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Wal custom MK1


stu77

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1 hour ago, Simon. said:

Good grief. That's so bad, it's almost funny!

Yep, but check out the pics in the link, they are more convincing. They won't feel like a Wal in the flesh, but plenty will get sold in various places and people will get burned. I ride Italian bikes, and the 'Chinarello' is now an accepted fact, that is a significant percentage of Pinarello bikes in circulation have turned out to be very very good visual replicas of the real thing (serial numbers etc all as should be the case), albeit far from good functional replicas, and with a couple of tell tale signature faults that the experts check for. That's why I said very early on in this thread that it could be a case of trying to move one of these one. I'm guessing it's not but the lack of any form of evidence to the contrary is increasingly a little odd 

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1 hour ago, Beedster said:

Yep, but check out the pics in the link, they are more convincing. They won't feel like a Wal in the flesh, but plenty will get sold in various places and people will get burned. I ride Italian bikes, and the 'Chinarello' is now an accepted fact, that is a significant percentage of Pinarello bikes in circulation have turned out to be very very good visual replicas of the real thing (serial numbers etc all as should be the case), albeit far from good functional replicas, and with a couple of tell tale signature faults that the experts check for. That's why I said very early on in this thread that it could be a case of trying to move one of these one. I'm guessing it's not but the lack of any form of evidence to the contrary is increasingly a little odd 

I agree with you. The number of good fakes out there of so many things is alarming, and not a little bit depressing. The 'so bad, it's almost funny' comment was intended to be directed at just how appallingly bad a rip off those fake Wals are. The fact that they use images of genuine Wal's, with the logo (really badly) pixelated out, is just ... well, I'm not sure what term to use. Just rubbish.

I would love a Wal, especially a Mk1, but they are way beyond my budget. I'd never stoop to a knock-off copy like these though. It would be nice to think the guys at Wal had the resources to be able to take legal action against these kind of rip-offs, but it's a pointless exercise when the legal system in China will never find in favour of non-local manufacturers, even when the evidence it totally clear.

Edited by Simon.
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2 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Apart from the pics of that one particular bass (which is hideous and looks obviously fake IMHO), the rest of the pics have been lifted from the Wal site.

Indeed... in fact this pic of “one of the basses they can make for you” (yeah, sure!)...

mk1_4(2).jpg

...is actually scanned from Wal’s own promotional leaflet. You can even see the writing on the other side through the paper! Here’s the original scan from my website with all the same wrinkles in the paperWalCustomFlier1.jpg!

 

 

 

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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! :) 

Guild M85 bass : 180.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

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!). 

DSCF6303.jpg

DSCF6304.jpg

DSCF6309.jpg

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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? :) 

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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!

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  • 2 weeks later...

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.

 

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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. 

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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.

 

Edited by NickA
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I have a great love of "sideboard" instruments.  I guess it comes from owning a double bass then being bombarded with Wals and Warwicks in my yoof.

All 4 of my basses (5 inc DB) are well worth a good polish :¬).  One day though, I will buy a Stingray, and it will be painted, preferably stealth BLACK with a black pick guard (and black gear)!  It's all a bit pervy, I know,  but each to his own ;¬) :¬)

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