Walter Woods Amp

[rv_bass]

I just got this older Walter woods amp.  It is only 100 watts, so for smaller lower volume situations. It truly does sound amazing. The controls are very versatile and you can get many sounds out of it. I can combine both channels too.  It is a nice complement to my Series bass.

[JimmyJ]

Nice!  They are pretty amazing.  They may not be the most hifi amps but they're very "fast".  Something to do with the class-D design doing transients particularly well.  And he made the tone controls capable of some extreme curve bending.  Nice piece of kit

Enjoy that thing!
Jimmy J

[edwardofhuncote]

Yessir, that would be a sweet little grab-n-go box for a Series bass. What's the output section look like?


I read a thread little while back, some folks that had been working on these, and the now-orphaned Acoustic Image amps had stopped supporting them. Name escapes me this early moment...  Fuchs? Duzzat sound right?

[JimmyJ]

I'm not sure about the entire circuit but only know that Walter was the first guy I'd heard of to use class-D design in a guitar amp.  My (rough) understanding of this is that the incoming mains power is shifted from 60hz (US) up to a much higher frequency which results in drastically shrinking the amp's power transformer.  A cool trick that I believe was developed to reduce weight on airplanes.  (Anybody remember hearing the weird 400hz tone on airplane headphone systems?)

Way back in the early 80's I somehow talked Walter into building me a Series specific front panel for the amp I still use today.  His build is already so tightly packed that I don't think it was an easy mod and he declared he'd never do it again.  I was lucky!!

Jimmy J

[edwardofhuncote]

Oh yeah, I remember that now! The other Jimy, (with one "m") and fellow McVie discipline bought the other and somehow had intel that there were just a small run of them, like 4-5. I assume yours was the progenitor. Very cool amp.

I guess Rob can just send the bass and treble outs of his DS-5 unit to the front here? If one had a couple nice speakers, you'd be in bizness for a small room or practice night.

[JimmyJ]

It figures Walter made a few of these front panels but I've never seen any others.  Happy to learn they're out there in the wild somewhere.  The 1/4" jacks on mine are also TRS for inserting FX.  It's crazy what he was able to squeeze into this tiny package.  There's even a full schematic tucked in under the lid in case you should need it.  Mine is 400 watts so driving a couple 12" EVs it can make quite a racket.

And yes it's nice to have separate channels for our B&T outs.  I think Rob is going to enjoy this little rig.

Jimmy J

[rv_bass]

Having that built in five pin connector would be great.  I’m really liking this amp, silky smooth and rich tone and not colored.  I can get some really cool alternative sounds out of it too with the dials and switches that go to some extremes. The bass boost is massive but clean. The treble boost is kind of like a Q switch in a way in terms of the sounds you can generate. 

I think this one is from the 70s. The switches and top vents are different than Jimmy’s and it lacks the extended sides.  I also have a 400 watt Woods Electracoustic, but I think this older 100 watt unit sounds a little warmer and smoother.  And I much prefer the sound of these amps over a hi fidelity amp.  Very happy with this amp