Wal MB4 Custom Midi Bass

1989 Wal MB4 Custom Series MIDI bass, serial number W3213.

The Wal MB4 was a relatively short-lived collaboration between Electric Wood, the manufacturer of Wal basses, and Australian bass player/designer Steve Chick.

The bass was designed with a special pickup that would transfer a bass signal to a MIDI interface system, allowing a bass player to control a MIDI synthesizer directly from the bass.

This high-quality bass was built of a wood laminate body with a bolt-on maple neck and two-on-a-side tuners.

The bass comes with a rack-mountable MB4 MIDI bass interface.

This bass was used on the Steel Wheels recordings.

Recording engineer Chris Potter, who worked on the Steel Wheels LP, described the Rolling Stones studio gear, remembering a new Wal MIDI bass that Wyman had for the sessions: “On ‘Almost Hear You Sigh,’ Bill used his Wal bass with a combination of DI and FET 47 mikes in front of a small Ampeg B15 Porta-flex bass amplifier placed in the stall next to Charlie [Watts]; this typified his setup for the duration of the session.”

This bass was also on the road for the Rolling Stones 1989-1990 tour.

The bass was photographed, among many other band instruments, gathered at Wykeham Rise girl’s school in Washington Connecticut where the band was rehearsing for the Rolling Stones Steel Wheels tour.