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Wal Bass Club.

#341
evilgus said:
Secondly, I found that even with the string saddles wound right down, the B, E and A strings are still pretty high, so maybe I need shorter blocks or to get a few of them shaved down a touch.
Click to expand...

You might try a shim on the neck--several of the Wals I've owned had shims that looked like they were installed at the shop during the initial setup process, so they are very common, and it's much less permanent than filing the saddles!

And lastly, I'm not sure if any of the pickup pole-pieces are adjustable anymore, some of them are rusty and most don't appear to have been moved for many years. Not sure whether I have exactly the right size allen-key for them, so will try a few more before I make a mess of any of them.
Click to expand...

As you might guess, polepiece adjustments are not the sort of thing that's done with any frequency, so it's not uncommon for them to be a bit stiff even without rust.

The polepieces, bridge saddles, intonation screws, and control knobs should all take the same size allen key, which was originally supplied with all Wals. I'm pretty sure the size should be 1/16".

Mike
 
#342
Yup agree with the neck shim. It doesn't take much more than the thickness of a card to get the neck angle right.
My first one had the fancy factory wood shim, and just about every picture I've seen of vaious necks had them. When I got my 2nd one, the saddles were bottomed out and still too high...and I acutally like upper medium action. When I popped the neck I was suprised to find no shim, but adding one made all the difference.
 
#343
Thanks guys, will talk to my luthier about a shim. I recently had to fit one to my Dingwall, but it was factory supplied, so this one will be slightly more difficult. Have to get the bridge saddles moving properly first though, otherwise I can't re-adjust properly. :)

Cheers,

EG
 
#345
Wow, I just reset all the trim-pots back to factory settings and the bass sounds heaps better! It came with the overall volume set way down and the bass levels also backed right off, so it lacked punch and sounded a bit dull. Now sounds strong, punchy and crisp, pretty much how it should! :)

And the added bonus is the string volumes are a lot more even now, so not so urgent to be able to adjust the pole-pieces. :)

EG
 
#347
Hi Caca,

seems we like white Wals a lot ;)

Here's my 2010 MK II

take care
 

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#349
vegas532 said:
I pose a weird question to the club members. As I've gotten older, I find my MKII's scale length to be difficult to deal with and have frequently pondered a MKI. Being poor myself (they weren't that expensive when I acquired mine), I've considered trading Wal for Wal...am I alone on this? :hiding:
Click to expand...

Not quite sure what you hope to gain from that. The scale length on both the Mk I and Mk II is the same (34"). If anything, the Mk II feels a little be shorter, because the upper horn extends to the 12th fret, while the Mk I only extends to the 14th fret, pushing the headstock a bit further away to the left.

Does that make sense?

Mike
 
#355
After looking on the website for wal it looks as thought the trim pots don't control the individual pole outputs. Here's the website info:

3) Trim pot: cuts low bass frequency when in anticlockwise position for each pickup. Mainly relevant to 5-string bass with low ‘B’ string.

4) Trim pot: level adjustment for pick attack, increased by clockwise motion, set halfway for normal level.

5) Master volume control: normally set a maximum (clockwise position). Should less output be required turn anti-clockwise as appropriate, e.g. when using some makes of radio transmitter or when encountering amplifier overload problems.

I guess I'll try raising the "E" string poles?
 
#356
rwelcome said:
After looking on the website for wal it looks as thought the trim pots don't control the individual pole outputs. Here's the website info:

3) Trim pot: cuts low bass frequency when in anticlockwise position for each pickup. Mainly relevant to 5-string bass with low ‘B’ string.

4) Trim pot: level adjustment for pick attack, increased by clockwise motion, set halfway for normal level.

5) Master volume control: normally set a maximum (clockwise position). Should less output be required turn anti-clockwise as appropriate, e.g. when using some makes of radio transmitter or when encountering amplifier overload problems.

I guess I'll try raising the "E" string poles?
Click to expand...

No, the trimpots don't adjust the output for individual strings. Still, it's possible that if the lows have been cut with the trim pot, they are cutting more output from the low E string frequencies than the A string. Most folks turn the low cut puts all the way clockwise.

The pickup polepieces are probably your best bet, though it may be worthwhile to try playing with the overall pickup height a bit.
 

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