TrevorR

Almost forgot...! And since I was crewing and merching for Threshold at the time I was on the Critical Energy album and DVD, Live in Paris, Live in Switzerland and Surface to Stage live albums. I also filmed the tour documentary for the Critical Energy DVD bonus features and got caught on camera for about 30 seconds when Rich, the keyboard player decided I needed a taste of my own medicine.

I was at Wem-ber-ley Arena the following two days. My chums and I had discussed getting Brum tickets as well but had decided not to in the end! However, I do appear on Gary Moore’s video of the Still Got The Blues tour gig at Hammersmith with the two Alberts (King and Collins) and on his Blues Alive double CD and video at the Royal Albert Hall. My brother always claimed you could hear him yell on Rory Gallagher’s Irish Tour album. To be fair he did go to those gigs...

To be honest, No 2 (No 1 and a 1/2 really) and number 3 aren’t going anywhere either! Wal Pro IIE And Aria SB700

STICK! My Mk 1 Custom Series Wal is going nowhere!

If I have any trouble remembering my first bass I only need to pop upstairs and get it out of its case! 1981 Aria SB700. Lovely bass!

That'll be him. IIRC there may have been pixie boots involved in the costume (about 10 years after they were fleetingly popular). He was known to terrorise wide stretches of Berkshire and the surrounding countryside. You, therefore, know exactly how far my heart sank when I opened the door.

Not a published one. Pete had a little book where he listed all the basses that were built - he told me that my Pro was finished on 25 September 1979 one time I took it in for a set up. Paul has that now, of course, records of his basses. I’m not exactly sure what you mean by “factory build specs”. Are you looking to check if a particular bass is all original or are you just curious specifications which Wal used? If the former the best option is to see whether there is a piece of masking tape on the inside of the control cavity cover plate. Wal Custom Series models have all their key info written there. Otherwise if it’s general info you’re looking for try here: http://walbasshistory.blogspot.com/ or here... http://walbasshistory.blogspot.com/p/custom-series-basses-mark-i-ii-iii.html

That's a very incomplete and out of date resource. It was compiled by an enthusiast from submissions emailed by owners and additional info (e.g. from the Bassist magazine Wal Special). It does give a pretty good ball park idea when a particular serial number bass was issued and is an interesting read, though. Why are you looking for a database?

How many does/did @doctor_of_the_bass have?

I’ve got 6... four electric, two acoustic but only 5 of them living with me. Here’s the rundown... 1981 Aria SB700 - my first ever bass. Lovely. Still gets used on regular occasions. 1985 Wal Mk 1 Custom Series - bought in 1993. My main bass. 1992 Tony Revell Custom acoustic bass - Fully acoustic and now only for house use. Helped keep me sane through a long period of illness in the early 90s when I was practically housebound. 1979 Wal Pro Series IIE - Bought in 2001 because I really fancied having one. Was my no 2 gigging bass used with my other Wal. Still gets used. 2006 ”Signature”/Buildabass Frankenjazz - bought off eBay when my Wal Pro IIE was getting a bit fragile and in need of TLC so was temporarily retired. Bought as a project bass and done up. Not had it with me since about 2012 when a producer chum borrowed it for some sessions as he loved the sound and feel of it. Wonder if I’ll ever actually get it back. 2014 Faith Titan Neptune acoustic bass - bought for doing plugged in “unplugged” gigs. Only ever owned one more bass. A Squier Jazz bought in 1989 as a second gigging/backup bass. Frankenjazzed when I got my Wal, defretted and then sold to my bass teacher in 1998 when it became clear I was never going to be a fretless player and he was looking for one.

1) Cetera - Spector NS2 & Legend 4X, Dingwall NG2, Epiphone Vintage Pro Thunderbird, Yamaha BB3000, GK800RB head, Genz Benz Neox212 cab, Tech-21 Dug DP3X preamp/pedal 2) Ezbass - Maruszczyk Elwood L 4 string fretted (J pickups), Maruszczyk Elwood L 4 string fretless (MM pickup), Rickenbacker 4003s, Rob Allen MB2 fretless, Phil Jones Flightcase + PB300 3) Happy Jack - AliKat DB #004, Mike Lull 54P, all I need to play a doubling gig (that evening) on those two instruments 4) BlueJay - Eminence Upright (left-handed), loads of camera equipment 5) obbm - TBA  6) Nancy Johnson (Paul) - The Big One, rack (GED/poweramp), possibly the dUg DP3x. A bass. 7) MacDaddy - Shuker bass(es), Snapdragon Folding bass, Flattley Bass Poison Ivy. 8. prowla (Paul) - Maybe a Ric or two and fakers, maybe a couple of Statii, maybe J- & P-basses. Probably a Markbass amp & cab and a pedalboard with some FX. 9. Stingray5 - Old faithful Stingray5; Tune SWV4-BB bass; Eden EC180 1x15 combo. (I also have a gig that evening so may leave the Eden in the car but happy to bring it in if anyone asks). 10. TrevorR - Wal Pro II E, Wal Mk 1 Custom, Aria SB700, MarkBass LMII and Traveler 2x10, pedalboard.

There are some lovely tunes and great playing across the whole of his debut album. A fave in the car.

Yes, I missed those answering phrases too... “Such a long wa-ay-ay...” but it’s still a cracking cover!

Check out the “Rush in Rio” live CD (not the DVD, different mix) and see how long you last, or the original mix of Rush’s Vapour Trails and after about 15 minutes of hugely over-compressed, digitally clipped sound you’ll experience the strange disconnect of your brain going, “I like the tunes but my ears are saying please make it stop”. PS and this is from a huge Rush fan!

The dead one of course. The other one has just been copying him and faking it all these years.

Yes, some of us are pre-CBS and would need several souls to sell!

That sounds splendid! Roll on the next one/two!

This far in and no mention of the Loudness Wars yet. A bit problem with a lot of remasters is this desire for more volume and perceive punch through over compression and pushing levels to the edge of what the 1s and 0s can manage. Vapour Trails is a great case in point. When I bought it when it came out despite huge anticipation I hated it. In fact found it literally unlistenable. So fatiguing on the ears and everything pushed and compressed to within an inch of its life. All th peaks horribly clipped. Rush in Rio and (to some extent) Snakes & Arrows suffer from the same problem. Rio is also a dreadful mix, to make matters worse. This is one of the reasons I’ve deliberately avoided the Rush Remasters series. The remaster Of VT - which is more of a remix/remaster - is a huge improvement. To my ears anyway. Id not deliberately rush out and get a remaster of a cd I already own. But a number of back catalogue albums I’ve picked up are remastered and seem fine - Genesis Duke sounds fine to me as do the Yes CDs I’ve picked up in remastered version. It really comes down to how the albums are remastered.

Thoroughly enjoyed it. Agree with all of Cameron and Skinny’s comments. Two one hour episodes with that content would be ideal. So record the same amount of material but edit it across two separate hours. The chat to Mr C was fascinating and I want to hear his in depth thoughts on CITES, rosewood and using other woods so do have him back. Well done guys. Reminded me a bit in the chatty bits of David and Marc on the dear old Word podcast back in its glory days. Worked really well. if you ever want a potted history of Wal basses for a future one...

Bel Assis by Mo Foster, his first solo album... sublime. Esp A Walk In The Country. Beautiful track.

I've heard lots of good things about ForScore - which is specifically designed for manuscript scores. I use OnSong for chord sheets which is also very good but, I suspect, less relevant for your requirements. For OnSong I use an AirTurn pedal which links to the iPad by BluTooth. I used the Duo: https://www.thomann.de/gb/airturn_bt_105_digit_2x_atfs_2.htm ...but they also do the slightly cheaper PED Pro: https://www.thomann.de/gb/airturn_ped_pro.htm?sid=587109a3cebeb70a2a777884e05bae64 I find using the pedal to navigate around through the sheets mid song to be very useful.

Slightly OT but only slightly... I’ve always wondered how mass production of leftie guitars (and related family instruments) came about, given that pretty much every other instrument family gives no concession to handedness... certainly all the classical instruments where adherence to accepted technique is king.. Why the divergence for guitars and basses etc?

But you also probably know many more who are leftie and play rightie but never ever mention it... coz it’s not a problem for them. There’s no hard and fast rule. I’m in this camp. Completely left handed for everything except using a knife and fork, blowing my nose and playing bass. Never regretted it - and I wouldn’t have my no 1 and no 2 basses if I had given the relative rarity of leftie second hand Wals.

Ash over mahogany? The grain is lively (I meant to type “lovely” but that works too, lol!). I hope it’ll be a nice translucent finish.

Looking at the Warwick Custom shop website their prices seem to start at about €6k and go up to €9k. Presuming that they are built in a similar fashion to the above with significant shaping being done by CNC cutters with hand finishing it throws a new light on the €6.2k starting price for a completely hand built Wal...