As high a regard as I hold Pete in, I've seen far far worse. I don't doubt that the body and neck are authentic Wal. I do think it's a little disingenuous for Sims to finish an instrument using Wal scraps they may have had lying around and bill it as a "Wal."
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As high a regard as I hold Pete in, I've seen far far worse. I don't doubt that the body and neck are authentic Wal. I do think it's a little disingenuous for Sims to finish an instrument using Wal scraps they may have had lying around and bill it as a "Wal."
Joe Dart
Tal Wilkenfeld
There are probably a bunch but I'm old. And they aren't playing Wals.
El Ten Eleven is also a very good one, and are well known. Kristian Dunn uses a fretless Mk2 and a fretted Mk1.
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The SIMS/Wal bass is an interesting piece. I will refer to it as the 'SimWal' now for ease of typing.
I understand it is being sold by Alberto Rigoni, who is an Italian bass journalist. I do think the price is really, really steep. I nearly fell off my chair when I saw that it was up for £8000 to start with. That is just a huge amount, even for something as undeniably unique as this bass. I do wonder what the original price was, and I hope it was nothing like the current asking, as I do not think that will be realised.
Where the wheel falls off for me is, it combines arguably the worst two aspects of both sides of this marriage of luthiers. It lacks the best bit of a Wal bass - the pickups and preamp - and is stuck with the worst part - the actual physical instrument. You will of course forgive me for saying so, as I like Wal basses but I'm the first to admit they can feel a little clunky and rudimentary. Then it is stuck with the SIMS Super Quad pickups. I find them to be pretty generic sounding and despite being undeniably flexible, I haven't heard a tone out of them that really makes me go 'wow' like many great basses with a unique or interesting voice do. I do like the sounds that Mark Smith gets out of his but that is the exception rather than the norm.
It's an interesting place to end up since when I first saw the Enfield Cannon basses years ago, I took them immediately to be very Wal-inspired, and that was a good thing when Wal was effectively finished as an ongoing concern at that time.
I understand it is being sold by Alberto Rigoni, who is an Italian bass journalist. I do think the price is really, really steep. I nearly fell off my chair when I saw that it was up for £8000 to start with. That is just a huge amount, even for something as undeniably unique as this bass. I do wonder what the original price was, and I hope it was nothing like the current asking, as I do not think that will be realised.
Where the wheel falls off for me is, it combines arguably the worst two aspects of both sides of this marriage of luthiers. It lacks the best bit of a Wal bass - the pickups and preamp - and is stuck with the worst part - the actual physical instrument. You will of course forgive me for saying so, as I like Wal basses but I'm the first to admit they can feel a little clunky and rudimentary. Then it is stuck with the SIMS Super Quad pickups. I find them to be pretty generic sounding and despite being undeniably flexible, I haven't heard a tone out of them that really makes me go 'wow' like many great basses with a unique or interesting voice do. I do like the sounds that Mark Smith gets out of his but that is the exception rather than the norm.
It's an interesting place to end up since when I first saw the Enfield Cannon basses years ago, I took them immediately to be very Wal-inspired, and that was a good thing when Wal was effectively finished as an ongoing concern at that time.
I'm not so sure I'd say "very Wal-inspired" as I would say "a straight-up taking". Copies don't bug me, the bass world is full of copies. Makes me wonder what kind.of licensing agreement they have... must be pretty liberal.
I do not believe there was any licensing agreement. The shapes bore more similarity than not, but the electronics were different. The trained eye (of someone who would spend thousands of pounds on a bass) would not mistake the two. Plus, Wal were finished at that point. If there is no-one left to raise objects to any perceived infringement, business will continue unimpeded.
I'd say they were faithfully inspired by Wal rather than being a copy of a rip off. Enfield certainly sought to innovate in their own ways and the builds/options were certainly more sophisticated than what Wal offered.
I'd say they were faithfully inspired by Wal rather than being a copy of a rip off. Enfield certainly sought to innovate in their own ways and the builds/options were certainly more sophisticated than what Wal offered.
I resolved to listen to some new bands for the new year... here's the bassist from one. Any guesses? Sorry for the green squiggles, I added them to prevent simple detectiving via reverse image searches. 
Colin Bass from Camel!I resolved to listen to some new bands for the new year... here's the bassist from one. Any guesses? Sorry for the green squiggles, I added them to prevent simple detectiving via reverse image searches.
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Fab player! Great band!I resolved to listen to some new bands for the new year... here's the bassist from one. Any guesses? Sorry for the green squiggles, I added them to prevent simple detectiving via reverse image searches.
View attachment 4110833
If you ever can find the chance to try a Mk3, I think you'd be very suprised these aren't clunky. Mine feel alot like strapping on my friend's MTD's, very compact and sleek and racy.
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I agree, the Mk3 is amazingly comfortable - and I'm really picky about bass ergonomics!
Two minutes after I started playing your birdseye Mk3 I knew I had to have one, Mike!
Yes, the mk3 is certainly the most refined. It feels lightyears ahead of the mk1. A real shame that they're the rarest of the three main designs.
Yup most owners won't part with them easily....especially 4 strings. Past 3 years I can only think of 3 that were available. All of them didn't even last 12 hours in the open market.
I have seen some veneer separation (but that could have been improper storage)
But being a Walnut for a good 14 years, i guess the "far far worse" photos and stories have yet to cross my path.
I do remember some electronic bug/problems, but nothing major.
The Wal database which had been initiated by Stephan Koester is back in a revived version, the WAL dataBass on Link Removed. Submissions and edits, as well as image uploads, are processed regularly.
As written in previous posts, indeed the database is not complete, so let's work together, and if you own or spot a Wal that's not yet in the WAL dataBass, take some pictures and add the info.
As written in previous posts, indeed the database is not complete, so let's work together, and if you own or spot a Wal that's not yet in the WAL dataBass, take some pictures and add the info.
you've been lucky. Some of the early 2000s instruments are pretty rough. Not all of them, but enough of them that it isn't an isolated thing. I had one that was basically not usable due to severe neck problems (on a 1 year old instrument) that two rounds of compression refrets and PLEK couldn't solve. inlays weren't in a straight line, tuning machines weren't straight, cloudy poly finish, neck pocket that was oversized to the extent that you could get a couple of guitar picks in between the neck and the body, and really awful soldering work. I've seen others from this time period that had similar issues. Things that wouldn't pass muster on a cheap Chinese instrument, sadly.
Thankfully, the Paul instruments have been significantly better.
I had one like that, too. I had a 2003 Mach III with a neck that went unplayably bad within a few months. The truss rod couldn't straighten the neck enough to get it close to a reasonably low action, and it was so far gone that my tech -- who is one of the best around -- couldn't fix with with compression and heating. It took me nearly a year of back and forth with Pete before he replaced the neck. I then sold the bass because the whole thing left such a bad taste in my mouth.
Yes, those were dark days for Wal and for Pete. He lost all his good staff, he was getting progressively more unwell and he had to make about three workshop moves in the course of a couple of years (as he got shafted by a couple of landlords who could see more profits in redevelopment of their properties than commercial rents). QA did take a nose dive on some basses as a result, sadly. And I suspect that with the disruption some of the component parts didn't get the usual Wal TLC and care and attention. Sad days.
You're right, landlords place no value in the companies they let to, or the legacy of the things made on their premises. They just tend to chase the easy cash which at the time, was commercial and business property and housing. Until just before Covid, student flats were the order of the day. About half of the city nearest to me has been paved over with student flats being built up. If you're a one man band looking for a small workshop, you're about the bottom of the pecking order as far as landlords are concerned.
