Danuman

Hi all, This turned out a bit longer than I intended, so TL;DR: What might be a worthy replacement for my beloved, but currently knackered Eden WT-550? Max... say, £650/€750-ish? Earlier this year, my trusty Traveler started to show early signs of a few drifting components. Intending to be safe rather than sorry, I decided to have it serviced by a reputable amp builder here in Holland. Unfortunately, it never sounded right to my ears since. I’ve taken the amp back to the shop a few times and I believe they honestly did the best they could - but the magic is gone. I believe they may have “improved” some of the voltages in the preamp (from a technical perspective), but that’s a bit of conjecture on my part. So what would my fellow BC’ers suggest as a good replacement for the WT-550? The obvious solution is holding out for another one, but unfortunately they are quite rare round these parts, and I’ve seen some ludicrous asking prices. I picked up an Aguilar TH500 recently, but I preferred my previous backup, so I quickly sold it on. Effectively my go-to is now my Genz Benz Shuttle 6.2, which has the clarity and the punch, but lacks the chocolate-y richness and the authority of the Eden... I’m interested in the Genzler Magellan 800, but I think I’d prefer class A/B and it’s just a bit too expensive. So what do you think? Any suggestions much appreciated! Thanks for reading!

Cheers, I'll definitely take a look at that!

Heehee, yes, quite... Too bad, though. But then these things are never timed well, are they. Thanks for helping me make my mind up!

Cheers Si, that's a helpful bit of insight. Pretty sure it's just a few worn-out components, but I don't think I'll bother. I've wasted enough time and money getting my WT-550 serviced. Thanks!

Hey guys, My Mackie Onyx 1620 had already been relieved of its recording duties, but it still worked fine as a mixer. Unfortunately, the other day during rehearsal a fierce wind started blowing through the speakers. Does anyone know if it might be something that can be repaired? It has served me well, so my guess is it's time to scrap it - but my bank account is hoping I'm wrong. (Already having to replace my beloved WT-550! ) Thanks for reading! Dan

Same here. Which has me thinking of moving it on. I just can’t seem to find a sweet spot. I think what I’m missing is the low mid bump of the DB cabs. I think it sounds best without any drive, although it can sound a bit dry. All in all, I still think it’s a great little amp. Very powerful if you need it to be and the DI is just brilliant.

FYI I managed to salvage a good portion using PhotoRec/TestDisk 7.1. Chuffed to bits.

Hey guys, Over the weekend, I recorded a couple of bands with a brand new Zoom H5. It sounds brilliant, but the recording of the main event seems to have failed. I recorded two bands (just under 4 hours) and the file is 0KB. When I stopped the recording I let the machine do all necessary thinking before shutting it off, but it still failed. So far I've pieced together it might be something to do with an incorrect header, and that the recording might be recovered by importing it as raw data, but I just cannot get it to work. Any ideas? Dan

Cheers! I did experiment with this a bit already, but I'll give it another shot! I also tried boosting lows and then taming them with the drive knob - hoping to create some sort of low mid bump - but it didn't seem to do the trick. I really do hope that it's in there somewhere, because there's a lot to like about this amp, but I really need for it to have a more focused punch.

Sometimes I think I like the sense of dimension the enhance knob seems to add, but invariably I end up turning it back down again and thinking it sounds better that way. My Eden is still in the shop though... Starting to worry it’s never going to be the same again. I haven’t yet found a setting on the TH500 that gives me what I want though. I like the general character of the amp, but the bass shelve seems to go from weedy to overpowering instantly, without ever getting punchy. The sweepable mids don’t seem to hit that spot either. I don’t know, maybe that just means the amp doesn’t particularly suit my cabs...

Hi all, Sorry guys, this is going to be a bit long-winded, but I'm hoping some of you can shed some light on this one for me. TL;DR My Eden amp has been repaired and now it no longer sounds good. Does anyone know how I might get my hands on something like a schematic or measurements of a healthy circuit? I've been gigging my WT550 for about to years, and I absolutely adored it every time I took it out. It's dated 2001 and I'm pretty sure it's been pretty heavily gigged - if not just for the past two years - but it's never missed a beat (although I might have). Lately though, I found the DI had a problematic hum the amp started every so often to produce strange pops and faint swishes, and so I thought I had better get it checked out. Anyway, after searching for specialized repairmen for quite a while, I ended up going with an amp-builder who is known for manufacturing high end guitar pedals. Upon getting it back in use I found the DI had been fixed and the unit now only produces the faintest of hiss, but unfortunately that magic Eden voicing is just down the toilet. It even prompted the drummer to say he thought my sound didn't 'feel' right. First off though, the repairman promised to take another look, and I'm hoping that's going to work out. I trust the man's best intentions, but I'm starting to worry I've now paid someone to make me not love my amp anymore. He explained to me he found the Op-amps to measure something like +15/-7 and he made sure everything now reads +15/+15. I suppose that might make sense, or maybe not and it might turn out to be a design issue. (Take those numbers with a grain of salt, I know pretty much nothing about it.) Any help greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading, Daniel

So far it certainly sounds very usable, but I still feel like I'm missing a trick. I was a bit shocked at how far the master volume had traveled by the end of the night, but I was running just a single 112 and I suspect it might have something to do with settings over on the preamp side. I'm hoping the TH will complement my WT-550. As brilliant as I think the Eden is (hopefully will be again soon), it's not terribly versatile. The TH seems to like my Octave Deluxe a lot, so that's a good start.

Cheers, yes actually a manual came with it. I get that the drive knob creates a more vintage voicing, but “The lower the GAIN control setting, the “flatter” the EQ applied” sounds a bit enigmatic to me. Does that imply it kind of does the same (i.e. tame the far ends and/or boost mids) as you turn it up? The interaction between gain, drive and mids certainly doesn’t feel very straightforward... I suppose I may have to get used to some pretty wild eq’ing!

I would almost dare any band to start jamming to this and keep it under 10 minutes.

Chiming in having acquired a Tone Hammer 500 the other day. I wanted to weigh in only after having put it through its paces, but after having done so, I must admit I feel slightly flummoxed by the contingent nature of the controls. I absolutely adore my Eden WT-550, but it needed a check-up and unfortunately it hasn't been the same since. (deliberation with the repairman currently ongoing) In the meantime I stumbled upon a good deal for a TH500 in great nick, and since I wasn't too happy with my current backup, I snatched it up. It sounds pretty good so far, but I'm not quite sure it's going to sound great. Any tips?

How's the EX112? I almost bought one at one point, but they were out of stock. Looks like a brilliant little rig!

+1 Unless you expect to be gigging in the near future, I'd suggest spending your hard-earned money where it counts!

Below is what I was referring to earlier. I'm really not quite as bright as I may look, but in the meantime I did manage to figure out when and why this pops up. Thanks again @Sibob for the helpful replies!

Cheers, yeah I looked into those, but I didn’t want to assume they’d be wired correctly. Does anyone know how I might find out? Or does it not matter?

Agreed. I always use speakon with my own cabs. For flexibility I still prefer to have at least hybrid sockets, though...

Ah, yes I see what you mean. I didn’t mean only 2, I meant just speakon. The heavy duty speakons I have aren’t going to reach down to the bottom cab, and I can’t use any of my other cables. Nice to know daisy chaining is ok!

I have all of my stuff set up at my friend’s house atm. Will report back!

Well, it’s here. I hadn’t expected for it to be this petite... Love the design though. And that slight bit of drive does seem to do the trick. Hopefully I’ll be able to try it out at volume tomorrow. I noticed it only has the two speakon outputs; does anyone know if it’s safe to daisy chain two cabs from one of them?

Lovely stuff. Not quite sure about some parts, but that is one very impressive song. Best of luck!

Cheers all! I’m going to check it out. It seems in fairly good nick, it’s a decent price and I’d really like a back-up. Truth be told, I’d spring for a Magellan if I could justify spending that much. (Never seen one on the used market) Seems like a pretty good trade-off.