scrumpymike

Hey Bridgehouse, good job 😍

Collected the Eden yesterday and now, thankfully, the only noises it makes are the ones I want to hear 😊 I told Pete I was in no rush so he said he'd work on it in between other more urgent stuff - hence the extended timescale. He traced the problem to the pre-amp circuitry and, before fault-finding down to component level, checked out the price and availability of a replacement populated pcb with Marshall UK. This was in stock at such a reasonable price that it was definitely cheaper to go this way. So, Pete's charge for giving it the once-over, replacing an almost dead master volume pot and supplying/fitting the board was a very reasonable (IMHO) £120. That's exactly what I paid EMS (plus outward delivery cost) to service and replace a faulty pot on my TE AH300SMC over 10 years ago. Obviously it significantly increases the cost of this allegedly "mint" WT550 (don't know how the seller can sleep at night - hopefully he can't) but it now works a treat and I feel confident about its future reliability. Not gigged it yet but this thing sounds totally amazing through one of my BF SCG3 cabs - can't wait to hook it up to both and turn the wick up!!

That's the nicest thing anybody's said to me all day (come to think of it, all month) 🙂

Having to remove the neck to adjust the truss-rod was one of the things that really pi**ed me off with my Fender Rascal. SO when Andyjr re-bodied it he included a little slot in the custom body and supplied a special but simple tool (actually, I think he made it). This works a treat, is the easiest-to-adjust truss-rod on any of my basses and should be an easy mod for anyone with this type of neck.

Thanks - that's quite a bargain for just exactly what you want.

Cripes Jack - you've just made my day! I've been a regular Yes listener for 45 yrs too and Roundabout is one of my favourites. That was 20-odd minutes of synchronised smiling between me and Rick Beato - it just doesn't get any better ☺️☺️

Very nice too! There's a special satisfaction in doing one-off things you can really call your own. A short-scale version would be a good addition to my small collection. What do you reckon the final cost will be?

I ordered Luminlays on my last Maruszczyk bass - but they forgot to fit them ☹️ Might give the Glowtecs a try.

I've belatedly become a fan of Eden stuff. I have a neat little WTX264 that I run thru a BF One10 when I need something relatively quiet and extremely compact - lovely sounds. On the back of that I recently bought a WT550 Traveler off this forum, which unfortunately had a fault as received. However, while the fault made it un-giggable, it worked well enough for me to know that I'll be equally delighted with it when it's been fixed - which is nice as I will have paid the £450 market price of an A1 example plus whatever it costs to mend. It's currently with Peter Searle ('V Amps'), who has only just got inside it but confirms what others have reported, namely that it's a very well designed and engineered piece of kit that should be easy to work on.

Thanks Woodinblack and Delberthot. The lively, over-bright response I didn't like was there even with my bass EQ and amp controls set flat. What I wanted to know is whether what I was getting is typical of active basses with round-wound strings and also whether the Haeussels are biased in that direction.

I got my first and only active bass last year - a short-scale Maruszczyk Elwood with Haeussels / Delano 2-band played thru a Mesa Subway D800 and one or two BF SC G3 cabs. Although I'm chuffed with the bass, it's always felt a bit too lively to the point of being slightly out of control (mine anyway). I've finally got round to replacing the OE round-wounds with a set of flats (La Bella 760FS 045-105) - and that's transformed things! The annoying, intrusive noise of fingers moving on strings is gone, all the tones are usable, and the beast is much more user-friendly. Although I've been playing for yonks, I have very little experience of active basses. I'm happy with what I've got now but would like to understand why 🙂

Thanks for that HJ - Roxy are right up my string. Meanwhile, back on topic 😉 I never change my strings. A bit like Jamerson - although that's where the similarity ends. Mind you, I do change my basses quite often though.

Steady on mate - I was just looking forward to a nice corned-beef salad for my lunch! 👨‍🍳

Sorry Tullfan, but I have to agree with Woody. While I do feel uncomfortable at the thought of effectively excluding you and others who play bass on 'The Lord's Day', switching to a Saturday would rule out so many 'regulars' that the event would no longer be viable in its current form.

Thanks Dood, I ended up hand-delivering the amp to Pete Searle in Dunkerswell (not too far from me) but that's worth knowing for the future.

Jabba, this one is absolutely right up my street!

As already recommended, if I had a Hydrive and liked it, I'd get another. All I would add is that this would be the ideal opportunity to try out a few other things to make sure that there's nothing suits you better than Hydrives. If there was, you could sell yours, add the money to your £400 budget - and buy 2 used examples of the other cab.

Good one this! As far as I'm aware, the sound in my head is a sound remembered - although I don't know from when or of what. Not to mention the fact that the memory can often play tricks. I guess it came from the players who influenced me in the '60s and '70s. However, they were pretty diverse (Jamerson, Macca, Jack Bruce, Andy Fraser, Ric Grech, John McVie, Pete Farndon) - so presumably an amalgam then. It's smooth but punchy, weighty but clean... well, I know what I mean!! But knowing that I'd recognise it when I heard it didn't help much, as there's so much stuff out there to try. I've been satisfied with my sound before but, after lots of trial and error, what really hits the spot now is my Subway 800 through a couple of BF SC3s. This seems to work with all my basses and the only pedals I use are compression and volume.

Hopefully mine will soon be sorted - just about to phone the two repairers. The other was Pete at V Amps near Dunkeswell. Got him via pm from Gilly, who used him some time ago. Anyone have any more recent experience of his work?

That's interesting - passives, correct. I'll try my active! Thanks Dan - that's 2 votes for Orchid now.

OK, so I'm going to try all of the above. If, as I expect, I end up having to get it repaired, I'll hand deliver/collect rather that entrusting it to a carrier. In that case, I've had two local-ish recommendations: BassBod's vote for Orchid Electronics and another one (from Gilly via pm) for Pete at V Amps in Dunkerswell. I'll have a chat with both on the phone and go from there. Looking forward to getting the amp I thought I'd bought - and paid for

Thanks for replies, which have made me feel a bit better - especially the comments about what a good amp the WT550 is. The fan being off is obviously normal for an 8ohm load at normal ambient temperature, as the seller has also now confirmed. Re the hum/buzz, it's beginning to sound like it may have had a jolt in transit, although there was no damage to the packaging. Also, as already mentioned, the weird thing is that the noise completely disappears when the volume control on my bass is fully on or fully off. It's a difficult situation this. The seller swears everything was fine when he shipped the amp - and he may be right - but he arranged and paid for the delivery so technically the ownership only transferred to me when I received it - at which point it was faulty. I know one thing: him trying to claim on the delivery insurance would be a non-starter, and the claim window has almost certainly timed out by now. Bug*er!