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Wal bass mk1 pre amp


0175westwood29
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There are three that I can think of.

 

Lusithand Devices make the NFP range - they're sonically very similar to the original Wal preamp, but with a wider Q frequency sweep and no "pick attack" control. They made sure to reproduce details to the degree of matching the level of harmonic distortion the preamp generates. Second would be the East ACG EQ-01 - this is the preamp that ACG fit into their high-end basses, with their multicoil pickups. Again, a pretty close facsimile of the original Wal design, but a little more "hi-fi" and maybe slightly closer to Alembic's approach. Then there's the Underhill range - they offer modular preamp components, including filter-based tone controls. I've heard good things, but have no direct experience with them. 

 

Currently, if you want an aftermarket Wal-type setup, the Lusithand NFP combined with Turner multicoil pickups seems to get you closest to "that" sound. 

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Hi

The Eq01 is not the pre-amp I use in my top of the range Uber Series basses. I use the DFM in conjunction with my own Multi Coil pickups. This pre-amp has several features that the 01 does not have including the pic attack on a push/pull. While the EQ01 is an excellent pre-amp the DFM is what I call my 4th generation pre-amp have been in development for many years and started with 01. The 01 has seen several tweaks over the years as well and the later/current model is closer to the Wal than the original version.. The DFM/MC combination is however only available in my Uber Series basses.

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17 minutes ago, skelf said:

Hi

The Eq01 is not the pre-amp I use in my top of the range Uber Series basses. I use the DFM in conjunction with my own Multi Coil pickups. This pre-amp has several features that the 01 does not have including the pic attack on a push/pull. While the EQ01 is an excellent pre-amp the DFM is what I call my 4th generation pre-amp have been in development for many years and started with 01. The 01 has seen several tweaks over the years as well and the later/current model is closer to the Wal than the original version.. The DFM/MC combination is however only available in my Uber Series basses.

Thanks for the clarification, Alan. That’s the other route to getting to filter-based multicoil Nirvana, buy an ACG. :D

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31 minutes ago, skelf said:

Hi

The Eq01 is not the pre-amp I use in my top of the range Uber Series basses. I use the DFM in conjunction with my own Multi Coil pickups.

I have an acg-eq-01 in a jazz bass ( the dfm wasn't available except in an ACG bass) hoping for the flexibility of a Wal. It's not very Wal like as it's super clean sounding ( plus wrong pickups in the wrong places etc). As for flexibility, oh yes, in spades. A bit too much perhaps, so tweakable it's sometimes hard to get back to a sound I like once I turn one of the 8 knobs.

 

Kind of interested in how my Wal would sound with the ACG amp in it .....

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Regarding the flexibility. It depends on which version you have. The original version had a very wide range on the filters. Later and current versions this was reduced which does make it easier to use. 
 

I do have a demo of a Wal with the 01 in it. 
https://m.soundcloud.com/acguitars
 

Ralph Wal is the track. 
 

However I need to stress that copying the Wal was never really the intention. That could have been done but I was looking for my own thing and I think we  achieved that. 
 

Also have to point out I have been ploughing this lonely track for nearly 20 years and while filter preamps are more popular now with a few more options it has been hard and expensive work flying the flag for them over the years. 
 

We have further refined it over the years and continue to do so but that is mainly focused on the DFM. But has not excluded the 01. Work on something with John East at the moment. At the end of the day copying Wal is not my goal. Yes it is a huge influence but I want an ACG identity don’t want to be the guy that does the Wal knock offs I will leave that to others. 

Edited by skelf
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9 hours ago, skelf said:

 


Yes it is a huge influence but I want an ACG identity don’t want to be the guy that does the Wal knock offs I will leave that to others. 

Don’t think anybody’s going to accuse you of that these days Alan. 

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It always seemed pointless to me to have two pickups and only one filter for both ...or even one EQ for both...you can tweak the whole bass on the amp. 

 

It was one thing that attracted me to Wals and to trying to make my own dual filter amps for a jazz bass since about 1989.  Skelf and John East nailed it so I gave up trying 🙂 

 

That clip of an ACG equipped Wal is pretty good.  Maybe even better if the poles were buffered and summed ..I guess they're in some series / parallel arrangement as the acg01 only has the one input per pickup

 

That the Wal pre-amp distorts when you play hard is a nice expressive feature, that the ACG 01 doesn't is also good, just different.

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Not sure how the Wal was set up to work with the 01 John did the work as he knows the guy. This was very early doors with the preamp. 
My proprietary setup with the DFM and Multicoils does indeed buffer and sum the individual sets of coils. 

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12 hours ago, skelf said:

Filters just made sense to me the first time I picked up a Wal. Wish I had bought it there and then but £800 seemed so much to the 15 year old me in Sound Control in Glasgow. Oh how prices have changed. 

I passed over a 4-string Mk2 in Notting Hill Music Exchange back in the mid-90s for £250. That would have been one hell of an investment. :D 

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3 hours ago, Russ said:

passed over a 4-string Mk2 in Notting Hill Music Exchange back in the mid-90s for £250. That would have been one hell of an investment. :D 

Mustabin nicked 🙂 my MK1 was £830 from our lgs in 1998.. and it's a bit bashed too.  They were out of fashion for quite a while.

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On 27/02/2024 at 19:10, NickA said:

Mustabin nicked 🙂 my MK1 was £830 from our lgs in 1998.. and it's a bit bashed too.  They were out of fashion for quite a while.

I’m sure half the stuff in NHME was nicked. I bought some nice stuff from there pretty cheap back in the day.

 

But this was before you had the likes of Chancellor playing them - even Mick Karn was using a Klein instead of his Wal, Percy Jones had moved to Ibanez, Geddy Lee was back to his Jazzes, and so on. They were almost terminally uncool back then. 

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On 28/02/2024 at 10:45, Russ said:

I’m sure half the stuff in NHME was nicked. I bought some nice stuff from there pretty cheap back in the day.

 

But this was before you had the likes of Chancellor playing them - even Mick Karn was using a Klein instead of his Wal, Percy Jones had moved to Ibanez, and so on. They were almost terminally uncool back then. 

yep..in the late 90s i part exchanged a wal for a stingray thinking they are so cheap now that i can pick up another whenever ..boy did i get that one wrong.

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