Double Bass Walter Woods? Or not...

[Ric Vice]

At this point, there are just to many variables. Yes with the proper replacement parts, a schematic, and a very skilled technician, it may be possible
to repair some of Walter’s newer amplifiers, but the time and expense of doing that can also be prohibitive expensive relative to the value of the amplifier.
Beauty is in the “eye of the beholder” so it’s up to each individual to decide what the musical value of having their Walter Woods amp up and running is.
In my case I was done with that after I sent my Electroacoustic Ultra to him in 2005 and he charged me $450.00 to “ clean residue off the circuit board”.
At that point, the future costs of servicing the amp exceeded what I personally felt was reasonable, so I bought a Grace Designs preamp and powered cabinets.
The Ultra is a backup amp and mostly resides in my music room. Just my take.

 

[RVBASS]

The Grace Design Felix and Alix are great preamps

 

[james condino]

There is nothing great about a street price of $1255....for a %$#@!ng preamp....

 

[Ric Vice]

The Grace Design Felix and Alix are great preamps

i own a Grace Felix it essentially replaced the Walter Woods Electroacoustic.

 

[Ric Vice]

i own a Grace Felix it essentially replaced the Walter Woods Electroacoustic.

There is nothing great about a street price of $1255....for a %$#@!ng preamp....

There are options out there for sure that cost less. The Headway EDB-2 comes to mind. I have nothing but praise for Grace they have a 5 Year Transferable Warranty

Their customer service is exemplary. I've had mine twice. Once to replace the Amp out op amp and a second time to replace a pot. Each time they had it back in

under a week. The second time I sent it out to Colorado it was " technically " no longer under their warranty. They replaced the pot with no service or parts cost to me.

i purchased mine at the original price so it was a little less. You rarely see one for sale on the used market. Which to me means people are keeping theirs because

they like them. They are expensive I'll admit to that. So, I realize that not everyone can afford one. I saved gig money for over a year to buy mine. I try to buy gear

built in the U.S. if I can afford it. Just my take of course.

 

[jjcarswell]

I’m surprised that the EA Doubler hasn’t been mentioned:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

I’ve seen a few of the older versions offered in various places (TB, eBay, Reverb).

Yep….sold my WW for the EA Doubler 2..

 

[Ric Vice]

Yep….sold my WW for the EA Doubler 2..

I had an opportunity to purchase a EA Doubler MKII after I had already purchased my Grace Designs Felix.

The EA had some very nice features and had I not already owned the Grace I would have most likely purchases

the Doubler. IME the early Doublers had a few kinks ( lower power, DI adaptor, etc. ) that, I wanted resolved.

Unfortunately, they waited to long for the my II and then sadly they shuddered the company.

 

[RVBASS]

I like two amp/preamp set ups:

1. Alembic F-2B and a power amp, that’s my big set up
2. Walter Woods, that’s my compact set up

I’ve had both for years and I don’t need anything else.

 

[Acoop]

The source is the pickup, the output is the amp. ... In-between, the preamp. ... I think the preamp is the key. ...

 

[Eric Hochberg]

I like two amp/preamp set ups:

1. Alembic F-2B and a power amp, that’s my big set up
2. Walter Woods, that’s my compact set up

I’ve had both for years and I don’t need anything else.

I used to put my F2B through my Woods...

 

[brianrost]

Yep….sold my WW for the EA Doubler 2..

Bad time to recommend EA as they have gone out of business

 

[Frank Miller]

Although I will stick with my Euphonic Audio amps, I just heard that Andy Fuchs has reverse-engineered Walter Woods’ M-series preamps, added a few new touches, and is powering it with an ICEpower amp module. He also has done the same thing with the Ampeg SVT, shaving 80-some pounds off the weight. No word on them on his website, however.

 

[rwkeating]

Here is some info on the Fuchs "WW type" amp New Gear: Fuchs Audio Technology FBT-1 and FBS-1 Bass Amps

 

[Ric Vice]

Although I will stick with my Euphonic Audio amps, I just heard that Andy Fuchs has reverse-engineered Walter Woods’ M-series preamps, added a few new touches, and is powering it with an ICEpower amp module. He also has done the same thing with the Ampeg SVT, shaving 80-some pounds off the weight. No word on them on his website, however.

It was only a matter of time before someone did this and it's finally happened. Frankly, I doubt that the Fuchs clone will actually sell that many units, but I'd like to be proven wrong.
Walter could have added a Pascal, IcE, or Hypex to his amps years ago, if he had chosen to, saved himself a lot of build time and made the amps more affordable. For what ever reason,
he chose not to do that. Who knows why. It's kind of a mote point now anyway. Acoustic Image has great customer service and established a solid customer bass with lots of players.
Personally, I prefer the sound of my Woods, but I got it used at a reasonable price from someone I trusted. Walter absolutely has the right to withhold his schematics and part no's
because those designs are his intellectual He always got back to me and repaired my Electroacoustic. At this point , I would never entertain the thought of buying a Woods even
if I could get my hands on a new one. It's just easier to use something that can easily be serviced and repaired. Just my take however

 

[Jefenator]

I assume - perhaps unfairly - that most cigar box format amps won't be heirloom durable. My niece's grandson won't be able to have a tech dive in, recap & swap out a few scratchy pots & baseball bat switches, the way he will with the hand-wired tube amp.
I'm okay with a class D amp becoming cost-prohibitive to maintain IF it wasn't cost prohibitive to acquire in the first place. After paying $600 for my Markbass LMII and thrashing it for 10 years, I would have been okay if it had bricked. (Turns out I sold it for $400!)
I feel the same way about my Quilter BB800; the B|Amp is going to take a little longer to work off its depreciation. My understanding is that both of these amps still enjoy some degree of support from their makers, and that's all the better! But if that goes away after another 10 or 15 years, I'll be fine with it.
That's where Walter Woods loses me, being expensive to acquire AND constrained in its long term support prospects.

 

[uprightbass.com]

The source is the pickup, the output is the amp. ... In-between, the preamp. ... I think the preamp is the key. ...

It’s not a BG where it needs the preamp to generate tone, for DB we’re basically converting (hopefully accurate) microphonic signals for speakers to use. I get that we need to change the impedance and compensate for the sound systems’ lack of flatness and some rooms need a little cut and boost here and there. But how bad does it get that this much preamp is needed at that cost? Maybe I’m fortunate that I don’t play where it gets that bad.

 

[notabene]

"This amp sounds better than any other amp I've tried." I feel the same way.
My wife has a Gallen Kruger 150(?).
We couldn't find anyone locally (SF bay area) who could do simple repairs on it.

 

[brianrost]

An interesting point with both WW and AI is that unlike all the micro heads out there today, these have no fans. My AI combos don't even have any vents!

Does anyone know if AI uses standard class D power modules? As far as I know, they started selling amps before those were available.

 

[statsc]

Not true! I’m a huge fan of AI amps! Oh, you meant THOSE kind of fans…

 

[Frank Miller]

An interesting point with both WW and AI is that unlike all the micro heads out there today, these have no fans. My AI combos don't even have any vents!

Does anyone know if AI uses standard class D power modules? As far as I know, they started selling amps before those were available.

Yes, AI uses ICEpower amp modules. About eight years ago, I had an AI Clarus S3, an Aguilar ToneHammer350, and a Euphonic Audio Micro550 on my workbench at the same time. Although the preamps were all different, they all had ICEpower 125ASX2 amp modules.