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Walter Woods Amps History and Development

#761
jazzizded said:
Both myself and my father in-law have Walter Woods amps that stopped powering on (no it's not the fuse), around a month ago... We have both tried calling walter to no avail, and i've talked to him a half dozen times over the last 20 years. i'm worried. Is anyone in the states aware of his situation and possible alternatives for getting these 2 amazing amps repaired? thanks in advance
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Hello. There is this:

Ric Vice said:
If you're in Berlin there is a service that says they can repair any Woods amplifier.
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Audio Repair Berlin - Walter Woods Repair
 
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#771
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#772
well, i have a "funny" story.. i recently got hold of Walter after a dozen calls to no answer, he said "sure i'll repair it, just put $550 cash under the top plate of the amp and ship it to me"... about a month later after daily calls to no answer again i get the amp back untouched and with the money still inside the amp.. no note or anything, not repaired. and it was shipped to my old address? not sure what to make of this ? a little sad and frustrated but i can't help love this amp. never found anything that comes close IMHO. I hope he's OK.
 
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#773
I tried to get in touch with him for months but had no luck. Finally I went with a tech here in Chi and got the amp repaired locally. Someone a few posts up said they got through to him recently. I thought he had passed because someone at the end of one of the numbers I was trying to reach him at told me he had but I guess not.

Good luck with your amp. There is a shop in Berlin that seems like an option if you can't find anyone near you to fix it. There still isn't anything on the market that I've used that sounds as good as my MI-400-8 in my opinion.
 
#774
jazzizded said:
well, i have a "funny" story.. i recently got hold of Walter after a dozen calls to no answer, he said "sure i'll repair it, just put $550 cash under the top plate of the amp and ship it to me"... about a month later after daily calls to no answer again i get the amp back untouched and with the money still inside the amp.. no note or anything, not repaired. and it was shipped to my old address? not sure what to make of this ? a little sad and frustrated but i can't help love this amp. never found anything that comes close IMHO. I hope he's OK.
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At least you got your cash back!
 
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#775
This is why I left the WW owners club. Yeah, they are one of the best sounding amps, but the one-man show thing is a drag when you need service - AND he’s probably close to retiring, but based on what just happened to you, he may have already retired!

My substitutes include Quilter, Genzler & Mesa = no FOMO for WW. My main amp was a blue light Ultra from about 1996 through 2015-ish.
 
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#776
bwoodman said:
This is why I left the WW owners club. Yeah, they are one of the best sounding amps, but the one-man show thing is a drag when you need service - AND he’s probably close to retiring, but based on what just happened to you, he may have already retired!

My substitutes include Quilter, Genzler & Mesa = no FOMO for WW. My main amp was a blue light Ultra from about 1996 through 2015-ish.
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But it sounds like there is a tech in Chicago that might know his way around Walter's amps.

Just curious, is there anyone else that has taken their WW amp in for repair, other than Walter or the two sources mentioned above?
 
#777
Jerry J said:
But it sounds like there is a tech in Chicago that might know his way around Walter's amps.

Just curious, is there anyone else that has taken their WW amp in for repair, other than Walter or the two sources mentioned above?
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My blue light ultra high power blue high powered capacitor once. It was pretty dramatic it went up in the shower sparks. A place near me called crucial audio repaired it just fine. They’ve unfortunately moved on.

I still have mine and it sounds great but I’m not using it as my main amp anymore since it would be hard to repair
 
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#778
dylanjohnson said:
I've found the manual on this thread for the 90's Sweeper models. Does anyone know where to locate the manual/instructions for the Electracoustic models in this thread or elsewhere? Thanks in advance!
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Dylan,
As far as I know what you’re looking a
is the schematic for a 1980’s MI-100-8
which was before he built the sweeper.
I had that schematic in my original MI-100-8. It doesn’t show the components
for the power supply.Just my take.
 
#779
I’ve worked on a few, the audio side of things are very straight forward though the 2 transistor op-amp emulation circuit is a little tricky.

The power supply however is not at all straight forward without documentation. Even with a schematic, the operation may not be obvious because the circuit is fairly unique and the custom magnetics interaction with the circuit. It was quite advanced for its time.
 
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#780
agedhorse said:
I’ve worked on a few, the audio side of things are very straight forward though the 2 transistor op-amp emulation circuit is a little tricky.

The power supply however is not at all straight forward without documentation. Even with a schematic, the operation may not be obvious because the circuit is fairly unique and the custom magnetics interaction with the circuit. It was quite advanced for its time.
Click to expand...

Do you know of anything similar to WW's MI designs that are readily available?
 
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