joe_geezer

Sorry , no offence but I don't understand your answer in the context of my question. I think i may have confused you.

Anyone looking for an alternative Wal might want to checkout these from https://hotwire-bass.de/ Also there was a beautiful new Zoot made Wal bass posted in this forum recently. The prices are around £4300 so not cheap , https://hotwire-bass.de/auf-lager/2020/4/13/inlaw-424 but these are pretty maxed out with some stunning woods.

Haha, im sure you're a great bass player! Would you/we ask the same questions of Fodera? Or Alembic? No, because these basses were always luxary high priced items, Wal were not, Wals were the same price as a Status or Jaydee give or take a couple of 100. Okay, so we have established that the current Wal owner is perfectly entitled to make basses with crazy wait times and prices to match. In fact, if he wants to, he can double to prices and wait times and nearly everyone is going to be 100% behind him, pat him on the back and celebrate his success. Fantastic, hopefully we agree on that. So, let me put it another way then, would you have preferred that another person or team had acquired the Wal brand & been able to produce as good as Status / Jaydee quality (which imo is as good as if not better than current Wal) and prices and sane waiting times...?

Design purely for aesthetics has always been integral to guitar manufactoring, just look at the flying V shape. I think it's a really cool idea to have different woods for the body wings and center, you can build a tonal palette just by combining different woods. And the set neck is what gives Jaydee's their distinctive percussive pronounced mid sound. When Jaco tried out a Jaydee, he loved that mid punch and got John to build him 5 basses, unfortunately he left us before they were completed but if a Jaydee is good enough for Jaco then its good enough for me

I never liked thru necks, no punch. Set necks and bolt ons are the way to go imo. I think that's why Mark King always gravitated to Jaydees for that punchy finger style and slap honk

Does it have the same filter control as a standard Wal? Does Zoot make the pickups & Also, hows the weight? Thank you!

Yea sorry I have no idea, the middle thru section is made up of 3 different woods , so one could be mahogany? but I' m not sure about the other 2... please see pic attached..

My 4 Yamaha TRB Japan made MK 1s : - The brown 'distressed' bass is my main bass for nearly 20 years, spent 7 years with this on the Jazz scene in Paris as well as busking in the Metro & playing many gigs over Europe. The preamp broke at some stage and had to do a salvage job, I call this my "Sid Vicious" bass It's still the best sounding TRB i've ever tried. - The Blonde bass I bought about 4 years ago from USA ebay, it is has the mother of pearl Yamaha inlay in the headstck and blue laminate strip. Very nice playing and sounding bass. - The 5 string bass I got a year ago and that was owned by Eric Claptons ex bassist, sounds and plays amazing. Not sure if this is due to Eric Clapton having great bass techs lol This also has the mother of pearl yamaha logo - The blue bass was advertised on here & Its my most recent purchase, i actually got this from the seller on ebay as thats where i saw it first. Its a very light bass but needs a set up . but plays and sounds great. As you can see, my preference is for the natural finishes and not the gloss finished mk 1's.

I'd be really interested to see if they introduce any new models or if they re issue one of their older designs. Since Mark King has recently switch back to Jaydee maybe they are revamping their bass line.

He uses the regular woods but not maple, I think it's oak that he used instead but don't quote me on that

I disagree and thats why i won't be buying a Wal, you go ahead though and enjoy your £7000 bass and 6+ year wait

I love this comment!

Good news, they have updated their website with the following " Sorry, our order book is still closed so these stock models are the only basses currently available.We will add more information when we are accepting new orders." So, looks like they are going to accept new orders soon..

Well done mate

Yea, i asked John to make it with light woods & it's a really nice weight.

Thats great thanks, i would probably pay an extra grand to have the weight reduced, i hate heavy basses..

Interesting story, it reminds me of seeing Tubbs from Light Of The World, his Wal looked really heavy on him, not sure how tall he was.

You stated - level are detail & Paul has made his basses to be on the same level as the other money is no object bass builders As you've been lucky enough to to sit down and play a modern Wal, can you describe what changes the modern Wal has over the originals that makes them so much better? I respect your subjective opinion bias, we all have this but for the purpose of this discussion it will helpful if you can describe the improvements.

When you say Can you be more descriptive and break down exactly what aspects of a modern Wal attain your 'level' status, thanks. Have you had the opportunity to play a modern Wal and & compare it to an original Wal?

Thanks, also, if you compare Wal to 2 other great english bass manufacturers - Status & Jaydee, both with reasonable wait times and excellent value, as well as excellent build quality, I have a new Jaydee and it's up there with any Alembic, the level of detail is unreal! I would have liked a Wal because i like the fretless sounds of Percy Jones, John Giblin and Laurence Cottle... Im a jazz bassist so a Wal fretless is a great bass for that genres but under the current situation, its just not feasible for me.

Thats funny, yea i went the opposite root, had a career in music until i hit 40 and then switched to become a software developer... I have 7 bass guitars now & 2 Jaydees on order haha!

It's not a stereo type in my case, they are some of the people i know... I used to be a pro musician myself and all the top level pros played mid priced instruments as they were all broke, including me at the time.

Great story!

I can't argue with that, its just a shame younger gifted players won't have the opportunity to carry on the Wal legacy, the Wal ownership club will continue to be only for middle aged doctors and lawyers that can barely string 2 notes together

There are some folks that cannot afford the £6000+ for a bolt on instrument. I'm not rich but I could afford one tomorrow, no problem, but I would never condone the prices and you can't force me to either, respectfully. I wonder if Waller and Pete would have wanted Wal's legacy to live on as a company that only creates bass guitars for the privileged few...