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Double Bass Walter Woods MI-200 considering selling

#21
I'd hold on to that amp, if you possibly can. It's truly a handmade amplifier. Vintage WW will be worth more in the future. More and more info being revealed that shows Walter's amps are often one of a kind in some way or another, like many other pieces of Americana. Right now there are some guys around the internet bent on bashing WW, so prices are falling.

He was brilliant, he created a great product and pretty much controlled the market for his goods by structuring the price and availability, and servicing the way he did. That has all changed now. I don't think he was able to see ahead to what the advent of the internet could do to create doubt in the quality of his product.
 
#22
MR PC said:
I'd hold on to that amp, if you possibly can. It's truly a handmade amplifier. Vintage WW will be worth more in the future. More and more info being revealed that shows Walter's amps are often one of a kind in some way or another, like many other pieces of Americana. Right now there are some guys around the internet bent on bashing WW, so prices are falling.
Click to expand...


Having recently gone through the experience of having my Walter Woods Ultra repaired, it isn't exactly a walk in the park, but I'd have to say that as long as you have a second amplifier, Walter is certainly still willing and able to repair them. This time rather then try to call him, I simply sent him a letter. He got back to me in about a month, had me send the amp Fed Ex, repaired it overnight, and had it back within less than a week. I have only had to send an amplifier to him, on two other occasions, over the past 32 years and one of those repairs was just to replace my MI-100-4's power cord and side panels. That's a very impressive track record. The catch is that the cost of repairing his amps and sourcing parts for those repairs is rising exponentially.

MR PC said:
He was brilliant, he created a great product and pretty much controlled the market for his goods by structuring the price and availability, and servicing the way he did. That has all changed now. I don't think he was able to see ahead to what the advent of the internet could do to create doubt in the quality of his product.
Click to expand...

I certainly cant begrudge a man, for protecting his intellectual property, or his lively hood. I think what's happened is something that could have been totally eliminated if he had continued to provide schematics with all his amps, as he did with the MI-100-8's, but he choose not to do that. I don't think anyone, including Walter himself, could have imagined that so many of his units would still be around and potentially need to be serviced.
One person, can only do so many repairs.

I have two amplifiers that I use exclusively, a Walter Woods MI-400-8 and a Electroacoustic Ultra. I really don't want to use anything else, because their sound is unique.

Ric
 
#23
Ric Vice said:
Having recently gone through the experience of having my Walter Woods Ultra repaired, it isn't exactly a walk in the park, but I'd have to say that as long as you have a second amplifier, Walter is certainly still willing and able to repair them. This time rather then try to call him, I simply sent him a letter. He got back to me in about a month, had me send the amp Fed Ex, repaired it overnight, and had it back within less than a week. I have only had to send an amplifier to him, on two other occasions, over the past 32 years and one of those repairs was just to replace my MI-100-4's power cord and side panels. That's a very impressive track record. The catch is that the cost of repairing his amps and sourcing parts for those repairs is rising exponentially.





I certainly cant begrudge a man, for protecting his intellectual property, or his lively hood. I think what's happened is something that could have been totally eliminated if he had continued to provide schematics with all his amps, as he did with the MI-100-8's, but he choose not to do that. I don't think anyone, including Walter himself, could have imagined that so many of his units would still be around and potentially need to be serviced.
One person, can only do so many repairs.

I have two amplifiers that I use exclusively, a Walter Woods MI-400-8 and a Electroacoustic Ultra. I really don't want to use anything else, because their sound is unique.


Ric
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Impressive track record indeed! Just to be clear, I am not begrudging WW in the least. I don't think anybody could have known that the world of musical instrument audio technology would turn out to be so effected by global finance,
 
#25
MR PC said:
Impressive track record indeed! Just to be clear, I am not begrudging WW in the least. I don't think anybody could have known that the world of musical instrument audio technology would turn out to be so effected by global finance,
Click to expand...

+1
Knowing you, as I do from your post's, you have always given Walter his due, with fairness and consideration. My hope is that over time, the Walter Woods amps will attain the same vintage status, as the Ampeg B-15's did. There was a time that the transformers and other key components for these amps were virtually unavailable. Now you could build one from the ground up, if you so desired, because all the parts are easily obtainable.

Ric
 
#27
Hi Question1,

I just wanted to let you know that I happen to own the exact same model(?) as yours.
Electracoustic front panel with 'Mi 200-8' and 300W at 8 ohms printed on the bottom.
I bought it for around 200,000JPY from a guitar shop in Tokyo in 2014.
It was sold as 'Mi 200-8' and thus the lower price compared to 300W Electracoustics
which cost at least 300,000 in this country second handed.

I have been looking around to find out more about my amp,
but no luck with the exception of your post here.

I'm happy to find out that at least there are two or more of the same kind.
Mine is in great condition, and it works great with my Barcelona and Veillette.

Cheers,
 

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