funkle

It’s a recipe. I guess best I can say so far is I’m clearly documenting which bits I’m following and which ingredients I’m varying, and that allows us to make our own judgements as to what is key. I am continuously eating humble pie. The fretboard wood made a huge difference, and the neck build obviously as well. I thought I’d get away with maple fretboard; I was wrong. I will I think need a proper mahogany body to get that last bit of sonic detail right. Alder isn’t quite right. Though it’s not as much of the signature as perhaps others would have said. Pickups/placement seem vital; you can’t have pickups with a strong built in resonant peak. Looks like Chris’ ( @slowburnaz) pickups fit the bill, even if they’re not quite exact Wal build clones. And it turns out rosewood boards can sound very bright with the right pickup sensing their output; that was news to me. And of course the pre with some built in grit/authentic sounding shaping. Nuno doing his work here.

I have considered it. I may do it yet. But first I need to show that I have gotten close enough with things as they are.

Great minds @Andyjr1515….I have in my hands two types of Hipshot A bridges, one in aluminium, and one in brass. I planned for this experiment as well. Sonically, the ‘Wal-ish’ sounds like it has plenty of treble, more than the Wal, as the filter range extends higher. The scope doesn’t lie though, there is more complexity for the Wal in the low treble range.

A quick question to the crowd re: sourcing a custom body. @Andyjr1515 is committed to other projects and is unavailable. Chris McIntyre, who is local to me, is extremely busy also. Warmoth could do what I want - a custom order body with the correct routings and custom paint job - will take about 4 months. I'll still need to get someone here to do all the fitting out of neck and body though, etc. Does anyone know anyone UK-based who might want to help me out with a custom body?

Tonewood discussions in my experience tend to be fruitless. Everyone has their own opinion, and now, I will add mine... I've now had a good while to play with both the Wal and the Wal-ish side by side. In my opinion, we are just about there, sonically. The neck has added a huge amount to the sound, more than I had initially appreciated. There are some preamp settings now where the two instruments are indistinguishable to my ear. However, it's not perfect. I'm going to say I think changing the body wood to mahogany will add the last 5-10% to the sound. It will also be the single biggest expense of the project, most likely. Typical 80/20 or 90/10 Pareto principle type stuff.... I think for others who wanted to build a Wal-ish, they could stop right here and call it good, as it would be 90% of the sound without the extra cost. I'm not going to do that, obviously, lol. Whilst I try and figure out the best way to record direct video comparisons, here's what open G looks like from the Wal-ish bass through Reaper into SPAN - all filters open and pickups even: And here's what open G looks like from the Wal bass through Reaper into SPAN - all filters open and pickups even: There is a bit more complexity going on with the Wal, still. But it is very close indeed on rough scope and listening.

@Aidan63 assuming I understand you rightly, the Wal bass Scott owns was a Wal Mark 1 played I think by one of the bands doing Live Aid. I think that’s how that particular instrument became famous. It has the typical Wal Custom preamp. All Wals after a certain point in time (after which they were largely called Wal Custom basses, either Mark 1, 2, or 3) have their own proprietary in-house hand wired Wal preamp circuit. The sketch for that is on page 14 of this thread, if desired. Controls were/are Volume (with a pull switch to activate a bright switch boost), one low pass filter knob per pickup (each with a pull switch on each pickup knob to allow for boost of the resonant peak for each filter), and a blend knob. The Wal-ish bass I have has the Lusithand Double NFP circuit. Same 4 knob controls as the Wal, but different frequency range affected and no bright switch. I’m coming to appreciate it more and more as time goes on. I think it’s great. I’m certain now this system is close to a Wal.

The neck made by @Andyjr1515is now on. It looks very handsome. Great job Andy! Fitted with inserts and bolts to match how Wal do it, though I’m still not convinced it makes a huge difference. I’m still playing with it and getting used to it. It feels much stiffer than the Fender neck. The strings have that taut feel I get on the Wal. The notes seem to have a slightly compressed quality/pop a bit more. I assume this is something altered in the attack of the instrument. Playing this and a Wal side by side - I think it’s very close now. I need more time without family in house to crank it up and compare. Since I have both the Fender neck and Andy’s neck fitted with inserts/bolts, it would be pretty easy to swap necks over in a video and do a direct video comparison. Then a direct comparison to this Wal.

you have a PM!

May I ask, where did you get those knobs? I could use some…

What pickups do you have in there?

Just bought Ken's Fender Blacktop Jazz. Quick communications, prompt shipping, bass as described and sounds fab. Thanks again! Pete

Thanks @BlueMoon. Goodness me, way beyond my skill set. Ah well.

This looks like a great solution to the Wal-ish bass project I am working on. May I ask, how did you add the numbers to those knobs? Pete

Appreciate your feedback @NickA, good points. I debated doing another head to head with the Wal but reckoned people would do as you did - swap around videos. It gave me more time to delve into the preamp. The Wal definitely has more growl/low mids. It also has something of a kind of ‘compressed’ sound that I think may have something to do with the neck stiffness. I don’t know really, just speculating. I will likely need the mahogany body. These pickups are flat response and what goes in is pretty much what comes out. This has been a useful experiment in what makes a bass sound the way it does. I’m eating more humble pie as we go along… Big learning point for me is that I like rosewood boards with pickups that don’t have a strong built in resonant peak. I.e. these pickups. Hate it with typical Jazz pickups (resonant peak likely 3kHz ish depending on the capacitor - http://www.buildyourguitar.com/resources/lemme/table.htm).

I show it at the end of the video. It’s the next test for the video after this - I’ll fit it next and see how it affects the sound. Some of the YouTube comments on the video speculate on the impact of that, but we shall see how it plays out.

I really struggled with this video about whether to add an amp sim. With the Ampeg B15 sim from Amplitube, it’s basically perfect for the RHCP BSSM sound. However it’s so flattering to the tone that it’s not a fair comparison to my first video. Similarly some compressors added so much grit that I turned them off for the same reason. It’s hard to work out how much to do ‘just DI’ and how much post production magic to add. It’s too easy to do…. EDIT: although I recognize most of us play through amps, which does add pleasing colouration….so it could be argued either way…

Ok, finally got my act together and re-shot video, after the first version I did had technical issues. Then re-edited, and uploaded, etc. This one focuses on the Lusithand preamp. I like it a lot. Kudos to Nuno for sending it to me to try it. It's staying in for now unless someone else can convince me they get the 'grit' it provides. I'll get to adding video timestamps tomorrow.

Be very interested to hear how Herrick pickups work out. I was literally videoing the Wal-ish bass today with the Lusithand preamp. Messed up some technical things with a new setup so will re-shoot. Suffice it to say that I like the Lusithand preamp a lot, and the Turner pickups seem faithful to me, after living with them for a long time.

Where are you getting your preamp and pickups from?

Bought Antonio’s RME Babyface Pro. Straightforward deal, quick postage, it works perfectly. A good transaction. Thanks! Pete

Yes, just PM’ing you now.

I’m also awaiting the 10” version with great interest. The BC Cab Mk3 (12”) has served me well, still going strong, and a smaller cab with the same FRFR sound will work great for me!