Wal Bass question - MKI balance

Never owned one but my brother has 2, they balance very well and are IMO the only active basses i would own!

They are well made and sound great.

The only issue (again according to my bro) is that the customer service is pretty horrendous... The luthier never answers the phone or his email and is not really interested by your problems unless you are someone famous.

My brother needed a couple screws for the back cavity plate, it took him weeks to manage to get to speak to someone and when he finally did he was told he was going to have to buy a full set of screws for £30!!! Most companies would have sent him a couple free of charge IMO. (those screws are apparently custom machined, but still!)

 

My MkI balances well but due to the upper horn length, it's a bit more neck heavy than a MkII. I personally prefer the MkII body shape to the MkI, it just fits me better.

 

Well tell your brother Pete has died. The new owner is a former employee and responds to folks rather quickly, and yes he'll sell you a couple of screws if that's all you need. I'm in the middle of buying a few maintentance odds and ends as we speak.

 

It is a bit neck heavy. It requires some elbow pressure on the upper bout to stop that happening. It's not the most comfortable bass, to be honest.

 

Glad we settled that...

 

I was not talking about pete but about the guy who runs it for the moment!

The story about the screws happened a couple months ago, he took weeks to answer and would not sell my bro two screws, he had to order a set of 5 screws and pay £30...

 

Seems, odd. I had no trouble, and I'm Stateside.

 

LOL!

Okay, look, I played one of these for 10 years... (before I got it modified and took up the Fender body option that Wal offered at the time).

The bass is neck heavy. The headstock has large Gotoh tuners and the neck is made up of heavy woods. The body is not designed to compensate for this or counter balance. It is not very well ergonomically designed and require pressure from the arm.

The answer is:

No, the bass does not balance well.
Yes, it is neck heavy.

So there!

 

Maybe you have some weird version with a lighter body wood. My '88 MK1 ist not at all neck heavy. It weights >10lbs. and hangs just great on the strap.

I have had absolutely no issues with bad customer service. I have gotten very fast replys by Paul when i asked about this bass' history before buying it. He sometimes takes 2-3 days to answer emails but since he pretty much runs the company alone now i think this is totally ok.

 

My Mk1 is certainly not the most neck heavy bass I've played but it ain't the best balanced.
That being said, It doesn't cause me any grief and I'm 5ft7 and slightly built. The large gear Schaller machineheads (which all Wals have bar the Mk3 6-string) certainly add more weight than need in regards to my own design philosophy but when I'm playing it couldn't be futher from my mind.