Hello, I was wondering what basses have a similar tone to a Wal, it doesn't have to be an exact tone but I'm not looking to spend a whole lot of money, just something that's got a nice punch.
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Wal tone
- Thread starter Goinstim98
- Start date
Best bet Inexpensive Option would be a G&L L2000 Tribute
I'll use this great cover by Troy here as an example. Cool guy BTW. But anyway this is the wal mk2.
same song and cover but with a Spector. With the right eq either with onboard or a pedal you'll get close with many different basses. I've heard Warwick, Spector, g&l, Pedulla, Ken Smith, and some others get in the ballpark. Sweeping mid-range frequency is key here. That Wal preamp is very versatile so that's kinda the big secret. Everything else is beautiful precision engineering and craftsmanship. Nordstrand made a wal pickup clone that would really help matters for you.
same song and cover but with a Spector. With the right eq either with onboard or a pedal you'll get close with many different basses. I've heard Warwick, Spector, g&l, Pedulla, Ken Smith, and some others get in the ballpark. Sweeping mid-range frequency is key here. That Wal preamp is very versatile so that's kinda the big secret. Everything else is beautiful precision engineering and craftsmanship. Nordstrand made a wal pickup clone that would really help matters for you.
Agree on the humble L2000. It gets about 75% of the way there on the bridge PU soloed. You'd probably have to play around with the strings. My WAG is some fresh light gauge roundwounds.
I wouldn't spend much more money than that trying to cop that tone, though. The more you spend, the further away you get and by that time you may as well go whole hog and try to find an actual Wal somewhere on ebay or whatever (good luck).
You might end up preferring the L2000 tone altogether instead, so that'd be another reason to just go with the "Tookay" to begin with regardless. You'd save 10's of 1000's of bucks, and only god knows how many years of your life, in the process. Plus, you'd have a bass in about a week, instead of only some time after 2030, and you may end up with a better sound for your particular application too.
L
I wouldn't spend much more money than that trying to cop that tone, though. The more you spend, the further away you get and by that time you may as well go whole hog and try to find an actual Wal somewhere on ebay or whatever (good luck).
You might end up preferring the L2000 tone altogether instead, so that'd be another reason to just go with the "Tookay" to begin with regardless. You'd save 10's of 1000's of bucks, and only god knows how many years of your life, in the process. Plus, you'd have a bass in about a week, instead of only some time after 2030, and you may end up with a better sound for your particular application too.
L
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Troy is a fantastic player. I absolutely love his Rush covers with his Spector basses. I like Wal basses but his Spectors sound better than his Wal did (IIRC he sold the red Wal).
He really did Rush justice with his covers. And if anyone happens to have questions about how he got his sound or anything else he's awesome at taking time to respond to messages on YouTube or if you find him on here.
I think it really is utilizing a filter based preamp, not so much the actual pickups themselves.
Josh Broughton makes a pedal along that line; it's sold out at the moment, but you could search for one used or ask to be notified when he makes another batch.
Smooth_bass88
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- Oct 31, 2006
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wow he's rushing (no pun intended) like crazy during the verses!
There is no definitive Wal tone. Geddy, Flea, Illsley, Karn & Macca got totally different tones from their Wal basses.
THIS! Which is precisely what makes the Wal a difficult beast to copy. The versatility - which can absolutely be its downfall in live situations juggling two different filters and the rest.
The pre is for sure a big part of it. ACG guitars ( @Skelf here) sometimes has dual filter preamps available to order. There's also a guy building modular onboard filters under the brand lusithand IIRC.
People often say an L2000 or a Musicman can get close. I think they (as well as many other basses) can get the job done but I've never heard them sound super similar TBH. But has anyone ever put a dual filter pre in one? Seems like it could get you that many % closer.
