Wal Woods Part 2 - Bodies

The Wonderful World of the Woods of Wal – Part 2, Bodies

In this second feature looking at the woods employed by Wal in building their basses we are going to take a closer look at the woods used for the bass bodies.

Initially, all Wal bodies were constructed from solid ash. Although not as common a tone wood as, say alder or basswood (pronounced BASS - as in the fish or the beer!) it is well known for its tonal properties. It's featured on many classic Fender models and a host of other designs. The wood is considered to give a relatively bright, snappy tone with good sustain.

However, with the introduction of the Custom Series basses everything changed and Wal stepped up into the ranks of what would later be known as "boutique basses". The Custom Series retained the same laminate neck construction (although with a streamlined headstock shape) but the construction of the body was very different. This time a sandwich of different (often exotic) hard woods was employed. At the core was a thick slab of mahogany. Initially this was exclusively Brazilian mahogany but over time as the wood became scarcer, more expensive and subject to increasingly strict export restrictions under CITES (The Convention on Trade in Endangered Species) other sources and subspecies were employed. Notwithstanding the emotional and almost mystical cachet that Brazilian mahogany and rosewood has with builders and players alike this didn't imply any reduction in the quality (aesthetic or sonic) of the woods used.

JG Bass Special Pt 2: A tale of two basses

John Gustafson's original JG bass (JG1112) and Martin Elliott's solid ash Custom Series basses

John Gustafson in 1978 with the Gordon Giltrap Band

A few weeks ago I got a very interesting email quite out of the blue. It came from a bass player who is notable in his own terms but even more so in the inextricable links he has with the history of Wal basses. During the 1980s and 1990s Martin Elliott was a session player working on the London and wider UK session circuit. To carve out a successful living in that tough world one needs a range of skills – the ability to read accurately from a chart while simultaneously injecting real life and emotion into the notes rendered, the ability to come up with original and inventive bass lines on the spot time and time again and the ability to be the sort of person that people want to spend many, many hours shut in a claustrophobic environment with. In short, you need incredible playing skills and a winning personality.

Martin Elliott with the Michael Nyman Band
Forli, Italy, July 2016 (Photo by Francesca Lelli,
Kframe fotografia Bologna - www.kframe.it)

Across the course of his career he has played with many artists – from Petula Clark and Helen Shapiro to the Jesus And Mary Chain. However, since 1983 it is with the classical composer, Michael Nyman, that he has been most closely associated. And let’s face it, Nyman is hardly renowned for writing simple, basic bass lines. 

Elliott also has strong links with Wal basses which reach back to the early days of his session career. This has led to him owning two unique Wal basses, including being the original owner of one of the most notable Wal basses in existence – the solid ash Mk 1 which is now used to great effect by Colin Edwin of Porcupine Tree.

However, his email wasn’t about his playing experiences or his basses (more of that later). No, it was about something much more intriguing…

Wal MB4 midi bass review from Guitarist magazine - February 1990

Wal MB4 midi bass review from Guitarist Feb 1990

ELECTRIC WOOD
Wal MB4 MIDI Bass

As MIDI controllers grow in type and in complexity, one instrument seems to have been overlooked - the bass guitar has always been the 6- string’s poor relation... Review by Ollie Crooke.

AS A BASS PLAYER who works a great deal in a MIDI pre-production studio, I have spent the last few years gnashing my teeth in jealousy as controllers for drummers, guitarists, saxophonists and trumpeters have come on to the market; there just didn’t seem to be much commercial interest in making MIDI accessible in any acceptable form to bass players. I contacted Yamaha, who make guitar and saxophone controllers (both of which I have bought in frustration) to ask if they had any plans to develop something to help me, and was told that although the technology was of course available, such a development was highly unlikely, as there was not a sufficient market to make it worth their while. Well, I hope this instrument proves them wrong.

I am hardly unbiased, but I believe that the potential of a MIDI bass controller is immense - even more so when coupled with a machine like the Simmons SDX and a good drummer. Whole rhythm sections can be recorded into a sequencer, edited, looped, tightened up and generally manipulated, giving whatever balance of human feel and computer precision you require. Exciting, eh? Like drums, although great bass parts can and have been programmed from a keyboard, most of them don’t sound the same as if they’d been played by a real bassist or drummer. Neither is there any of the spontaneity or interaction generated by a good rhythm section playing together. And as there just happens to be a Simmons SDX lying around in my studio, perhaps you can understand my desperation for a decent MIDI bass controller...

Wal custom built basses, rarities & oddities...

Wal custom built basses, rarities & oddities

Throughout their history, Electric Wood were known for their custom builds alongside their production models. Whether it was the iconic triple neck or a tweak to the established formula, if you could convince Ian or Pete then the world was your oyster. However, they had to be convinced it would work. They remained craftsmen, dedicated to building beautifully crafted working tools for working musicians. The weird and wonderful but frankly silly basses could be left for other builders. 

When visiting their workshops in High Wycombe it was not so unusual to see the odd Strat shaped guitar (albeit sporting the characteristic Wal laminated body) hanging from the guitar rack. Alongside might be a Jazz bass in for renovation. However, despite that their passion remained for the basses for which they had become known.

There were a few oddities, though. This page showcases a few of Wal's more unusual creations.

Wal Double Neck Basses

Double-necked Wal basses.

Over the years Electric Wood have made a number of double-necked basses.  Although not exactly common there are a good few examples out there.  

 

The original idea for a Wal double neck came from renowned bassist, Jonas Hellborg, who approached Wal in 1983 with the idea of building a unique bass which
combined fretted and fretless necks. Of course, Wal had some history with multi-necked basses having built the iconic Wal Triple Neck for Roger Newell in Rick Wakeman's band in the early 1970s. The triple neck was, however, somewhat "agricultural" in its lack of finesse. It predated the development of Wal's proprietary pickups, electronics and bridge using off the shelf components. Hellborg's double neck was to be a rather slicker affair.

Bassist magazine feature, January 2000 - "My bass(es) are... Four Wals"

My Basses are...   Four Wals

Steve Weston wanted a Wal. Then he wanted another. And another. Then? Well, we'll let him tell you...

I will never forget the first time I heard a Wal, it was in 1983 and being very ably played by Colin Bass of Camel. I'd had a number of basses over the years, Rickenbacker, Fender, Ibanez etc, but had never quite managed to capture that elusive sound that I wanted from any of them. Anyway there I was watching Camel and I was suddenly being blown away by this amazing bass, loud in the mix without being overpowering, driving, clear and very tight. I decided then and there that I had to have one.

Anyway as it turned out, deciding I had to have one was the easy bit. It actually took me two years of saving, gigging on reduced curry and beer intake (slightly) before I had enough cash to realise my dream, a 1984 Custom 4 string purchased from a reluctant seller in London.

The bass as it was then had a Mahogany body, Electric Wood standard, with Walnut facings and an ebony fretless fingerboard, great looks, and yes, it had that great fretless Wal sound which suited me exactly at the time due to the material we were playing. I later had luthier Pete the Fish at Electric Wood make me a fretted neck so I had some opportunity to change style from time to time. In one form or the other it was my only bass for the next 6/7 years and it never let me down once.

Wal MB4 midi bass

The Wal MB4 MIDI Bass.

The Wal MB4 midi-bass was a relatively short lived collaboration between Electric Wood and Australian bass player/designer Steve Chick.  The system allowed a bass player to control a midi synthesizer directly from the bass with both accurate note tracking with immediate sounding notes.  A common problem for early guitar and bass to midi converters was the so-called "midi-delay" – the almost imperceptible (but still noticeable and distracting) delay between hitting a note and the note sounding. This was down to the physics of the leading technology used at the time for sensing the notes.

The main sensor on most synth controllers at the time was the so called "hex pickup". These thin pickups could usually be seen squeezed in between the bridge pickup and the bridge itself - indeed, kits were available allowing you to stick a hex pickup on your own favourite guitar. The triggering delay was caused by the time taken for the midi hex pick-up to sense the note being played. All the information about that note was conveyed to the midi converter by the hex pickup and therein lay its weakness. To sense the pitch of the note, the pickup needed to listen to a few full vibrations of the string. This wasn't such a problem when shredding away at the top of a guitar neck. The time taken for the string to vibrate a couple of times was minimal and imperceptible. 

Video Demos

Just what do all those knobs do?

We Wal fans all know just how versatile the Wal bass is - largely down to the visionary design of the active electronics. There are so few other basses that have ever used the type of filters which a Wal Custom bass uses. So if there is a downside to the versatility upside of the Wal tone circuit then it is that the way in which they work may not be familiar. They aren't immediately intuitive to all.

The Wal Custom tone controls are described in more detail in the page on this blog that covers those models. But the drafting of those instructions aren't exactly user friendly. However, the beauty of the internet is that there is a wealth of info out there, particularly on YouTube. 

Here are a few videos of Wals in action. Enjoy.

First up is a video by Jaymi Millard, a serial Wal user and serial groovy bass reviewer on his YouTube channel. Here he is reviewing a 1985 Mk I four string...

My basses: 1985 Wal Custom 4-string bass - W2601

I am lucky enough to have what I consider to be a small but perfectly formed collection of bass guitars. First of all I'm the owner of two bass guitars from one of Britain's most respected builders... Wal Basses by Electric Wood.  These are a beautiful red "Pro series" bass from 1979 and a schedua topped  "Custom series" bass from 1985.  I also have another British-built bass, a custom built acoustic bass made by the luthier, Tony Revell, from the south of Wales. Alongside that I've got a couple of other lovely basses, an old Aria SB700 (my first ever bass - awww!) and a customised Jazz bass copy with an interesting story to tell. First up is my main bass for over twenty years, my 1985 Mk I Custom series bass.

 

1985 Wal Custom 4-string bass - W2601: