For me, I don't venture an opinion on any gear until I spend a lot of time with eq. I've designed speakers for years and (not just my opinion) they sound as good or better than anything out there. But they weigh a ton. (I built a 2x10 cab with Volt speakers from England---sounds amazing, but it weighs about 70 lbs.) If anyone would try it without eq it would sound terrible. Obnoxious midrange, not enough bottom. It reminds me of the EA CXL12 speaker which is my current favorite. I can eq virtually any two speakers so that they sound nearly identical. But the "thump" and the envelope of how the notes develop and decay will be very different. This is the most important part of whether or not I like either a head or a speaker. It's the most important aspect of sound that eq does not change. The WW amps sound great, but the thump and envelope factors make it a poor choice for me. Same with the AI amps. At least for me. It was very interesing when I first tried the Doubler. I had a Micro 300 which sounded great. But with the Doubler there was more of a visceral thump at the beginning of the notes.And there was more "width" to the notes. It was simultaneously warmer but with more authority than the 300. And this wasn't a function of the eq---just the basic sound of the amp. The AI stuff is very nice, but I find that functionally I prefer the EA. And for electric the AI was unusable for me. I use the Wizzy 10 for any gig of trio or less. It is VERY wanky in the midrange. So much that EA came out with a change in the interior batting that tames the mids. I haven't changed mine (laziness) but for me it's no big deal. I religiously use the Fishman Dual Parametric direct box and I know how to EQ out the offending anomalies. And just the anomalies. Problem with onboard eq on amps is that the range of the frequencies affected are often too wide. So you get rid of the offending wank, but take out too much of the adjacent frequencies. EQ on amps is good for general tone shaping but not for dealing with specific issues. With the parametric I can find the offending frequencies and how much to attenuate them and then reduce the width of the eq so that I'm only taking out what I want. On my Golia with the FC the open D is a lot louder than other notes. If I used the notch on the Doubler I could take it out, but since the amount of attenuation is fixed, I'd take out way too much of the D. With a parametric I can take out just enough to get it in balance. And not affect any adjacent notes.
With the Wizzy 10 and the CXL12 I can get them sounding virtually identical (my sound) and they are radically different sounding cabs. I'm not using the Wizzy M-line as much these days. While I eq it to sound identical to my other cabs, the basic sound of the cab is wider and more enveloping. Which has a strong romantic appeal. But I found that I had a bit more trouble "cutting through". On its own it's a better sounding cab than the 10 or CXL. But functionally I prefer the other two.
A very cool little amp that I used for years was the little GK powered keyboard speaker. Looked just like the bass amp, but only one control. Volume. No eq. But for some reason either of my uprights sounded amazing through it. I think that the Doubler/Wizzy 10 sounds better (and with a lot more flexibility), but less better than one would think. It sounded TONS better than their bass amp. Only good for trios or less. For eq I would just raise or lower the height, Sounds primative, but for 10 years I used it on all smaller gigs. And a stupidly heavy and complicated system for louder gigs.
I talked to an engineer at Fishman and he thought that the Dual Parametric was the coolest thing that they had made but nobody bought it. Kinda like the EA VL208. Musicians seem to be intimidated by parametric eq but once you learn what frequencies are associated with what sounds it's a piece of cake. When we were designing the Doubler they used all of my suggestions except for one. I wanted bass and treble controls and two bands of fully parametric eq. They said that no one would buy it. We even talked about me doing a seminar on EQing the bass.
