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.

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.