Willie,
Wal basses were hand built in very small numbers by two men - Pete Stevens and Ian Waller. Sadly Ian (wal) Waller died suddenly of a heart attack and Pete struggled on with the company for a time before halting production. It would be very rare to see a Wal on the wall of any music shop even at the height of their production due to the small number being hand made. I was lucky, a music shop in Glasgow back in 86 had two in stock, a Schedua and a curly maple, I bought the schedua model on the spot using hire purchase and I paid it up. It was an incredible axe and gave a very close tone to the tone Geddy achieved with his! My Wal bass was played by John Entwhistle in London on a bass tuition weekend around 88 - he was a Wal fan! Stupidly in the heat of a silly moment(and deeply regretably) I swapped my Wal for a Jaydee Supernatural when I was going through a Mark King phase...it is probably the single biggest regret of my musical life as it wasnt in the same league at all as the Wal.
I have heard rumours that Geddy really likes Alder bodied basses when possible for their reasonable weight/tone (His Wal was a solid Alder body) and doesnt really dig ornamental wood finishes. He also doesnt like complicated tonal controls - these could be factors in his decision not to use Alembic. He paid in full for his Wal basses so I can only surmise that he wouldnt be the type of player who would only endorse manufacturers that supplied him with free basses!
John.
