My back up bass is a Mexican Jazz bass. Yes I already feel how special the wal is and it's not even gone yet!
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I had the same problem with my Wal. I had to play around with the pole pieces and the pickup height quite a bit before I found a nice spot. The E string was distorting whenever I started to dig in but it went away as soon as I lowered the pole pieces and pickup height. If your looking for a standard or specific pickup/pole piece height I'm sure somebody like Caca de kick or Tool my Bass would know. They seem to have a huge knowledge of anything having to do with wal.
I have an email from Paul describing his standard measurements from string height, pole height, and pickup height. However, it is more to taste and how you play which will ultimately determine everything. You may be overloading your amp in any case, so you may want to adjust your volume trimpot located in the electronic cavity.
** nice! There it is
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Bass-ic Setup of a Wal
Originally Posted by Paul H@electricwood
The setting up of basses can be very different from player to player but we
do have some starting points/guidelines that may help you:
Neck relief - measured by fretting at both the 1st and 21st frets to create a straight edge with the string - you may want to use a capo to hold the 1st fret down to help you with this. Relief can now be checked by looking at the gap between the top of the 8th fret and the bottom of the string on both
the E and G strings - anywhere from 0.3mm(business card thickness) to 0.8mm(credit card thickness) approx is acceptable depending on your preference.
Nut height - this will be affected by the neck relief but should ideally be as low as possible without buzzing when playing the open string. Compare the
string height over the 1st fret when played open with the height above the 2nd fret when fretting the 1st fret. It should be just very slightly higher. If the nut is too high, it will not only feel harder to play but also not play in tune. If too low it will rattle when playing open strings.
String height(action) - if both the above are set, the final action can now be set. This is measured from the top of the 12th fret to the bottom of the E and G strings. An low to medium action would measure 2mm-2.6mm on the E
string and 1.6mm-2.1mm on the G string approx. The action should taper from E to G so as the strings get lighter to action becomes slightly lower.
Pickup heights - individual pole pieces for the E and G strings should be set just proud of the pickup cover. The A and D string pole pieces slightly higher to follow the camber of the strings you have set. The overall pickup
heights are measured whilst holding down(fretting) the E and G strings at the 21fret. The distance between the top of the pickup pole piece and the
bottom of the string should be 6mm on the E string and 5.5mm on the G string approx.
Raising the pole piece height will not only increase the volume of that particular string but also give a more compressed darker sound - lowering gives a brighter more open sound with less volume.
All the adjustments above affect each other plus fret condition and of course playing style need to be taken into account so some experimentation may be needed. Hope the info helps and let me know how you get on.
5/32" or 4mm allen. It's the same size.
1/16" allen fits all the saddles, intonation, and pickup poles.
Originally Posted by Paul H@electricwood
The setting up of basses can be very different from player to player but we
do have some starting points/guidelines that may help you:
Neck relief - measured by fretting at both the 1st and 21st frets to create a straight edge with the string - you may want to use a capo to hold the 1st fret down to help you with this. Relief can now be checked by looking at the gap between the top of the 8th fret and the bottom of the string on both
the E and G strings - anywhere from 0.3mm(business card thickness) to 0.8mm(credit card thickness) approx is acceptable depending on your preference.
Nut height - this will be affected by the neck relief but should ideally be as low as possible without buzzing when playing the open string. Compare the
string height over the 1st fret when played open with the height above the 2nd fret when fretting the 1st fret. It should be just very slightly higher. If the nut is too high, it will not only feel harder to play but also not play in tune. If too low it will rattle when playing open strings.
String height(action) - if both the above are set, the final action can now be set. This is measured from the top of the 12th fret to the bottom of the E and G strings. An low to medium action would measure 2mm-2.6mm on the E
string and 1.6mm-2.1mm on the G string approx. The action should taper from E to G so as the strings get lighter to action becomes slightly lower.
Pickup heights - individual pole pieces for the E and G strings should be set just proud of the pickup cover. The A and D string pole pieces slightly higher to follow the camber of the strings you have set. The overall pickup
heights are measured whilst holding down(fretting) the E and G strings at the 21fret. The distance between the top of the pickup pole piece and the
bottom of the string should be 6mm on the E string and 5.5mm on the G string approx.
Raising the pole piece height will not only increase the volume of that particular string but also give a more compressed darker sound - lowering gives a brighter more open sound with less volume.
All the adjustments above affect each other plus fret condition and of course playing style need to be taken into account so some experimentation may be needed. Hope the info helps and let me know how you get on.
5/32" or 4mm allen. It's the same size.
1/16" allen fits all the saddles, intonation, and pickup poles.
Lowering #5 may get rid of some of the unwanted gain, I have mine cranked and the pick attack at #4 set to the middle.
I think I'll go with the pickup height first, then I'll tweak the electronics, if I need to. Thanks again!
One thing to consider is, sometimes on the trim pot adjustments the setting is reversed. So on some basses you turn clockwise for max, and on others you turn counter clockwise. I dunno if it's harmful or not, I don't think it is, but when I adjust them, I have the bass plugged in and change settings as I play.
When I adjust the pickups, I'll set the overall height first, then go in and fine tune the pole piece heights using a small ruler and radius measurement tool, both of which can be found at Stewmac.
Once that's done, I'll adjust the pick attack and gain settings.
When I adjust the pickups, I'll set the overall height first, then go in and fine tune the pole piece heights using a small ruler and radius measurement tool, both of which can be found at Stewmac.
Once that's done, I'll adjust the pick attack and gain settings.
I was slightly overloading my SansAMP until I trimmed #5 a bit. It was distorting.
I tried lowering the #5 trim because I either had too much gain or the compressor in my Eden WT800 reared it's ugly head and gave off a semi-offensive clipping (perhaps I need a limiter, I don't know), but when I lowered the #5 trim for the master output it seemed to effect the brilliance of the Wal tone as a whole, so I keep mine on the maximum setting.
For the longest time I used a compressor, and it worked well when I was using an Ernie Ball, but I turned it off a few months ago and I'm a lot happier with my Wal tone. Rolling back the gain trim really takes a lot of bite out of the bass.
So I got the Wal all fixed up! 
I brought it to a local engineer who builds custom amps. Here is the email I got from him stating what the problem was.
Mike,
The bass is done. A bit of a tricky job. Turns out that two electrolytic caps on one of the boards leaked onto the boards, eating away the traces and causing some coupling between traces as well. i replaced the caps, and replaced the bad traces with wires. in addition, I resoldered the boards as needed, taking care of any questionable looking solder joints, and cleaned the pots and switches. It is quiet, no noises, and works perfectly. Cost with tax and parts is $66.40. Let me know when you want to pick it up. Thanks, JN
I brought it to a local engineer who builds custom amps. Here is the email I got from him stating what the problem was.Mike,
The bass is done. A bit of a tricky job. Turns out that two electrolytic caps on one of the boards leaked onto the boards, eating away the traces and causing some coupling between traces as well. i replaced the caps, and replaced the bad traces with wires. in addition, I resoldered the boards as needed, taking care of any questionable looking solder joints, and cleaned the pots and switches. It is quiet, no noises, and works perfectly. Cost with tax and parts is $66.40. Let me know when you want to pick it up. Thanks, JN
Ahh, yes...the damned electrolytic caps strikes again! Their acid is an ugly mess when they fail and leak.
I've gone through all my old Wals and updated the electrolytic caps, it's a very common issue, and I'd recommend anyone with an older Wal to do the same. These caps only have about a 25yr service expectancy.
Here's is a pic of my board, you can see the two culprit caps near the white transformer box. The new caps are laying next to it.
Yeah I think I really saved big. To ship that to Paul and have him repair it may have ended up costing triple that. Possibly more. Glad it is all taken care of. Everything looks and sounds great. Great guy to work with too. Fast, cheap, honest, and an electronics nut. Guy sits around and builds custom amps all day.
Caca, that's a good idea to replace them before it gets to this point. I hope I don't run into this problem on mine again but it is a 1984 so I suppose it was due for some kind of issue after 30 years haha.
All in all I am just happy to have it back. I can't believe how much I missed it !! haha. Now if I could just get my hands on an MKII 
Glad to hear it was the Electrolytics. Those are so bad about being leaky that, to simply sit idle in a warehouse, they start being leaky. But they're the only cheap ones that can support larger duties than that other capacitor types. I bought a set of those for mine, and will probably replace them preemptively and soon.
For his time, labor and parts (assuming he had them on-hand), not a bad deal!
For his time, labor and parts (assuming he had them on-hand), not a bad deal!
Any Seattlelites going to the Bass GTG this Sunday? I've been wanting to do a Seattle Wal Owners gathering sometime but finding a location is tough. But since this event is going on makes it easy.
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f158/...30th-noon-5pm-now-awesome-free-stuff-1048775/
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f158/...30th-noon-5pm-now-awesome-free-stuff-1048775/
