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Wal Bass Club.

#5,121
Jansson said:
New Member at Talkbass

Hi Wal-people. I just joined this forum, and very recently I finally bought a Wal bass. So I thought I should check in, introduce myself, and present the bass and ask a few questions about it and its condition. I figured this would be a good, if not the best, place to do this!

Name's Thomas Jansson (from Stockholm, Sweden). I guess I've been a bassplayer for twenty years now. I play all sorts of music, depending on what comes up, but have mainly been fiddling with doom and progressive metal the last few years, along with some softer music (see bands "Griftegård" and "Wolverine" in case you happen to be interested and care to listen to some doom and progressive tracks – you find stuff on Spotify, YouTube and other sites I suppose).

***

Ok, to the important part – the Wal bass. In fact I've been looking to buy a fretless Wal, but ended up getting hold of this fretted old Pro II (probably 1979?, serial no. PB1270).

View attachment 571262

I would argue that the condition of this bass is quite good. The neck is straight as can be, the body is aged but has basically no dents whatsoever. Sound is obviously great, but the electronic components have probably seen better days, as have other parts of the bass. I can post more pictures of the bass in case anyone is interested in taking a closer look.

To those of you who own or have owned a Wal Pro Bass – in what kind of condition have your instruments been when you got hold of them? I would appreciate if you could get back to me with some opinions and thoughts about the possible "downers" with my own Wal.

So, here are the "cons"...

Electronics
Quite a bit of scratchy noises when turning each and every knob (bass is completely silent however, when you don't bother it).
The pickup phase-switches work ok, but one of them seem to have a "glitch" as the pickup signal dies in a certain position when you fiddle with it.
Input jack a bit "glitchy".

Frets
These are quite worn and flat, but there seems to be nothing wrong with tone or weird or faulty sounds/notes (thankfully).

Body
Very neat in my opinion, but has these long crack-looking marks in the coating, mainly backside.


*** Any other Pro owners who recognize the things listed above?
(Oh yeah, of course a couple of the knobs are not in original condition!)


One final question
If you have worn/flat frets on any of your instruments – have you experienced difficluties to intonate the instrument because of this?



Sorry for the long and neverending post.


Cheers,
Jansson
Click to expand...
So funny you that you bought that bass! I was so close to buy that one also! But it was way to expensive imo.
And by the way! I was the live bassplayer for Griftegård (2010-11ish?) for a short Europe tour! Its a smal world!
Good looking bass! Its a bummer about the frets and electronics! For that kind of price everything could work.
Rock on!
 
#5,122
bassplace said:
Of course it's no longer a Pro then.

The rest of your description is familiar. These have the most solid neck I've encountered. I think it's the hornbeam stringers at the center. And it amazes me how well the finish on the hardware holds up. On my other basses the finish just corroded.
Click to expand...

No it won't be an original Pro in case I replace stuff, but nonetheless, it will still be a very good instrument! So far they are holding up though, and the bass guitar is working just fine.

And, yes, I am amazed too about the condition of the neck and body, and even the machine heads.
 
#5,123
spitskin said:
So funny you that you bought that bass! I was so close to buy that one also! But it was way to expensive imo.
And by the way! I was the live bassplayer for Griftegård (2010-11ish?) for a short Europe tour! Its a smal world!
Good looking bass! Its a bummer about the frets and electronics! For that kind of price everything could work.
Rock on!
Click to expand...

Hey

Ah, so you're the one who took that tour – that's a coincidence! Cool. I recorded the full length and joined the band but wasn't able to take that very trip due to another trip being planned beforehand.

About the bass: Well, expensive – yes – but my experience this far is that Wals aren't really being sold at reasonable prices, and the bass is in fact working fine in spite of these age-related "cons". And I suppose you (very) rarely come across instruments that are 35+ years old where everything is in good/great condition. I guess pots and frets are worn down every time you use the instrument. Maybe there are Wal Pro owners here that have come across instruments in great condition?

I don't know if the price was high, low or what to expect considering the condition. All I know is that the old 4-string Custom models are way more expensive than what I payed, but it looks like the Pros seem to go at prices that are a bit lower (???). But since there aren't a ton of Wal basses around for sale, it is difficult (for me) to tell what one should and should not pay.

Perhaps anyone here with more experience of Wal Pro basses have an idea of what one would normally pay for the bass I describe a few posts up?
 
#5,126
mikeswals said:
I start with Deoxit, before deciding if things simply need replacing.
Frets go a long way, you can dress and re-crown them several times before they're a total loss.
Click to expand...

Ah, that's an idea. I don't know how much more these frets have to give in that respect, but it is probably worthwile to take the bass to a luthier or something to get a professional's opinion on what can and can't be done. Thanks for the advice – I hadn't thought of that one.

The sound of the bass is fine as it is, but it doesn't seem to intonate properly across the neck/fretboard. I suspect this could be due to the condition of the frets. Would be interesting to hear if anyone has encountered this problem due to fret wear, and if a good solution was found.
 
#5,127
Here's a few pictures showing part of the fretboard (fret 3, 5, 9 and 12in order from top left to bottom right)

Wal fret 3.JPG
Wal fret 5.JPG

Wal fret 9.JPG
Wal fret 12.JPG
 
#5,129
lordradish said:
WHEW! Just did the 20-year capacitor replacement (with the newer 35 V ones). SUCCESS! I'm not the most experienced solderer, but it worked out, no problems. A few questions...

Does the increased voltage on the capacitors (old style - 25v, new 35v) affect tone at all?

When using my XLR on the bass in the studio, it was noisier than hell... is this normal? If not, what should I think of looking at/replacing?

Lastly, I have 8 more 4.7uF 35V capacitors (I had to buy a ten pack). Considering I won't have to do this again for another 20 years, I don't want to let them go to waste. Anyone about to do a cap replace? PM me with your name/address. The first 4 will get a pair.
Click to expand...

I don't believe the Electrolytic caps are used for anything but removing DC voltage where the signal passes through. The voltage I believe is really just what voltage the cap can handle. The higher the voltage, the larger the cap in most cases.
 
#5,130
takes this with a grain of salt but i vaguely remember a discussion in ED class and came across this:

Aluminium Electrolytic capacitors are made by depositing a film of oxide on aluminium foil. The foil is formed for a specific voltage rating. These are polarized and of course do not tolerate having reverse voltage applied to them. (Anyone been around when one of these larger value babies explodes – it is not a pretty sight?) They are also not happy campers if the rated voltage is exceeded (same thing, they will make a mess of the equipment and your face if you are too close) BUT higher quality types will tolerate about 5% over voltage. What happens in these capacitors that if one applies say 37 volts to a 35 volt capacitor it will actually reform its foil over time to the new applied voltage but its value will drop to keep CV a constant. Conversely if a lower voltage is applied it will reform to this new voltage and the capacitance will increase. Now do not get all excited and take your 10,000mfd 50v capacitor and use it at 25 volts and expect to get 20,000mfd out of it. There are limits to what these guys will do. It is also not a great idea to run electrolytics at voltages well below their rated voltage. A rule of thumb is about 25% lower voltage than rated is OK. They are normally made by winding the foils around in each other in a cylindrical way. High capacitance is easily obtained.


so short answer, it may, since the capacitance may increase, but sonically - differences may not even matter since it's most likely being used as a coupling capacitor.....but then again without really knowing the circuit, it may very well be used in the realm of the amplifier stages which in that case 'might' do something.... o_O so far though no ill affect has been reported.

anyhu....if anyone missed lordradish generosity and IF you have a Radioshack that is 'going out of business' you can get them for 45 cents each (normally $1.49).
 
#5,131
FrankChurchyard said:
If fretbuzz is no issue no worries. But the last one who dressed the frets caused a slight problem.
The angle of the fret on the right in every picture is incorrect.
Click to expand...

I see. Guess the angle/slope of the fret is what's wrong then? I thought the frets were just worn and nothing had been done in order to shape them up. The guy who owned the bass before me has owned it since 1990, and claims he has done nothing with the bass at all – playing it every now and then, but also just having kept it in its case for long stretches of time (hence the good condition of body and neck). And since the bass, if this is true, was only about 10 years old when he bought it, I find it a bit odd that fretwork/adjustment would at all have been needed unless the first owner gave the bass a hard time in its early days? Do you reckon that what you see on the pictures I posted could be normal fretwear? (odd perhaps, since the frets have a similar "flatness" across besically the whole board)

Hehe, maybe I paid too much for this instrument. I don't know. I gave $3000.

No real isues with fretbuzz. Maybe a bit, partly due to low height of strings, but nothing that annoys – yet! The intonation seems to be affected I believe, and maybe the only thing to do is to refret the whole board :/
 

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