Wal bass price-lists from days-gone-by
Dating your Wal...
If you happen to own a
Custom Series Bass your job is very, very simple... Just take the
control cavity plate off the back off your bass and you should find a
small piece of masking tape with all the info you need (and more)
written on it!
One point to make about this... The masking tape is written by whoever happened to give the bass it's final check and once-over. Several basses have been listed on eBay stating "Made by Ian Waller himself and signed inside..." as if this means that it should command a higher price for its rarity. This is not the case. All Wals will have been worked on by whoever was working in the Electric Wood workshops in that period. Therefore ALL Wal basses built before Ian Waller died will have been extensively worked on by him - while it's nice to think that the signature on your bass is Ian's no such basses ought to command an elevated price just for the presence of his signature.
Pro
series and
other Wals are a little more difficult. However,
numerically the numbering of Wals is broadly sequential - starting from
W1111. The JG series followed on with a JG prefix replacing
the W - JG1111. According to
Electric Wood records only 44
JGs were ever made (JP1111, JG1111 - JG1153) - they also give details
on 36 of the original owners. The first JG went to Wal
stalwart
John G Perry but had a serial number JP1111.
The
next, JG1111 was a demo model which went to Trident Studios off Wardour
Street, London. John Gustafson's fretted JG was next, JG1112
- he
later returned for a fretless, JG1131. The last JG was JG1153
(which it seems was retrofitted in 1981 with a Pro IIE scratchplate).
With the introduction of the Pro series basses the JG changed to PB and the numbering reverted to 1111 (again). The first two Pro Basses (PB1111 and PB1112 were kept by Wal, the following few being shipped off to Barret's in Manchester - this was March 1979. These early Pros had plain headstocks. From May 1979 the Pros had the more usual striped headstocks. This change back to PB1111 explains a degree of confusion in the numbering of Wals in this transitional period... a PB1131 exists but then, so does JG1139! The Pro Series ran from 1979 to 1982 with the last ever PB numbered bass being PB1859 (although this to all intents and purposes was a Custom Series bass) - subsequent basses returned to a W prefix - W1860 one would presume! All remained calm on the numbering front until around 1996 when a new numbering system was introduced. This retained the W prefix but gave the date on which the bass was completed. Under this system W30496 would be dated 30 April 1994, W7899 would be 7 August 1999 and W28601 would be 28 June 2001 - American cousins take note of the British date convention! Just to confuse matters all through this period some basses were still being numbered sequentially!
One thing you can be sure of is that there are enough anomalies in there to keep the Wal dating game interesting and surprising! In the end your best bet may be to visit Stephan Koester's excellent Wal database and find a number near the number of your bass and see what date that one was built! Yours will be close to that date... probably!
Small...but perfectly formed...
In
line with long held traditions we keep the best to last. It's
fair to say that ALL Wal basses are wonders of the luthier's art but
the Wal bass featured in this section is certainly one of a kind - a
microcosm of the bass maker's art. At first sight it doesn't
seem that special... Quilted kauri top, five string, Mark II body
shape... so what. Well, when you scroll down to see the next
photos all may become clear.
Rather than the normal scale length of 34 inches this bass has a nut to bridge length measuring less than 12 inches. It is, in fact a beautifully made resin model constructed by a Japanese model maker - "Chapran".
The bass is seen here in all its glory modelled not, as it appears at first sight, by the wonderful singter-songwriter and bassist, Aimee Mann, but a small, blonde, resin doll... According to the Chapran website her name's "Maria" but you probably didn't really need to know that.
The attention to detail on the model is nothing short of amazing - from the laminated "mahogany"/"kauri" sandwich body structure and laminated neck to the detailing on the characteristic Wal die cast bridge, the custom made Wal volume, tone and blend knobs and the twin jack and XLR output sockets visible on the photograph below! Even the tuning heads and string retainer look correct to the casual eye!
The model was
commissioned by Derek Tearne, a bassist from New Zealand as a perfect
replica of his kauri topped 5-string. The accuracy is
remarkable - Derek confesses that the only reason that the colours are
slightly different is that he fiddled with the JPEG colours before
sending them off to Yuji for him to start working on!
Incidentally, the resin dolls are also made by Yuji's wife and, again, each one is a unique sculpture with individual features.
This
is only one of the amazing guitar and bass models available on the
Chapran page at the "Jack-in-the Box" website on http://www.eonet.ne.jp/~saltvalley/jitb/chapran/chapran.html
from classic axes like SGs, Telecasters, Les Pauls and Ricky basses to
weird Japanese celebrity guitars, Burns electrics and some of those
odd, not-quite-Mosrite-shaped early '70s Yamaha electrics.
Mad as a sack of fish but a great page to just enjoy!
Another
Chapran model, this time a schedua 5-string.
