Eden WT800C amp woes!! Anyone else having Problems?

[svtb15]

Ok here is the deal.. and a gripe fest on Eden’s Customer Service.
I bought a brand new Eden WT800C the first week of November 2006. When I got it home I noticed that there was a loud THUMP / THUD sound when the MUTE control on the GAIN knob was engaged.
It would only happen if the GAIN knob was turned up between 7-10. The THUD was so loud it slams the speakers against the grill. Even with master volume lowered.
I have to run the GAIN knob that high since I am using a vintage passive bass and it will not light the LED on the input unless it is nearly dimmed..
even when at 10 i have to play hard to get the LED to light... but that is not the problem... And I have tried 3 other early 60s J and P basses and they all have similar output so I don’t think it is the bass but instead the amp.

anyway back to the main problem....So I brought the amp back to the store that I bought it from. They did not have any other WT800 amps in stock so they sent mine out to warranty repair.
I only had the amp for less than ONE day!
They were nice enough to lend me a WT 550 while mine 800 was out . I actually think that the 550 sounded real nice.

In the 3rd week of December about one month goes by and my WT800C came back from repair from local warranty repair service. Thinking that all was OK.. I took it home in the box.
I went to a gig that night and nothing changed. The amp still made the huge loud thud noise when activating the Mute .
But now i also noticed that the TUNER out does not work. the only signal was a 60 hz hum.... LOUD... This is a brand new amp..

So I called the store and they offered to send it out again. I figured I will call Eden directly this time and find out what to do.
Eden was very cool and sent a prepaid call tag.. UPS came a few days later and picked up my amp. That was about 3 weeks ago.
I called to see if they got it, they did.

I asked how long it will be. they said 6-8 weeks since they are back logged.
I can understand that. but the amp was new. Brand new in a box and i had the amp in my hands for about 36 hours and it will be out on repair for 2 months coming up next week..
Two freakin months!
I emailed David Nordschow and he said that there is surely a problem with the preamp section and to contact customer Service.. So I did.
Since then i have gone to the Eden forum and it appears that there are a few other WT800C owners that are having similar problems with their amps.

IS anyone else here own a WT800C and having similar problems?

I bought the amp to use on my fly to gigs. Since it is much more portable than my SVTs. And i like to have my own heads with me since you never know what a backline rental will be like.

I really think the Eden gear is good from what I have heard and this may just be a lemon. And I want to try to give them the benefit of the doubt, but 2 months on repair for a brand new amp seems a little excessive I feel.. I think they should offer to send a new amp in a box since this seems to be a lemon.

Any way I will continue to keep up on this to report how Eden CS handles this matter.

Time to get off to the gig.

 

[JOME77]

I think that the store that you bought it from should have arranged to get you a new amp replacement ASAP. If they didn't have one they should have had one drop shipped from Eden.
I had a similar problem with a new Thunderfunk amp. I e-mailed Dave Funk and before the sun went down that day Dave e-mailed back with a UPS tracking number for a new TFB-550B! He instructed me to just ship the other one back to him.
IMO that's how your issue should be handled.

 

[svtb15]

that is what i think too. .thank you.. i think this is going to be a long drawn out process at this point.. i had my eye on a thunderfunk too. but went with the eden.. oh well...
I guess i couls always do a charge back on my cedit card...

I think that the store that you bought it from should have arranged to get you a new amp replacement ASAP. If they didn't have one they should have had one drop shipped from Eden.
I had a similar problem with a new Thunderfunk amp. I e-mailed Dave Funk and before the sun went down that day Dave e-mailed back with a UPS tracking number for a new TFB-550B! He instructed me to just ship the other one back to him.
IMO that's how your issue should be handled.

 

[neptoon]

i'm thinking about getting one of these to replace my navigator + power amp rig...but i want to see a picture of the backlit eden logo (porchlight) on the front!! got one?

 

[neptoon]

i saw that you've been on the eden forum...have you, by any chance, contacted lane baldwin to help you out with this? u.s. music corp customer service is pretty bad, but when you talk to lane, you're actually talking to eden, and you'll more than likely get a decent answer

 

[svtb15]

hi.. thank you ...i have noticed that other WT800c uses have had similar problems and figured to post here since it will hit a larger audience.. maybe together we can help eden pinpoint the problem and get them back on track to excellent CS and amps.
From what i remember the backlit porch light looks great.. and it works!
the amp sounds great too, from what i remember... it is just the problems with the GAIN thud sound and the Tuner out not working..
I did contact Lane and he was very polite and was looking into it.. I am sure he has his hand full and doing the best he can... but still no verbal or written communication in over a month..and i am out $$$$$$ and no amp either..The wt800 is an expensive amp...I am an ampeg endorser but when suggested by a friend to try the eden i fell in love with that amp..
I have other rigs but that is not the issue i think.. I did email David Norschow and he was looking into it too. CS said that David was on it.. but that was all last year.. iwill see them at NAMM in 2 weeks but i hope that i will have my amp before then...
I think i will try to speak with Lane instead of the US music CS since i think they are blowing the proverbial smoke up my (you know what)..

i saw that you've been on the eden forum...have you, by any chance, contacted lane baldwin to help you out with this? u.s. music corp customer service is pretty bad, but when you talk to lane, you're actually talking to eden, and you'll more than likely get a decent answer

 

[svtb15]

I emailed Lane about the situation once more and hope that it is in his power to help me and others with the equipment hardware problems as well as any outstanding Customer Service issues..

 

[neptoon]

maybe things are going slow because of namm and the holidays...man, a month is a long time to be without an amp...i'm having a reconing issue right now with eden that's about 5 months in the making

 

[svtb15]

I found out today that eden has found out why the wt800C has a Tuner out pronlem.. there seems to have a wire cut too short in the wire harness that goes to the tuner out not hooking it up,,, it apparently happened on the first build of the amps that were built in the new facility.. well i am glad they found it.. My amp is still there and i hope they go the fix while it is there for another unrelated problem...
i wonder how many are out there that have the same proglem?

 

[adam on bass]

Here we go:

They had my Metro there since September and just got it back 3 days ago without my footswitch and power cable (which is what it went in for) so I have no way of checking it until I get those back, all that and I am an Eden Artist (not that that I am special but you'd think it might push through since it is how I make my living)! I had moved from Oregon to Arizona since the RMA was written but I had ordered stuff and had it delivered to my Arizona house in the term and I put a letter in the box stating this with my new address.

The response from CS was "it's not Services job to change addresses", no maybe not, but it's Eden's problem to pay an extra $50-$80 to pickup the amp from the wrong address in a different state and send it to the right one? CS is on the slide for sure. When I was with GK I had an amp fry and they sent me a new one overnight with a prepaid tag in the box to ship the jacked one back. Sadowsky is the same way, Roger answers emails and is on top of it.

I am pretty fried over it for sure, the amp still sounds pretty damn good though. All I can say to you and the rest of the readers and America: complain when you can, that is the only way things will change. I have been living by this montra for the last 8 months because I am tired of wrong or broken stuff and it is paying off, most managers/owners like to hear this stuff anyway so they can fix it.

 

[Bassist30]

Sorry about the amp. It seems when people recommend something they had it for along time. I guess many changes can happen from a company that was great at one time and turned into this. You know i had one and still wish i had it. But I am scared to order another with all this going on.

 

[svtb15]

wow firkinahsoul.. you have been waiting way longer than me.. and i am burned out already... i am an ampeg endorser but i could not wait any longer for the svt8 and i went and bought the wt800c... so far it has been a nightmare.. i never had any problems like that with ampeg.. but i have to admit I love the way the eden sounds...
but the new cusomer no- service at eden is exactly that..no-service... and they seam to be just blowing smoke to buy time...
i just want someone to tell me the truth so i can tell them to keep the piece of metal and go do a chargeback on my credit card and get something that i can use.... mmmmmm.. maybe thats why they are buying time... i dont know.. i am starting to get almost allow myself to head towads the pi$$ed off area... but i am trying to not go there...

 

[Bassflute]

wow firkinahsoul.. you have been waiting way longer than me.. and i am burned out already... i am an ampeg endorser but i could not wait any longer for the svt8 and i went and bought the wt800c... so far it has been a nightmare.. i never had any problems like that with ampeg.. but i have to admit I love the way the eden sounds...
but the new cusomer no- service at eden is exactly that..no-service... and they seam to be just blowing smoke to buy time...
i just want someone to tell me the truth so i can tell them to keep the piece of metal and go do a chargeback on my credit card and get something that i can use.... mmmmmm.. maybe thats why they are buying time... i dont know.. i am starting to get almost allow myself to head towads the pi$$ed off area... but i am trying to not go there...

They seem to be getting really good at doing all of the above, especially the blowing smoke part. I hope your results turn out better than mine, but it is not looking good.

Be prepared to wait...

The 800A/B is a great amp - I have a 'B'. The 1205 amp disaster seems to have put Eden into a really bad place that they just can't get out of. But, after the way they treated me, they fully deserve all that and much more.

Hope your amp gets back to you soon, man.

Cheers,
Cameron

 

[svtb15]

what happened to you...?
i emailed David Norscchow once again just yesterday... im sure he has his hands full.. but i want an amp back... now...
im whinning now..

They seem to be getting really good at doing all of the above, especially the blowing smoke part. I hope your results turn out better than mine, but it is not looking good.

Be prepared to wait...

The 800A/B is a great amp - I have a 'B'. The 1205 amp disaster seems to have put Eden into a really bad place that they just can't get out of. But, after the way they treated me, they fully deserve all that and much more.

Hope your amp gets back to you soon, man.

Cheers,
Cameron

 

[SteveC]

I had to send my 550 in this week. They said 5 weeks. I am not happy. Actually I am very close to buying a nice Genz Benz GBE 600 and Neo 212 from a local store.

I am holding out for a while as I just don't have the funds right now, but if it takes too long, I may be a GB user.

 

[svtb15]

my peeve is that my amp was brand new. i only had it a day or so.. went to repair.. came back not fixed.. now out again... 2 months so far after having the amp just hours

 

[SteveC]

The only thing that keeps me fromdumping my Eden gear - when/if I get it back - is the fact that I like the tone and I am sick of the gear merry-go-round and want to just have something I like.

 

[kdogg]

I know it's probably too late for this now, but doesn't the store you bought the amp from have a return policy? I know everyone complains about Guitar Centers here, but if you had, or did, purchase your amp there, you have 30 days to return it, no questions asked. While Eden is ultimately responsible for their amp being defective, the store you purchased it from also has the responsibility to make it right, as they sold you the defective product in the first place. How long has it been, since you purchased the amp?

 

[rockstarbassist]

I know some other people who have had nothing but nightmares in dealing with Eden recently, and this has turned me off from using them ever again in the future, and unrelated situations like this just proves the point further.

Demand a new one man or get a full refund from Eden. From other situations I've seen recently, it's only going to get worse on your end.


And like you said, this isn't taking into consideration the time YOU'RE out not having an amp you just shelled out major bills for. They don't care on their end- it's just another repair tag on their list while you need it to gig.
Pitiful.

Return it and get a Genz or Mesa or something. Wouldn't see this happening on the CS or QC side with either of those guys.

 

[Vic]

This is breaking my heart... I'm a huge Eden fan... at least tonally.

You know, after the USM acquisition, folks got real scared stuff like this might start happening, but for a long time all was fine. Seems like just this last year things really degraded. I wonder what the he** is going on????