Kev

Beautiful! Can't wait to see how this turns out!

I made an ugly laugh sound when I read this, what on earth was the rationale?

That's the kind of toilet i'd treat myself to a sit down wee on, lovely stuff! Although I'm not sure my experience of Bongos is a polite sound? Remember them sounding pretty gnarly when digging in!

Turn into? It's literally how the thread began

If everyone had my attitude, Wal basses would still be £3k used and you may have been able to afford

Ah I can see you have to expand the dropdown, or at least on my browser. So, you're added to a waiting list, and they'll contact you when you can order. So my point remains unchanged really. I just can't relate to that level of impatience I suppose! True, but Wal basses today are built in almost the exact same way as they were 30 years ago, which is why it differs so much from value attributed to vintage Fenders and the like. It isn't disputed by any Wal owner that the current build are at least equal to the builds of old, albeit you get the occasional chancer who tries to ask more for one built by Ian Waller, but doesn't really succeed IME. And noble preamps are a whole other discussion

It's just reached this uniquely silly position that anyone taking delivery of their new Wal bass in January will instantly make a sizeable profit if they wanted to sell it on. I just don't really know who is buying them at this price, and what their justification is. Has anyone on here paid £10k+ for a used Wal who can fill us in? Again, the comparison with Fender and investment calls back to value attributed to it being a vintage instrument, which doesn't apply here. There are hundreds more Wals in the world now compared to 10 years ago, whereas there will likely be hundreds less 70s Fenders due to their advancing age.

Is the book closed? I wasn't actually aware of that, didn't see anything on the order form on their website? But if so, its still a patience thing (you missed off the bit about waiting for years on my quote). The point is, if you want a Wal, you can get one, its just a matter of how much time you want to wait. But the end result is getting one, its a certainty. You don't have that with vintage or actually "rare" instruments. I'd totally understand the value of Wals going crazy if they closed the workshop, but they haven't. But if they have closed their book, that may be contributing, but when the real boom happened they were certainly still taking orders.

The primary driving factor behind the value of 70s Fenders is in the name; they are the value they are because of the era they were built in and their age. Take a Wal bass that was built in 2019 and another built in 1989, second hand value now will be very similar, but if anything the 2019 will go for more. The Wal value is nothing to do with its vintage, but with Fender its everything to do with that. I just don't see how they compare at all.

Its honestly nothing like vintage Fenders. Their value is wholly attributed to their age and era, neither of which has any significant impact on the price of a Wal.

It also makes me sick as a pig that I sold my Wal for £3.6k 7 years ago (which I thought was mad at the time, easiest £1k profit I've ever made) and, if i'd have sat on it, I'd be in a rather nice position right now.

It's not an "issue", its just a bizarre curiosity. Its nothing like comparing them to vintage Fenders. They're not rare, they're not disontinued, you can buy a Wal, built in exactly the same way, right now, and you'd save thousands. You would just need to wait a few years. I can't imagine being so impatient and so wasteful with money, especially in these times, but obviously some people are happy to do it. Just so odd.

Probably the biggest reason I don't own a C4 is because I can't easily trigger it with my Quad Cortex. This is still a faff, but if its really keenly priced, I mean realllllly keenly, it may be tempting. Wasn't there talk of the C4 being upgrade to a full sized pedal with proper midi ports?

So they're all gone, anyone grab one?

It is, this is the lower end bolt on version of it made in the Far East. The German version must be around the £7k/£8k mark these days.

The Sklar is actually a Rockbass, so forget that one. But they have a couple of those P Nuts and they look fantastic for the money, must have been around the £1600 mark when they were sold new about a decade ago.

I know they'v done this a couple of times before, but a few NOS Artist Line Warwicks have shown up on Thomann again, at bonkers prices really for 2023! P Nut £888: https://www.thomann.de/gb/warwick_al_p_nut_4_nb_showroom.htm Lee Sklar £979: https://www.thomann.de/gb/warwick_artist_line_sklarbass_i_vsth.htm EDIT* So the Sklar is a well disguised Rockbass so isn't actually a bargain, but the P Nut is from the old Artist series circa 2012 ish, well worth the money.

True, but have you every received goods from overseas that have not attracted tax/duty fees but should have, and did you immedaitely call customs and excise to pay what you think you should owe? I think we've all been guilty of this type of evasion at one time or another.

Crazy really, it wasn't that long ago that new non-knock off drive pedals would cost that much. Perhaps if it was £25 and sounded half decent, or it was a clone of a £400+ pedal, but there's just not enough incentive for me to consider over the used, reliable, value retaining real thing.

How much are they? Used Alpha Omicron must be somewhere between £110-£130 mark with almost 0% depreciation if you choose to sell again, so saving needs to be really quite decent to risk the knock off?

I'd love if you presented the comparison as a blind sound sample test; stick up three recordings of the same part, one with the Wal, one with the new neck and one with the Fender neck, and set up a poll for each track to see who thinks what is what?

I still like Mi-Fi

Its rated at 500ma and you're going to want to give it at least 400ma for it to function right (youll get away with that, dimmer leds etc), but no less. The Voodoo can only manage 250ma which won't cut it I'm afraid, unless they do a current double cable and you can combine both of the 250ma outputs.

HiMi As in High fidelity, but in a midi controller way. Simple but effective.