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Walter Woods Amps History and Development

#401
FYI.... I just talked to Walter and was told to not send one of my WW's in for repair as he is taking an "undisclosed" amount of time off and will be out of town until possibly next year. I can't blame him, but it kinda sucks as I bought and amber light amp that I knew was going to need repair under the assumption that I could just send it in to Walter for $500 and have it up and running again. Now I will just have to wait......

He did say that if he ever completely quit working on the amps that he would provide the public with the info needed to have a qualified tech repair the amps. I am assuming that he meant the schematic and parts list....
 
#402
ryanowens said:
FYI.... I just talked to Walter and was told to not send one of my WW's in for repair as he is taking an "undisclosed" amount of time off and will be out of town until possibly next year. I can't blame him, but it kinda sucks as I bought and amber light amp that I knew was going to need repair under the assumption that I could just send it in to Walter for $500 and have it up and running again. Now I will just have to wait......

He did say that if he ever completely quit working on the amps that he would provide the public with the info needed to have a qualified tech repair the amps. I am assuming that he meant the schematic and parts list....
Click to expand...

Let's hope that info is in his will, in case of something unexpected!
 
#404
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Hi
This is my WW 1995 (I think).... I bought it in France.

Amp's serial (te picture inside amp is not of my amp) # 121295

And there's some dates: 12-02-97 06-23-98 Ai 07-26-98 08-22-98

and the round component says: P4228 8Y22 H7c1 Z

Someone's can tell something more about this amp? The dates are the beggining and the end of update services? Many thanks
 
#405
fernandobicho2, that's an interesting amp you have there. It's a very early Electracoustic model. The serial number is the actual date of manufacture, so 121295 means 12 December, 1995. I'm assuming the other dates you listed are hand written on the chassis underneath the top cover panel. They are dates that Walter added when he serviced the amp. The Electracoustic models were in production from around the time your amp was made until recently with various modifications along the way.

I have a 1997 WW Electracoustic amp. Although I've owned and used many other amps over the years, my Walter Woods amp is by far my favorite overall.

BTW the Picasaweb link you posted didn't work when I tried it.
 
#409
I read the earlier post about Walter taking time off. Good to know since I live in a medium size city and a repair guy I would trust with my WW will not be had here. I sold my backup amp for cash to finance a bass purchase (a Pearce B2P!!! if anyone knows what those were....). If my WW were to become dysfunctional I'd be in a mess with many gigs on the books. So maybe a new backup is in order.

My question for those in the know here is, has anyone had to deal with the outer insulation on their WW power cords cracking and revealing the inner conductors (they are also insulated, but it doesnt give me much assurity....)? Mine has cracked and the insulation has slid down revealing about 1" of the the inner wiring. I also noticed a crack in the outer insulation right where the cord enters the amp body. Walter told me a while back on the phone to just open up the amp and replace the cord, or if the void in the insulation was close enough to the amp end, cut mine and reinstall below the broken section. Today I opened the amp up....Walter... dude... easier said than done. The power cord is sandwiched between the fuse and the power switch....

have any of you WW owners repaired the power cord? any advice?

Are there any updates on Walters return???
 
#410
I've got the top off my Ultra right now and as long as the individual insulation is okay, I'd just pull the strain relief off, remove the piece of insulation that's cracked loose and push the cord in so that you can clamp back down on a good place on the cord.

Regular pair of pliers and a knife is all you need to complete the job in a couple of minutes.
 
#411
Akami, I appreciate your reply, but I am not following you.

You'll have to excuse the complete non-technician here...
1) I am understanding that you dont really need the top of the amp off at all. The whole thing can be done from the outside.

2) Isnt the cord attached to something on the INSIDE of the amp, so that if I were to "push" the cord in it would just bunch up inside the amp?

Just to be clear, the BAD section of my cord (about 1" of revealed inner wires) is about 12" away from the place where it enters the amp. So using your suggestion I'd be pushing about 12" of individual wires into the amp just to get to the "good" insulated part. Does that make sense?
 
#412
dpbass66 said:
Akami, I appreciate your reply, but I am not following you.

You'll have to excuse the complete non-technician here...
1) I am understanding that you dont really need the top of the amp off at all. The whole thing can be done from the outside.

2) Isnt the cord attached to something on the INSIDE of the amp, so that if I were to "push" the cord in it would just bunch up inside the amp?

Just to be clear, the BAD section of my cord (about 1" of revealed inner wires) is about 12" away from the place where it enters the amp. So using your suggestion I'd be pushing about 12" of individual wires into the amp just to get to the "good" insulated part. Does that make sense?
Click to expand...
Since the distance is so far away from the amp I'd ignore my suggestion. If it had been closer then there would have been no problem with having another inch or so of inner wire inside the amp. With the top of the amp off you could have arranged the wires as necessary, but it sounds like you really need to replace the whole cord.

I just looked back inside the amp and I could fairly easily replace this cord still. My amp is dated December '89 and is the only Walter Woods I've ever had, but I doubt there's going to be much if any difference.

Your list of tools just grew a little, but not by much. You've already got the screwdriver to take off the top, which you'll need to take out the screw on the side of the chassis for access to the ground wire. Pliers to take out (and replace) the strain relief. Soldering gun for obvious purposes and a pair of long needle nose pliers to hold the ground wire nut while unscrewing it from the outside.

With my cord still in the way it's hard to see the fuse holder, but it can be either left in place or removed to solder the new wire in place - using the needle nose pliers will allow you to pull the wire loose and once again, hold it in place when you put it back on.

The last remaining connection on my amp is inside a taped connection and even if yours has a crimp or what have you, it should be easy enough to figure out.

Good luck with it, and in the meantime you can wrap the cord with some electrical tape, taking care to make the tape a little thicker at the break and feathering it out so that it covers about 3" of the cord, centered on the break.
 
#417
I wanted to post an update on my need for Walter to repair my ww.

It had been several months since Walter told me he was taking a break from working on his amps and I decided to give him a call and just see if a repair was now possible...... Well he answered!

He said he is just now getting back into things and mine would be his first repair, then he would dive into his messages and help others out.

I sent the amp in about 7 days ago and got it back good as new yesterday. Actually he said it is "better than new!"

I am lucky to have 2 ww's (amber and green) so hopefully I'm set for the rest of my career. :)

Walter also said that he does have a few amps in stock if anyone is looking to buy.

Extremely happy that my ww didn't become a paperweight, I had several reputable repair techs look at it and they all said that without a schematic and specific parts list that it would be next to impossible for anyone other than Walter to service the amp because all the parts have the values and names sanded off.
 
#418
sorry to dig up an old thread but i just read this post and i had to comment. i have one of the earliest electroacoustic models. i tried one of the previous models and loved it, so i ordered mine, and what showed up at my door looked (and sounded) entirely different than what i tried! i was alittle dissappointed since, although i hate to say it, i preferred the sound of the earlier generation better. anway, when i called him to ask him if i could get the other one instead he said this was the new one and if i liked the old one then id love this one... (not entirely the case, but i do like it alot) anway, while i was on the phone with him i asked him about the send mix knob, i had been playing with the amp thoroughly and noticed that it did make a big change in sound (this was way before the internet!). he really didnt believe me and denied that it should be making any effect at all on the sound. the amp was still a very new design at the time and i may have been one of the first to point it out to him because he was very surprised by the claim and denied that it should affect the tone in any way. i guess over the years enough people have mentioned it that he has come to accept it. seems like one of those "happy accidents"!

KJung said:
Another WW tip, in case you aren't aware of this. There's a control on the newer Walter's that many of us call the 'magic knob'. It's the effects return volume... the knob for each channel on the far rightside of the amp. It's strange, but this control, without anything connected to the effects loop, acts as a low mid,low end enhance control. When you turn it from 1/2 way to all the way up, the low end of the Walter (which can be just a touch thin... and for you guys with the old ones... the new ones are TOTALLY differently voiced... much more articulate and clean, much less deep low end) REALLY fattens up. Walter will not fess up as to what is actually going on with this control (I think he actually coined the term 'magic knob'!), but it really does change the character of the amp.

It's not in the manual, etc., so just wanted to make sure you were aware of this. For DB, I would assume you would never engage this. However, for funk/pop/rock type contexts with an EB, it really is useful for adding some balls in the low mids and low end.

Enjoy that new amp!

K
Click to expand...
 
#420
Jazzdogg said:
Is this EQ quirk audible whether or the effects loop is being used? If you're trying to use the effects loop, do you get the added low-mid boost whether you want it or not?
Click to expand...

Interesting question. I never, no do I know of anyone personally, whoever used the effects loop of their Walter. Walter guys are typically sort of 'purists'... bass, cable, amp, play.

I'm sure someone out there has tried that though.
 

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