I’m almost tempted to trade for a full frills Carl Thompson if the opportunity popped up
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I do believe they are proprietary. You will have to go through Wal to order them.
They are proprietary. And they're a different spread for Mk1/Mk2 vs a Mk3.
Anyone using Thomastik Infeld nickel wounds (the 107's) on their WAL 4 string..? Experience vs the 105 nickel wounds that come stock? Wondering if the tension will be higher .. seems like a very incremental diameter increase, so maybe not?
Hi folks,
At the risk of asking too personal a question (apologies if so)...
I'm curious as to what amount folks are insuring their Wal for these days?
Given the pricing craziness that has been happening (particularly over the last year or so - and since Electric Wood paused on taking new orders), I'm looking at my '87 Olive Ash Mk1 and thinking about what it would cost to replace it at this point...(to say nothing of HOW one would go about "replacing" it!?)
How do you determine value on something like this, when it currently would not even be possible to order a new one ... and used ones come up relatively rarely (and get snapped up quickly when they do -- it seems to be a "best offer" type of secondary market right now.)?
The challenge, of course, is seeing LISTINGS go by, but not really knowing what these instruments are actually SELLING for. My best guess for a U.S.-based Mk1 at this point would be in the $8-$10K range (depending on condition, specifics, etc.) ... but that price point seems to have evolved pretty rapidly in the past year or so!
I just bumped the insurance on mine up this week from $7,500 to $9,999 (as far as I can go without a written appraisal - which I plan on getting very soon)...but I'm wondering if even higher would be prudent...?
Anyway, I am wondering what everyone thinks (and is doing), insurance-wise...?
I would also be interested in opinions/insight on to what degree there is greater/lesser value depending on the "vintage" of one's Wal? Is a 1987 bass, for example, considered to be more or less valuable than one produced in the 2000s, or even more recently? (full disclosure: I consider myself much more a *player* than a "collector," so this is more a curiosity question...but seems prudent to ask when undertaking a "valuation" exercise like this)
Thanks!
-Skip
P.S. If anyone's interested, here's a summary I wrote up - both to organize my own thoughts, and also in order to provide some contextual information for an appraiser, so as to help "set the stage" for them:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Wal is a boutique, high-end brand of electric bass manufactured by Electric Wood Ltd, first in High Wycombe and later in Fetcham, Surrey, England. It was started in 1974 by guitar builder and electronics expert Ian Waller and luthier Pete “The Fish” Stevens. Since 2009 it has been run by Paul Herman. Each bass is a custom build, with high demand far outpacing supply. Scarcity drives the Wal market.
In October, 2020, Electric Wood (Home - Wal Basses) increased their prices for new Wal builds. The BASE price for a new Mk1 jumped from 6,050 to 6,650 British pounds. Going into 2021, the expected time between ordering a Wal bass (making your initial deposit) and taking delivery of the bass had stretched from 36 to ~48 months. In May, 2021, Electric Wood then further increased the base price to 6,950 British pounds and announced that it was no longer accepting orders: “The demand for our basses continues to exceed our production capacity and our delivery time has now stretched to over four years. We cannot commit to prices that far in advance - current prices start from £6,950 + shipping. At this moment we are no longer accepting new orders until the backlog has reduced. Please let us know if you would like us to add you to our list to contact once when we are accepting orders again.”
The current pricing (IF one could actually submit an order) equates to $9,561 USD (at current exchange rates, effective 9/17/2021) for a new Mk1, and that's with standard facings, tuners, etc. (Olive Ash is an upgrade on top of that). When you factor in the import/use taxes of what it would cost a U.S.-based buyer (to actually import it to the United States), that goes up to $10,613, plus shipping/insurance costs.
In the wake of this announcement, the secondary market for these instruments has shown a dramatic increase in pricing. When Wals come up for sale in the U.S., the asking prices are regularly north of $10,000 (USD), and the instruments often tend to sell within hours of the posting."
At the risk of asking too personal a question (apologies if so)...
I'm curious as to what amount folks are insuring their Wal for these days?
Given the pricing craziness that has been happening (particularly over the last year or so - and since Electric Wood paused on taking new orders), I'm looking at my '87 Olive Ash Mk1 and thinking about what it would cost to replace it at this point...(to say nothing of HOW one would go about "replacing" it!?)
How do you determine value on something like this, when it currently would not even be possible to order a new one ... and used ones come up relatively rarely (and get snapped up quickly when they do -- it seems to be a "best offer" type of secondary market right now.)?
The challenge, of course, is seeing LISTINGS go by, but not really knowing what these instruments are actually SELLING for. My best guess for a U.S.-based Mk1 at this point would be in the $8-$10K range (depending on condition, specifics, etc.) ... but that price point seems to have evolved pretty rapidly in the past year or so!
I just bumped the insurance on mine up this week from $7,500 to $9,999 (as far as I can go without a written appraisal - which I plan on getting very soon)...but I'm wondering if even higher would be prudent...?
Anyway, I am wondering what everyone thinks (and is doing), insurance-wise...?
I would also be interested in opinions/insight on to what degree there is greater/lesser value depending on the "vintage" of one's Wal? Is a 1987 bass, for example, considered to be more or less valuable than one produced in the 2000s, or even more recently? (full disclosure: I consider myself much more a *player* than a "collector," so this is more a curiosity question...but seems prudent to ask when undertaking a "valuation" exercise like this)
Thanks!
-Skip
P.S. If anyone's interested, here's a summary I wrote up - both to organize my own thoughts, and also in order to provide some contextual information for an appraiser, so as to help "set the stage" for them:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Wal is a boutique, high-end brand of electric bass manufactured by Electric Wood Ltd, first in High Wycombe and later in Fetcham, Surrey, England. It was started in 1974 by guitar builder and electronics expert Ian Waller and luthier Pete “The Fish” Stevens. Since 2009 it has been run by Paul Herman. Each bass is a custom build, with high demand far outpacing supply. Scarcity drives the Wal market.
In October, 2020, Electric Wood (Home - Wal Basses) increased their prices for new Wal builds. The BASE price for a new Mk1 jumped from 6,050 to 6,650 British pounds. Going into 2021, the expected time between ordering a Wal bass (making your initial deposit) and taking delivery of the bass had stretched from 36 to ~48 months. In May, 2021, Electric Wood then further increased the base price to 6,950 British pounds and announced that it was no longer accepting orders: “The demand for our basses continues to exceed our production capacity and our delivery time has now stretched to over four years. We cannot commit to prices that far in advance - current prices start from £6,950 + shipping. At this moment we are no longer accepting new orders until the backlog has reduced. Please let us know if you would like us to add you to our list to contact once when we are accepting orders again.”
The current pricing (IF one could actually submit an order) equates to $9,561 USD (at current exchange rates, effective 9/17/2021) for a new Mk1, and that's with standard facings, tuners, etc. (Olive Ash is an upgrade on top of that). When you factor in the import/use taxes of what it would cost a U.S.-based buyer (to actually import it to the United States), that goes up to $10,613, plus shipping/insurance costs.
In the wake of this announcement, the secondary market for these instruments has shown a dramatic increase in pricing. When Wals come up for sale in the U.S., the asking prices are regularly north of $10,000 (USD), and the instruments often tend to sell within hours of the posting."
Insure for replacement value.. My order with options which I'm waiting on, MK1 with gloss Zircote, and gold hardware, ebony block inlays retails for north of $13500 new (based on 2019 pricing). Forget not the US government is going to dip into my pockets for another $1000 or more, and God know if the state of California has ideas.
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A mk1 should be insured for $14,000... the majority of people agree that that is a fair price.
Man I remember being in high school and looking at Wals for sale online for 3-4k and thinking, “man I can’t wait till I have 5 grand I’m gonna order the coolest Wal build ever!” ... lol, skip to today, and that’s not enough to cover the cost of half a used Wal bass.. I’m jealous of all you fellas who got your collections started years ago; like I think of @mikeswals and @kulit17 to name a few and just cry cuz I know I’ll never have those collections LOL 
Man I remember being in high school and looking at Wals for sale online for 3-4k and thinking, “man I can’t wait till I have 5 grand I’m gonna order the coolest Wal build ever!” ... lol, skip to today, and that’s not enough to cover the cost of half a used Wal bass.. I’m jealous of all you fellas who got your collections started years ago; like I think of @mikeswals and @kulit17 to name a few and just cry cuz I know I’ll never have those collections LOL
except the fact that $100,000 back then a year was a crap ton of income, right now it’s barely enough to get by in most parts of the country outside rural areas… inflation.
If that pricing is just for an Mk1, I am afraid for prospective Mk2 buyers..
I could be wrong but I think the price difference is negligible.
Reverb shows “selling soon”, two people have it in their cart. Good luck.
I hope you get what you're looking for @Blackhawks55... it's not quite down to where I'd be a buyer but if it does get to that point I'll help an (extended family) Hoosier! If you ever get an offer from me please know it's from a player and not a flipper! Your videos are cool and I appreciate you, good luck with the sale and sorry you're in a spot that's forcing a sale.
On insurance: over here, as soon as your instrument is on stage, it’s no longer insured. So you just bloody well look after your gear.
On ideological beliefs: people can choose what they want to do and shouldn’t be judged.
On ideological beliefs: people can choose what they want to do and shouldn’t be judged.
Hey, if it will make everybody happy... I need a new car. That's why I'm selling my 96. Buy me a new car and I will gladly keep my Mk1. Thanks! 
on a brighter note... I'm not sure if this has been shared with the group ... I came across it while searching for videos on the new EBS 802 (that I just recently got, and LOVE)...
I had a pleasant talk with Paul about this video, from what I remember, he said he enjoyed it when he first saw it and was happy to see Jonas playing an Mk3 and especially showing off the tonal abilities of Wal basses.
