GLWFSPs. I had a spare set but I included them with the Super I sold a few months ago (which I also had the WW rack ears for). Are your REs not original WW ones?
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Walter Woods Amps History and Development
- Thread starter Uncletoad
- Start date
The WW and cabs in the Jaco clip belonged to Curtis Ohlsson and those Nightfood/Brian Melvin band characters. He was still using it the last time I saw him with Booker T. If this is the clip from New Georges, I was there that night. The Stack knob was likely borrowed from the Grateful Dead, Bob Weir was singing on the set they were doing that week. I remember thinking at the time the speaker cabs were crap, boomy and rattling grills. Jaco had been drinking, and hadn't been sleeping much either. It's pretty much Jaco there going through his muscle motions with a mediocre band, and it's sad to think this wasn't too long before he was murdered in Florida. Anyway I wouldn't judge the WW as inferior to Acoustic sound on this clip. The Acoustic and the WW are different beasts, and again, the speaker cabs are of questionable quality.
Just in case nobody's posted this yet, here's what I believe is the only "advertising" Walter ever did, the back cover of Rufus Reid's The Evolving Bassist.
I have that WW catalog, and Rufus' book, too. I have not looked at either in quite some time but IIRC the catalog was two double sided pages (I have a few other catalogs of Walter's, also).
I am jumping in here after a long hiatus from TB....so if I am breaking some sort of thread rule, please go easy.
I am the owner of a green light bi-amp model from the late 90's , which I traded up for a mono blue light model (1200w) around 2002. I will probably go to my grave with my WW. I have other amps and use them all selectively depending on what the gig calls for, but the Walter is a special character.
I am just curious, has anyone here commented on Walter's status insofar as health and his intention to keep WW amps going after his absence (ie is he mentoring anyone?).....? I know he is "up" in age.
I am the owner of a green light bi-amp model from the late 90's , which I traded up for a mono blue light model (1200w) around 2002. I will probably go to my grave with my WW. I have other amps and use them all selectively depending on what the gig calls for, but the Walter is a special character.
I am just curious, has anyone here commented on Walter's status insofar as health and his intention to keep WW amps going after his absence (ie is he mentoring anyone?).....? I know he is "up" in age.
I don't know the answer as to if Walter is mentoring anyone (I tend to doubt it) but there are some others who do work on them - not something I've had to use as I've never had an issue with mine. I know Hubert Liegeois in France is one.
The only repair Ive had on either of my WW's was to have the power cord cut and re-attached in the back, which was done by a local guy. The exterior shielding on the cord split and frayed, exposing the internal wiring. I know from other WW threads that is is somewhat common.I guess what I am saying here is that from my own experience and the experiences shared by others, these are very stable/reliable units, but you never know.
Mine completely blew once. Shower of sparks and a loud pop from a high powered capacitor that blew. Was repaired locally here in Santa Rosa as Walter was doom no repairs at the time as he was between houses.
I was a long-time WW user, but sold my blue light a few years back mainly because I assumed he was close to retiring and if something happened to the amp, I might be SOL. I had a green light model that blew up and he fixed it - back in 1997 or so. I've had good luck with other amps on the market - Genzler, Aguilar, even Carvin. I know, the WW is a great amp, but I had to make the move and sell it while it still had value and was working etc. The other fact is that Walter has always been hard to contact - yeah, he calls you back, but it ranges from next day to next month - that was part of the deal with owning a WW. I still dig the amps - and as we all know, he was the first one to make a "micro head" switch mode power supply amp - and it took many years for all the other companies to come up with something to compete with it.
Any amp of any brand can fail. It happens all the time. Also there are many amps from companies that are no longer in business where parts and service are not readily available, if at all. Finally not many other amps are built to the same standard as Walter Woods amps and even less are hand crafted.
Last edited:
You'd have to contact Walter to know for sure. Maybe a cashiers check in US dollars from a bank that has a presence in both the US and UK such as Citibank would suffice. Also that price - and perhaps policy - is quoted from 2010 so may or may not be current.
You're welcome. Sorry, I have no idea on the current prices. I'd be interested to know. The most recent catalog I have is from the mid 90s
Does anybody know how to date an Ultra from its serial number? I purchased one brand new from Walter in July of 2010, but do not have the receipt any longer. Just sold the amp, and the purchaser asked if I knew how to date the amp from the serial number.
I believe the serial number IS the date of manufacture. At least, that is how he used to do it.
Hello. Seeing this thread I am reminded of an anecdote:
In about 1993 I bought a 2-channel Walter Woods amp. I can't remember if I got it used or directly from Walter new. In any case, I liked the amp and it gave me no trouble. It was loud. For some reason I ended up talking with Walter on the phone up to three times. I remember that he was intense, but down to earth and easy to just talk with. I recall liking him a lot based on those talks.
In one call I asked Walter if he was training anyone to continue what he innovated; if he had a protege. After a short, anxiety-inducing pause, he seethed "No proteges." And now that I think of it, I believe he followed with "When I die, it dies with me," almost verbatim.
But that was nearly 25 years ago. It so happened that I never spoke with Walter Woods again after then, and I didn't learn more about it. Maybe these days he sees it differently.
Interesting post. This is the very reason I sold my Ultra a few years ago and went with some other MFRs, since they're ALL making micros now. It did take a while, though didn't it? That is for other MFRs to get with this technology. WW was making theses since what, the 70s? Great amps for sure. I started out with a green light amp back in 1995 - bought direct from Walter. He upgraded the power unit in that amp maybe 10 years later increasing it to about a 900W amp @ 4 ohms - that one got stolen - dang! So, I picked up a blue light Ultra on ebay and it was great. One of my phone calls to Walter (and there were several over the years), he told me his wife had just recently died (and I had talked to her on the phone one time about something related to emailing info or something - very nice lady) - and that got me thinking - the guy had to be in his 70s - maybe closer to 80 now, and I also believe that all the parts he uses are not marked (or he may even remove part numbers / MFR info) - so guess what - nobody but WW can fix these amazing amps. So, like a bad idea on Shark Tank, I said to myself "I'M OUT!" If I hadn't gotten out and my Ultra had any issues, it would be worth exactly Zero. So, I sold the Ultra for the usual price they go for used - maybe a little over $2K. I think new ones are $3K. It's a drag that he has no protege - no kids to take over the business. I discovered the amp way back in the 80's when I'd go to see live jazz at the Baked Potato here in L.A. Jimmy Johnson always had his WW and a pair of really basic 112 Thiele type cabinets and his Alembic and always sounded amazing. It took me a while to get one - I used to think they were so expensive, but looking back, not so much. I paid around $1000 for my green light in 1995 (high power? or whatever he used to call that model).
It took me a while buying and selling some of the micros - GK stuff failed a lot - had to send them in for service several times, then resold them before they failed again. The little SWR head light was NG - not enough power or punch. I finally ended up with several different amps - the new Genzler 800, a Carvin BX1600 and an Aguilar TH500. I really would have liked to stick with the great WW amp, but when he's gone the company is gone like he said. Also, he's not the easiest cat to get a hold of by phone. He'd go on vacation or something and he would take weeks to call you back sometimes. Amazing that he never put up a website or anything - kept it totally old school and word of mouth. I read something about his history one time - can't remember where - maybe on TB - he was some sort of electronics engineer working in aerospace here in Burbank when there were tons of aerospace jobs out here. He played sax - I think? And had many musician friends, so he'd tinker with amps and let his guitar and bass playing buddies test them out - then he got real busy and probably was able to quit his day gig! You've probably seen his first amps - they come up on ebay sometimes - little square "ice cream sandwich" looking things - top and bottom panels were 1/8" ply covered with black tolex and then the other 4 sides were red anodized aluminum. The switching power supply for instrument amps was his thing as far as I know. As I mentioned earlier, it's funny how it took all the other MFRs to get with this technology.
The last time I spoke with WW must have been about 4 years ago when I sent that Ultra in for a check up. I thought I was hearing static and wanted to get him to have a look at it. Amazingly, he returned my call within a couple days / sent the amp to him out in Palm Desert/ it took a few days and then I had it back in about a week. About a year after this is when I decided to get out of the WW rig and started testing other units. Just my $0.02 ;-)
Back to the question someone else asked one post back, which I am also keen to find out about:
How do I decipher the date code of the amp stamped into the cooling grill of a late model Eletracoustic? In the old days, it was simply a numeric date sequence; but lately it's scrambled letters that I cannot correlate to a year, month or day.
Any help would be appreciated.
JM
How do I decipher the date code of the amp stamped into the cooling grill of a late model Eletracoustic? In the old days, it was simply a numeric date sequence; but lately it's scrambled letters that I cannot correlate to a year, month or day.
Any help would be appreciated.
JM
Last edited:
Is anyone aware of when WW dropped the stereo/mono and phase switches on the MI 100-8? I'm assuming this might be just before the switch to the new logo and preamp change in the early 90's? Like in this pic?
Latest posts
-
Reunion Blues RBX vs Reunion Blues leather / cordura made in China
- Latest: bass player 53
-
-
-
