems to be more valuable than I thought? i have no reason to think the sale was anything but legit but the price i paid for the instrument made me think about it more and I feel a bit uncomfortable that the seller may not have known what they had (after my dad died a while back i sold some paintings that i'm pretty sure sure were a lot more valuable than i thought so it does happen i guess). a friend in the police force told me the best place to start would be on a forum like this (i'm also posting on FB etc) so if anyone has recently (mistakenly) got rid of such an instrument or knows of anyone who has pm me and if they can prove this is their instrument (they’ll know the serial number and details etc i’m sure) i’ll gladly reunite them with it.
i’ve already scoured any sites online that have missing or stolen instrument databases as well as searching FB and doing general google searches but not found anything in relation to this instrument at all so i’m hoping (of course) that i have just been lucky with what I’ve bought but please pass this around anywhere you think might be helpful and get back to me with any info. cheers.

it's great site, thanks.