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Wal specs


LewisK1975

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Hi All,

I have decided that at some point in the next few years, I will own a Wal.

I don't know 100% which MK yet, but I was wondering, do they make the neck to dimensions you can specify? Or do they have a standard neck size, and then anything different would be an 'extra'?  I'm specifically talking about nut width if that helps!

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3 hours ago, LewisK1975 said:

Hi All,

I have decided that at some point in the next few years, I will own a Wal.

I don't know 100% which MK yet, but I was wondering, do they make the neck to dimensions you can specify? Or do they have a standard neck size, and then anything different would be an 'extra'?  I'm specifically talking about nut width if that helps!

Paul will make anything you ask. I presume there would be some form of charge. Normal nut width on a 4 string is 42mm and the neck profile is a soft V shape.

Edited by Wolverinebass
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On 1/29/2018 at 15:36, LewisK1975 said:

Hi All,

I have decided that at some point in the next few years, I will own a Wal.

I don't know 100% which MK yet, but I was wondering, do they make the neck to dimensions you can specify? Or do they have a standard neck size, and then anything different would be an 'extra'?  I'm specifically talking about nut width if that helps!

I totally get it - but if you haven't played a Wal before ensure you try before you buy. They are (in my opinion) a bit Marmite. Something of an acquired taste.

Despite being my dream bass I just couldn't live with mine. The build quality was sublime, and the filter pre-amp is to die for...yet it just felt wrong to me.

Not a criticism of Wal basses, I really admire them, but just wasn't for me.

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13 hours ago, White Cloud said:

I totally get it - but if you haven't played a Wal before ensure you try before you buy. They are (in my opinion) a bit Marmite. Something of an acquired taste.

Despite being my dream bass I just couldn't live with mine. The build quality was sublime, and the filter pre-amp is to die for...yet it just felt wrong to me.

Not a criticism of Wal basses, I really admire them, but just wasn't for me.

Thanks, Sage advice indeed, I fell foul of this with a 4003 I bought.

Luckily, a chap I know who lives nearby has a rather nice mk1 which I'm intending to have a proper try out on.

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funnily enough, I've had exactly this discussion with Paul himself this week 

Similar to the OP, I am determined to get a new Wal - had a couple in the past (dating from the '80s and '90s) love the sound, but they weren't to my specs (one was second hand, one was new but built to somebody else's specs so was ready to pick up if i wanted one straight away, which i did at the time) and I never felt that they were "my" basses, so have been planning to get one to my exact requirements.  And one of the niggles was that the necks were a little chunky - still very playable, and had that gorgeous sound, but, well, not quite "my" bass.  So I figured I'd go for a new one and get exactly what I want.

Here's his reply (only helps if you're after a five string):

Here are our standard 5-string dimensions:
>
>Neck width @ nut= 46.7mm and @ 24th fret = 71.5mm/2.82''
>Neck depth @ 2nd fret =21.9mm/0.86'' and @ 12th = 24.18/0.95''
>Bridge saddle center spacing = 17mm/0.67''

This is almost identical to my thru-neck Warwick (that is extremely slim and fast) - a mm or two out at most, so I'm very happy.  Does make me wonder if it's my perception that the old Wals were chunkier because of how it felt at the top end, or if they were just made chunkier, either back in the day or for a particular order.

One other point to raise, having just pulled the trigger and paid the deposit (yesterday).  There's no way to disguise the fact that the price is a lot of money for a bass so I've been putting it off because I didn't have the cash lying around looking for a home.  I'm fortunate enough to get a bonus each year, and in a good year that would cover the cost, but assumes that I don't spend it on anything, and my dreams of a new bass this year were dashed when my laptop and hoover packed up, to be added to the list of other stuff that I need to spend some of the bonus on.

Then the penny dropped that it's going to take two years to build the bass, and I don't need to pay for all of it up front.  So I asked for details. 

£1k up front, which is non-returnable (slightly more if you pay by PayPal to cover the extra admin costs).  That gets you a specs sheet to confirm what you're after.  Then nothing for six to nine months, when Paul gets round to starting on the neck, at which point he wants another £1k.  And that's all you need to pay until it's ready.

So for me I don't need to find £6-7k from this year's bonus, I only need to find £2k, which I can do, and means I place the order now rather than putting it off for another year (so that's a new Wal in two years time rather than three). Excess pay will be going into a savings account/Wal fund, and by the time next year's bonus gets added that should cover everything well ahead of time.

 

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best idea is to drop Paul a message through the Wal website and just ask for the specs so you're in no doubt.  His answer to my question about how slim can he make it because the old ones were a bit tubbier than my Warwick wasn't quite "you tell me what you want and I'll build it" but more along the lines of "this is what we do as standard, how does that compare with the dimensions of the neck you're thinking of?"

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3 hours ago, Highfox said:

I just got my Wal and I will say the necks feel a bit more V-shapped than the rounded P's and Jazz's  and Warwicks etc that I have been used to playing.

I think I will learn to love it :)

Cool! When you've finished weeping with joy, do remember to add loads of pics to your NBD thread!

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2 hours ago, LewisK1975 said:

Cool! When you've finished weeping with joy, do remember to add loads of pics to your NBD thread!

Will do, once I can put it down.

There is also nothing I have played like the way the Wal pickups seem to compress and even out the sound from string to string, then there is always that unmistakable growl! :)

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3 minutes ago, Highfox said:

Will do, once I can put it down.

There is also nothing I have played like the way the Wal pickups seem to compress and even out the sound from string to string, then there is always that unmistakable growl! :)

I always thought that Wal could make a fortune by giving up making the basses and just selling the pickups and electronics.  I'd certainly put them on all my other basses

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44 minutes ago, Monkey Steve said:

I always thought that Wal could make a fortune by giving up making the basses and just selling the pickups and electronics.  I'd certainly put them on all my other basses

Yup!  Or even just sell them separately anyway, but I expect they wouldn't sell as many Basses then....

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8 hours ago, Monkey Steve said:

I always thought that Wal could make a fortune by giving up making the basses and just selling the pickups and electronics.  I'd certainly put them on all my other basses

I totally agree and have often thought that too

Does Alan at ACG not sell filter based pre-amps? I heave heard they are also amazing!

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On 1/31/2018 at 11:14, Monkey Steve said:

 

interesting..... so Paul raised the deposit amount to £1000?? it'd been £500 for a long time.  wonder if he changed this in lieu of the new standard pricing?

Edited by kulit17
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On 01/02/2018 at 21:36, White Cloud said:

I totally agree and have often thought that too

Does Alan at ACG not sell filter based pre-amps? I heave heard they are also amazing!

Like Wal, his filter pre-amps and multi-coil pickups are only available when buying an ACG bass.

John East makes the pre-amps for ACG and you can buy the EQ01 filter pre-amp from him, but it's more basic than the EQ02 you can get in an ACG bass.

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Hi

You can buy the EQ01 directly from me or John East. 

 

The preamp amp I use in my own basses is the DFM the EQ02 was discontinued a while back. This along with the MC Series pickups are not available outside of the basses. The DFM is the fourth version of the pre-amp and will probably be the last having got it where I want it. The EQ01 was the first version made but has had the spec updated as we have moved through the different versions. 

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On 01/02/2018 at 09:46, LewisK1975 said:

Can't stop listening to Youtube clips of Wals at the moment.

It's just that SOUND.

I'm not sure I've ever heard a better bottom end, and they ALL have it.

YMMV!

Here you go, Lewis, a little more temptation... or rather 72 temptations and counting...

 

 

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