Double Bass Can't Walter Woods be Cloned?

[Ric Vice]

I loved using the EDB-1 with the Amplite and could see possibly returning to something like that but what attracts me to the little Clarus is its simplicity. Plug it in and play. I'd like to find a small, integrated head with that Headway tone. Actually, the Ampeg sounds great and although not completely neutral, gets a tone that I like. It's 14 lbs and I prefer not to use it for that reason.

+1 When you're schlepping you're DB around, the last thing you want is a big bulky amplifier, and I think that's why the AI combos are so appealing to Contrabass players. I solved that problem in a slightly different way, by using the Headway EDB-2 and a QSC K8. It's a very compact and lightweight system.

Even going back to the earliest versions I've always enjoyed playing through those Clarus heads and every version seems to move towards being ever more practical. I've been trying to sort out my sound with this new bass and this afternoon I looked at the stack of 2 heads, 4 preamps and Amplite and Stewart power amps that I've been trying in different combinations and I just kinda threw up my hands and said "**** it I'm getting a Clarus". I've only ever gotten to use a Walter Woods with the slab and I'd love the chance to see what kind of friends I could make with one with the double bass but that's kind of a fantasy right now. I don't think the Clarus is much of a WW "clone" but like the Woods it does seem voiced so that getting a good sound fast is not a struggle. I'm really ready to be done obsessing over this amp thing and just go play.

+1 Again, I think there's something to be said for simplicity, and definitely something valuable in a small compact DB amplifier. AI had done remarkably well at building the smallest, and best sounding amp in it's weight class. The Walter Woods and Acoustic Image amps have very little in common when it comes to their EQ sections. Walter's amps have a distinct warm low midrange, while the EQ section of his pre amp is as good at dialing back, bass, midrange and treble, as it is boosting those frequencies. The controls are very sensitive, so barley moving one of the knobs changes the sound of the amp. The MI-100-8, MI-400-8, and MI-800-8 amps are truly flat at the 12:00 position, for all three tone controls. Dialing them above 12:00, boosts the specific frequency range of the tone controls, while dialing them below 12:00 cuts the specific frequency range of that respective control. Acoustic Image amps tone controls, feel like they start relatively flat at the 1 and then boost their respective frequency ranges. Just my take. Frankly the only thing I think they really have in common is a SMPS power supply and Digital Power Amp. Walter's DSP's are built by hand, while the AI uses B&O Ice power module, that can be easily changed out should it need a repair. Acoustic Image finally put a Low and High midrange control on their current amps, that to me is a big step forward.

Ric