Re: Half Space Guitar Power Amps?

["max valentino" <ekstasis1@hotmail.com>]

They are nice, Kris....
At Y2K5 I was running my basses into a D-TAR Mama Bear digital acoustic 
guitar preamp which I had mounted on a mic stand for easy access.  The 
Mama 
Bear is designed for acoustic gtrs with various type of "acoustic" pickups 
(piezos of either ribbon type or coaxial or cermamic, elec bridge type 
piezos or sound-hole magnetics).  What it does is compnesates for the 
phase 
stability of these PUs, thus removing the "pickup" sound from the signal 
(rendereing a more acoustic tone), and then allows you to choose from 16 
"target source" models (from parlor gtrs, various dreads and OM size 
Martin, 
Traugott, Taylors, Gibsons...even an '24 L5, Macaferri or National 
steels...).  The modeling function actually adds the body resonance 
characteristics of these gtrs. Rather than making your guitar sound like a 
Martin D18, it adds some of the mic'd-acoustic characteristics of that gtr 
to your own sound.  Of all the modelers I have tried, it is the one I 
really 
like...and even tho it is designed for acoustic gtrs, I find it works 
wonderfully with my acoustic electric basses.  I was using the MamaBear to 
tweak the tone of my basses subtly; moving to diffrent target models as I 
looped bits.
(FWIW...I run the MamaBear in another DTAR preamp ( the Solstice; a four 
input mixer blender) and the DTAR Equinox Parametric EQ...all excellent 
preamps.  I prefer them even to my Demeter Tube bass preamp....

As to Walter Woods....tho' known for HIGH quality (and high dollar) bass 
amps,  His amps are also used quite a bit by Jazz guitarists (much as the 
Acoustic Image amps are).  They offer "audio-phile" quality (both WW and 
AI) 
sound and massive amounts of headroom (my DTAR/AI set is really a very 
compact but high powered PA).  Woods amps will run you a couple of 
grand..they sometimes show up used on Ebay for not much less than new ones 
cost (they hold their value nicely).  He has no website...just a phone # 
and 
answering machine.  He bulids the amps himself (one at a time, so I have 
heard..) and builds his own transformers and other components!  In 
addition 
to the price, the bad news is there is a long waiting list (2 years) for 
these.

Max



>
>Pricey, but they look premo. Max, at Y2K5, what were those things you had 
>mounted on stands that you were tweaking?
>
>On the topic of botique preamps/poweramps, in the jazz world a lot of 
>guitarists swear by the hand made Walter Woods products...but they are 
>also 
>pricey and their is a HUGE waiting line to get one. The last I heard, he 
>hand built them to order and you order directly from  him, but the bass 
>and 
>guitar amps are apparently out of this world and unbelievably clean.  
>It's 
>sort of like the amp version of what Bob is doing with the Looperlative. 
>Although I think Walter is more known for his bass amps. I don't think he 
>even has a website, just a phone number.
>
>