Muzz

OK, so I read quite a lot in various threads about the Walkabout being underpowered, but it always mystifies me. I use mine mostly in a Rawk covers band with two traditional (read unreconstructed) 80s Geetards, both terrific players, both using JCM100s and 412s, and a drummer who makes Cosy Powell look and sound like he was in a cocktail lounge jazz trio using brushes... We rehearse way too loud, and we gig loud, too (it kinda goes with the territory) with vocals, kick and overhead through the PA in everything but very big pubs, then maybe a bit of bass and guitar in there too. I run my Walkabout through a BF Super Twin for rehearsals and smaller gigs, and I have a Compact to stick under it for bigger gigs for the whole Bass Stack look... 😀 And here's the thing: it's ridiculously loud. Drummer-flatteningly, ear-ringingly, room-fillingly loud. I wear ear protection when we rehearse, we're that loud. Even without the second cab. I EQ the very bottom end out - I use the left hand parametric set to -15db at 40hz, as I find it clears the mud, but there's still plenty bottom end present. I play mostly with a pick, and use (mostly) a pretty aggressive P-bass kinda tone, with juuuust a little drive (not into yer actual distortion - say midday on the Gain), and I'm not scared of mids - well, not on the Walkabout; it's really, really good at them... 🙂 Is it my EQing, my choice of cab(s), or just my ears that's making me think I can't imagine needing a louder amp*? * Actually, I doubt it's my ears, because the other chaps in the band don't have any problems hearing me - unfortunately, instead of asking me to turn down, they just turn up (see '...we rehearse way too loud...' above)...I suspect it's a Guitarist Thing... 😕

It was built at the same time as Wals were being built? Well, that adds £1000s to the price, and clearly warrants mentioning in the title... I should have added 'Built at the same time as the Ferrari F430' to the sale ad for my old Passat...

One analogy is if you're driving along at a reasonable speed, and you keep the accelerator where it is, but start to depress the clutch (i.e. reduce the load on the engine), then the revs will rise higher and higher, potentially damaging the engine...

Yep, them's is your options. There are a few amp heads which will run under 4 ohms loads (the Mesa 800s, Genz Magellan, etc), but the vast majority have a 4 ohm limit. As above, I don't know what the exact repercussions might be of running a lower impedance load and what triggers there might be, but if the manufacturer says don't do it, they mean 'If it goes click/boom/fizz, don't call us'...

The short answer to what the necks are like is that they can be what you like; Jon will make them the way you want. I took my custom build back to him after a couple of years because I wanted the neck slimming/reprofiling, and he did a fantastic job...and popped some Luminlays in the while he was doing it...😊

They must be good, though - look how much Mr Rundgren's enjoying his...

Took me an age to get Galway Girl where I wanted it, but the one that surprised me the most was when, after listening to it in pubs, clubs and at parties for the best part of 40 years, and playing it now and again on bands for nearly as long, I actually sat down and listened to the bass in Freebird. Blimey. Not particularly tricky, but just surprising there was so much of it I'd never heard...

I have the East U-Retro (the older model of the Uni-Pre, IIRC) in all my main gigging basses - very intuitive, very musical preamps.

Head heavy? I had a Washburn B20-8 back in the day that would literally plummet to the floor if you took your hand off the neck...and it used to snap strings alllll the time - the break angle to the rear tuning pegs was bonkers... Didn't hate it, though, because at the time it was something very different, and when newly strung made a glorious noise. I had a 78 Jazz which weighed a sniff under 12lbs and sounded Brown. Didn't hate that, either, because some collector bought it off me for collector kinda money. I presume it's on a wall somewhere...I hope he used good big rawlplugs... Thinking on, I don't think I've hated any bass I've had - if I didn't like it for whatever reason*, I sold it... * And I've had some really silly reasons, from Wrong Colour (otherwise terrific Warwick Fortress which some fule at the factory had painted Not-Brown-Not-Olive-Not-Nice) to Can't Unsee (Warwick Fortress - "That top horn looks like a nob") to A Bit Embarrassing (Warmoth Explorer Bass with bling blackburst flame maple top, pearl binding and gold hardware)...

If they did a Reverse (a la T-Bird), I'd be in serious trouble...despite the single coils...it really needs some chrome covers and surrounds...

It's amazing, isn't it, that whenever a seller's unsure, they give the impression that something's more valuable, rather than the other way round? You know, like using the words 'I'm not sure' in the original ad... 😏

A couple of better pics...still not great, but I'm no photographer...

It's a Horn...Black Walnut body, Flame Maple drop top, maple neck with wenge stringers, birdseye maple board, two EMG split-coil pickups, John East U-Retro EQ. Works for me.... 🙂

This is all I have right now, but I'll get a better pic shortly.

😀

Not even funny once...the 'Look how clever and funny I'm being' expression on a man dressed like a concussed 8-year old's drawing of Roy Rogers on Gay Night had my teeth on edge after ten seconds...

Oh, heck, that is kinda fundamental... 😕

Were the 'mistakes' so fundamental that they needed a whole new bass to get round? Crikey, that's unlucky...

Part of the joy of getting that decorative drop top I mentioned earlier was digging through Jon's wood store (with his help and guidance) and picking the actual block of wood (flamed maple, as it happens) he used for my bass... 🙂

Our drummer comes from a reading/pro background, and has his dots on his iPad at all times. He doesn't need them, but it's just the way he works. Anyway, part of his software (I dunno what it is off-hand) has a visual flash metronome for tempo, which means he doesn't need to use an audible click...

Fantastic pictures, tho if I tried that these days I'd definitely be as stuck as Nigel Tufnell... 😕😀

Thinking about this a little more, a good luthier will be able to tweak the bass even if, after a period of time, there's things which niggle; I'd owned and played several Shukers before I got my custom made - I knew exactly what I wanted, and that was what I got. Even then, there were a couple of things which I had done afterwards (at least a year afterwards) - I had a more decorative drop top added*, and then later I had the neck slimmed even more (and some Luminlays added). All my fault, obviously, but the point I'm getting to (eventually) is unless you've picked something really, really unsuitable (like the wrong shape), your luthier will be able to improve on it... * Long story short, because of the complete failure with buying a Rickenbacker for my 50th (it was a very poor bass and went back the next day), I was on a tight schedule to get the bass for my actual birthday (part of the money came from all my friends, so SWMBO was very keen it was ready to be presented at the party), so to shorten the lead time I took a stock body from Jon which, while lovely, wasn't as decorative as I would have picked from scratch...

Since when do Fender Custom Shop relics have such shiny gold hardware?

One of these is what I'm getting (under instruction, despite being the one in the band who works in Cloud IT, I'm not the Alpha Techie), which will do the job: http://quicco.co.jp/products/

First proper run out with the Stomp at a big function gig last night, and it was fantastic: just the best sound I've had going DI/FOH ever. A couple of my more extreme patches (the big ones with distortion) need some of the top end fizz backing off, but that's a result of setting them up via headphones rather than using one of the PA tops, and over-egging the top end. Once I've tweaked them it'll be even better. We've working on a setup now where the BL has his setlist on his iPad, and if he changes a song, it changes his patches (it does this already), but will also change mine, so no more frenzied footwork to find the patch for the song... We can also set it so that when he selects his solo patch, it can select my bigger patch to fill the sound out. Sounded great in the in-ears, too... We've just got a small 12" RCF sub to go with the two RCF tops, so the load in and out is even lighter than before. It was plenty loud enough for a function room holding 250 people last night.