Wal Mk1 fretted/fretless (2necks) at Bass Direct

[Twigman]

I apologise if this has been posted elsewhere but I know many of you lust after Wal mk1

It seems Bass Direct has one with both fretted and fretless necks for sale at the moment.

You'll need to sell the car or extend the mortgage though....

http://bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Wal_MKI_Fretless_1988.html?fbclid=IwAR0rJMzDZ8qn4yDHABKFYFCXKdK6lQXl1Ux5NQ3stLH-FGAv8L5vhWrdj3w

Edited October 16, 2019 by Twigman

[gary mac]

Was looking at this a couple of days back, lovely instrument and extremely versatile with the neck options but not for me at that price. 

[LewisK1975]

Indeed - Been showing it to the Mrs this week.  She's not keen. 

[Shaggy]

I'm pretty sure that very bass was for sale on BC a few years back, with just the one neck (fretted), and around  £4.5K less........

Edited October 16, 2019 by Shaggy

[Hellzero]

Very nice, but I need to keep my car. 🤣

Reminds me that I sold and bought mine (fretless) twice for £1000 GBP in the late 90's... Should have bought it a third time. Woops.

[Burns-bass]

1 hour ago, Hellzero said:

Very nice, but I need to keep my car. 🤣

Reminds me that I sold and bought mine (fretless) twice for £1000 GBP in the late 90's... Should have bought it a third time. Woops.

Nobody wanted them in the 90s. I’m not entirely sure why they’re so popular now to be honest after having owned a few. 

[Hellzero]

2 hours ago, Burns-bass said:

Nobody wanted them in the 90s. I’m not entirely sure why they’re so popular now to be honest after having owned a few. 

Neither do I... 😉

[AndyTravis]

If I had £6500 spare, that would be sat here. I’d flog the fretless neck though

[thodrik]

Gorgeous bass but for that price I would just buy a new Wal built to my spec. An entry level mk I price is from £5800 as per the Wal site.

I really don’t think I would be switching a neck back and forth. I just don’t see the extra neck as a great selling point that would greatly add to the selling value. 

Even with current Wal prices, I would say £5,000 at the most.

[4000]

I sold my Wal Custom for £550, IIRC. Whilst I wouldn’t mind another, it wasn’t in the top 20 basses I’ve owned, so there’s no way I’d consider paying anything remotely like that much. In fact I wouldn’t considering paying over £2k, because for over £2k (and possibly less given Everson) I could buy a better bass (for me).

I’d also much soon have another Pro II.

Edited October 16, 2019 by 4000

[LewisK1975]

20 hours ago, AndyTravis said:

If I had £6500 spare, that would be sat here. I’d flog the fretless neck though

With you on that one Andy!

[rubis]

Me too, but I'd keep both necks, fit the fretless one, and start growing a mullet!

[matski]

I remember the days when you could buy a brand new Wal for a tenth of that amount.... However, I am old.

[CPCustomdubwise]

A while back ( okay: 1989 ) I was flogging a Fender Jazz made up of a refinished late 70s body and a ( admittedly lovely) 1962 neck, with reissue pups and wiring....

I was approached by a chap who offered me TWO Wals, a fretted and a fretless, plus cases, as a straight swap for the Jazz.

 

I said no.

[Misdee]

If I am not mistaken, this bass used to belong to a session player called Dave Shields. He used to be co-owner of a bass shop in Mansfield called The Embassy. I am sure some other Basschatters will remember it too. This Wal was featured in an edition of Bassist magazine some time back in the 1990's.If not this bass, then it was an identical bass made from the same piece of mahogany. I distinctly remember the story about how the facing wood was sourced.

[philparker]

Lovely wood facing, but fret lines (and dots) on the fretless neck and over-priced, even as a package, by about £1500, make it less desirable to those that could afford it?

[edstraker123]

Puzzled by the appeal of Wal's as said above. To me they are a bit like the Akai Deep Impact - very collectible but nowhere near worth the price they go for.

This one looks nicer than usual admittedly - they normally look like they've been faced with wood from your nan's 1970's wardrobes IMHO but I guess equally that's what floats some people's boats.

[LewisK1975]

12 hours ago, edstraker123 said:

Puzzled by the appeal of Wal's as said above.

I've had a Wal 'itch' for a long time. 

For me it's simply the sound.  You can get in the ball park of it with other Basses, but if you want that exact sound, you have to have a Wal.

[edstraker123]

8 hours ago, LewisK1975 said:

For me it's simply the sound.  You can get in the ball park of it with other Basses, but if you want that exact sound, you have to have a Wal.

If you can get in the ballpark for £2.5k for example is it worth the £4k more to nail it  ? Obviously if funds aren't an issue why wouldn't you,  but do you think you are paying a premium for something real or mythical ?

Obviously demand is driving the prices up so there is a lot of love out there , further evidenced by not many coming up for sale  used - I guess they are worth what people are willing to pay, but are they just different rather than being better  ?

[Burns-bass]

On 23/10/2019 at 20:33, edstraker123 said:

Puzzled by the appeal of Wal's as said above. To me they are a bit like the Akai Deep Impact - very collectible but nowhere near worth the price they go for.

This one looks nicer than usual admittedly - they normally look like they've been faced with wood from your nan's 1970's wardrobes IMHO but I guess equally that's what floats some people's boats.

I think some people have seen the increase in value and assume prices will continue to increase. From the outside it looks like there’s not where left for them to go but down. Mind you, I said that when people were paying £2,000 for 70s Fenders and I obviously know nothing.

[LewisK1975]

15 hours ago, edstraker123 said:

If you can get in the ballpark for £2.5k for example is it worth the £4k more to nail it  ? Obviously if funds aren't an issue why wouldn't you,  but do you think you are paying a premium for something real or mythical ?

Obviously demand is driving the prices up so there is a lot of love out there , further evidenced by not many coming up for sale  used - I guess they are worth what people are willing to pay, but are they just different rather than being better  ?

It's an interesting point - You could say they mean the same thing - i.e., The difference in the Wal sound is what makes it better..but yes, first and foremost, it's tonally different to anything else.

Think I'm gonna just wait for them to go out of fashion again and swap a Boss DS-1 for one (or two). 

[drTStingray]

16 hours ago, edstraker123 said:

Obviously if funds aren't an issue why wouldn't you,  but do you think you are paying a premium for something real or mythical ?

It's rarely worth arguing on matters of opinion or taste but on this occasion the idea a Wal sound is mythical is nonsense by any sensible reasoning. Why do I think this? I'll give you a couple of examples - in the early 70s one of the best bass players around was Alan Spenner - he played a Precision and made it sound good - back then many people playing Precisions sounded meh (that's if you could even hear, particularly live, any articulation). Alan changed to a Wal in the mid 70s and I saw him with a Kokomo reunion using it - the sound was incredible - extremely articulate - you can hear him on quite a few things with the Wal but most famous is his work with Roxymusic in the late 70s.

Also listen to the link posted recently in the Mick Karn thread. Or any Brand X with Percy Jones for the Fretless version. 

This is the Wal sound - and it sounded like that live as well. Add to that the basses come from a boutique operation and they are a very popular instrument - fuelled by the love for Justin Chancellor especially in the US. Are they worth it? For me, they would be a logical step forward from a Stingray type of sound but I still don't have one having dallied with the idea a number of times.  Tone wise a Wal offers more control than a Stingray, because of the filter approach to EQ - but they have some similarities in that 'fat' Bass tone. 

If you are completely sold on some other type of sound (eg vintage Fender or Ric) you're probably wasting your money - who knows where the values will go in the future, but isn't that a problem with any expensive instrument? Some of us remember times when shops could barely give Fender basses away so fashion does come into play. 

If you're a player who wants technique to be heard without having to permanently dig in, a decent variation in tones, top notch build and materials (effectively an exquisite instrument) and to have a full and punchy bass sound to underpin the music you're working in, then these are a pretty good bet. 

I don't think I'd go for two necks - however the fretted and Fretless sounds are equally nice and classic (imho of course) - maybe a cheaper way of getting two iconic sounds if that's what uyou want rather than buying two Wals. 

 

Edited October 25, 2019 by drTStingray

[edstraker123]

Sorry I didn't mean the Wal sound was mythical - it is obviously unique like a Ric or  a Stingray etc. I was just questioning whether you were paying a premium for something which was just different rather than being better , the inflated prices creating the impression that you were getting something more for your money than a bass of the same build quality, which could cost a quarter of the price.( Mayones, Marleaux, Shuker, ACG, Alpher etc)

The bassists in your examples above are genius level and would sound great on a Harley Benton and it is difficult to attribute how much of the sound comes from their talent and how much is from the bass, other than the bass is providing an appropriate tone for the music they are playing. Would Nathan East sound better on a Wal or his Yamaha or would he be amazing on both ?

The worst thing about this thread is that I've now got GAS for a Wal just to find out what I'm missing !

 

[mikeswals]

Being in the US, I remember in the 90's when we couldn't give away used Kubicki, Steinberger, and any 70's Fenders. Spectors were cheap as were preEB Musicmans. For well over the decade all have majorly jumped in value. So that really doesn't mean anything...

These are the best basses I've ever played though. They're very touch sensitive, so they let me play with less effort than any other bass. The filter electronics are genius; you can shift the tone around and also pan between pickups without dropping or boosting volume setting compared to conventional active preamps. The Mk2 and Mk3 are shaped to fit your body and stick to your rib cage and no awkward reaches or hand angles (Alembic I'm looking at you!). In my casino band I'm required to do silly dance moves and lots of hand claps, and going back to the touch sensitive the bass stays silent when I take my hands off of it during doing these things, whereas my other conventional basses would vibrate and 'wooom wooom wooom'  sounds coming thru the amp during hand claps. The pickups are clearer than anything else, You can strum chords on all 4 string and you will hear each string clearly...never get away doing that on my Jazz or Ric!

I love my Jazz, StingRay and Ric, but they cant cop the Wal. Quite frankly nether can the half dozen G&L's I've owned or any other 'in the ballpark' bass I've bought and tried.

[drTStingray]

43 minutes ago, edstraker123 said:

Sorry I didn't mean the Wal sound was mythical - it is obviously unique like a Ric or  a Stingray etc. I was just questioning whether you were paying a premium for something which was just different rather than being better , the inflated prices creating the impression that you were getting something more for your money than a bass of the same build quality, which could cost a quarter of the price.( Mayones, Marleaux, Shuker, ACG, Alpher etc)

The bassists in your examples above are genius level and would sound great on a Harley Benton and it is difficult to attribute how much of the sound comes from their talent and how much is from the bass, other than the bass is providing an appropriate tone for the music they are playing. Would Nathan East sound better on a Wal or his Yamaha or would he be amazing on both ?

The worst thing about this thread is that I've now got GAS for a Wal just to find out what I'm missing !

 

The reason I mentioned Alan Spenner was exactly because the Wal allowed the listener to hear the nuances of his playing and frankly, yes, the sound went from good to phenomenal (particularly live). This wasn't just limited to him, there are others.

Join the club with Wal GAS!! 

Edited October 25, 2019 by drTStingray