chain__lightning Posted April 23, 2017 Author Share Posted April 23, 2017 Never seen the bunnies.Can anyone direct me to a good Youtube video or something.As an aside my late father saw the foam spewing armadillo/tank of ELP.He never laughed so hard. Crappy quality but you will see the bunnies rise out of hats at the start of War Paint! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Digital Man Posted April 23, 2017 Share Posted April 23, 2017 Check out the tone on this Wal Mk2, awesome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edhunter Posted April 23, 2017 Share Posted April 23, 2017 Check out the tone on this Wal Mk2, awesome If that's the tone you're looking for... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnoble Posted April 24, 2017 Share Posted April 24, 2017 I'm sure they're still in his collection somewhere. It's not like he's posted pics of the whole thing. If he still has the teardrop monstrosity he created, I'm sure the Wals and Steinbergers are in cases in the closet or something. I couldn't stand the black one. The red one sounds pretty nice on some of the soundboard boots from that tour. By the time Counterparts was recorded, Rush decided to be a grunge band, and the Wals were too dainty for that. I played one in a store somewhere north of Los Angeles in '93. It felt really weird. The back of the neck had a more triangular than rounded shape to it, and the onboard EQ was parametric, which created really dramatic tone shifts when you adjusted them. I shoulda bought it simply for the investment value at the time, but I was a tightwad back then. Geddy still at least has the black one because I have a photo of him in his house with all his guitars hanging on the wall in the background and his first Wal is one of them. Have no idea if he still has the Steinberger though. He mentioned not liking it's sound as one of the reasons he stopped using it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnoble Posted April 24, 2017 Share Posted April 24, 2017 I always felt that the Wal basses sounded a bit twangy and lacked that lowend grunt.But that probably suited the music they were playing then.It certainly sounded great on Turn the Page and Show Don't Tell but i always wondered if Ged had whipped out the Fender or the Rickenbacker for these tracks.I have mentioned this here before but Ged mentioned in a guitar mag at the time that Wal gave him a red bass but it was too bright sounding so he tried black one which had a darker tone.Err a bit Spinal Tap.As for Alex he used a strat styled guitar on GUP with Hentor(Peter Henderson nickname) letraset on the headstock which sent plagues of guitarists into music shops asking for Hentor guitars.As much as i love the heavy stuff of the 70s i actually like his shiny guitar tone of the 80/90s better.I am not a fan of H&K amps he uses now but i love the PRS guitars. Geddy admitted once that Wal basses "aren't a good "rock" bass" since they have that twangy dinky tone. Hence why he had to switch to the non active pickup thicker grittier tone of the Fender Jazz for Counterparts. To be honest, with today's amp modeling and effect units you can pretty much make almost any guitar or bass sound like what you want but I totally understand his decision to stop using the Wal. Can you imagine the beginning of Animate with that dinky plinky Wal tone? :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnoble Posted April 24, 2017 Share Posted April 24, 2017 This topic reminds me of the common "Why does Presto sound so tinny and weak?" threads over the years on TRF. Many blame Rupert Hine and the engineering of the album but overlook that they recorded it with the bright non-aggressive sounding Signature and Wal guitars. No amount of remixing or remastering of that album is going to suddenly make it sound like Counterparts or the ones that followed in terms of tone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Digital Man Posted April 24, 2017 Share Posted April 24, 2017 Is this a non-aggressive and twangy-dinky tone then? I don't think so myself! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnoble Posted April 25, 2017 Share Posted April 25, 2017 Is this a non-aggressive and twangy-dinky tone then? I don't think so myself! But that's Flea, not Geddy Lee. And Geddy chose (for whatever reason) to record and tour with the dinky tone. What do you want from me, I'm just an observer of the obvious. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacklifeson Posted May 18, 2017 Share Posted May 18, 2017 I loved that Signature clean jangly tone Alex got. Especially with the sustained arpeggios. Just great. And Geddys Wal tone is my fav bass tone of all time. Took 30 years but I finally got a Wal. I can say for sure like someone else here said, Geddy chose that tone with the Wal...it is NOT lacking in aggressive bottom end. It has a filter preamp and to get that bouncy top end he got, you have to adjust the filters to to take out some of the bottom. I try to get a mix of two on mine since I play in cover bands and Geddys tone doesnt work in alot of the songs I play. Others that play Wals like Flea did and JC from Tool have a different sound than Geddy so its a very versatile instrument. Geddy switched because he probably was getting bored and the direction on CP was harder rock. I do not like his live tone since he switched to the Jazz...scooped and buzzsaw sansamp distortion, and it just doesnt sound good on the Wal/Steinberger songs IMO. Recorded tones are good but still not like the MP era Jazz/Ric tone, he is missing the mids in his tone like he used to have. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammerofthor Posted May 18, 2017 Share Posted May 18, 2017 I like both of their respective clean tones from that period, just not together. I think the signature tone would go great with a heavier bass sound, or the other way around. Since VT, both have been a muddy mess. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Digital Man Posted May 19, 2017 Share Posted May 19, 2017 I loved that Signature clean jangly tone Alex got. Especially with the sustained arpeggios. Just great. And Geddys Wal tone is my fav bass tone of all time. Took 30 years but I finally got a Wal. I can say for sure like someone else here said, Geddy chose that tone with the Wal...it is NOT lacking in aggressive bottom end. It has a filter preamp and to get that bouncy top end he got, you have to adjust the filters to to take out some of the bottom. I try to get a mix of two on mine since I play in cover bands and Geddys tone doesnt work in alot of the songs I play. Others that play Wals like Flea did and JC from Tool have a different sound than Geddy so its a very versatile instrument. Geddy switched because he probably was getting bored and the direction on CP was harder rock. I do not like his live tone since he switched to the Jazz...scooped and buzzsaw sansamp distortion, and it just doesnt sound good on the Wal/Steinberger songs IMO. Recorded tones are good but still not like the MP era Jazz/Ric tone, he is missing the mids in his tone like he used to have. Cool, tell us about your Wal, what year, specs, etc? I love mine, sold my '77 Jazz to help fund it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earthshine Posted May 21, 2017 Share Posted May 21, 2017 The Wal basses definitely have a character of their own. The great Percy Jones of Brand X was the guy to help make them popular through his recordings and tours with them; along with his endorsement of them. Geddy is a huge Percy Jones fan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Big Money Posted May 21, 2017 Share Posted May 21, 2017 In my opinion the Wal sounded good for the stuff they were doing at time, however after listening to this version of Show Don't Tell from the Presto tour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J41AXq3-Mc0 and than listening to this version from the Counterparts tour it really shows how much weaker sounding the Wal is compared to the Fender imo of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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