The Wonderful World of the Woods of Wal – Part 1, Necks
In Ian Waller and Pete Stevens the early 1970s
cooked up a perfect recipe for bass guitar building creativity. A perfect storm
of bass playing experience (in Ian's case), innovative design skills, inquiring
minds, guitar building experience, woodworking skills, affability, electronics
savvy and connections within the industry. Given those factors it's no surprise
that something magical happened.
And there are plenty of anecdotes highlighting
their skill with a chisel and a plane. Stories of Ian sizing up a job
(refitting a recording studio) by eye and still perfectly dovetailing together
complicated elements in perfect harmony. Ian, in particular clearly had a
strong affinity with wood as a material and a living theme.
In a recent blog on his own site, The New
Colloquium, http://thenewcolloquium.com/wal-bass-neil-finn-me/ Paul Phillips outlines his memories of Wal. "...Ian, on the
other hand, was a bit of an electronics genius and also built guitars. Everyone
called him Wal (his name was Ian Waller). He made the legendary Wal Bass...
"...When I met him, he had
already built his own acoustic bass guitar, the first I’d ever seen. It was
huge, and beautiful. At one point, George Harrison coveted it, but Wal wasn’t
keen. I think he’d rather it went to a bona fide and great bass player.
"He started studying wood and how
it aged, and dreaming up the design of the Wal Bass. To me, wood was wood. But
then Wal showed me some birds-eye maple and made me study it as he saw it. I
never – to this day – looked at wood the same way again."
