Opinions on Eden amps?

[kamakazee]

Alright, so I'm test driving an Eden WT500 and a D410XLT in combination with an Ashdown MAG 115. This is a huge upgrade, since my current rig is a Hartke Model 3500 head and a Behringer 4x10 cab with aluminum cones. The Eden is nice and definitely has some great features, but I find its tone to be weird. If I bump up my low mids though, it sounds good. What are your opinions on Eden with EBMM? Does anyone here play EBMM through Eden rigs?

 

[ErlendDL]

I've never tried any Eden gear in real life, but I love the tone in this clip.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWulTkuomrQ]YouTube - David Eden WXT-260 Bass Head Walkthru[/ame]

He's using a G&L L-2000, which, if I recall correctly, has two humbuckers. So it can't be that far from what it would sound like with an EBMM bass?

 

[kamakazee]

The compressor and "Enhance" function are throwing me off. I need to learn how to use it. I've had it for a few hours now, and I just can't seem to get good tones. I know Eden is supposed to sound phenomenal though, and should sound amazing with an EBMM bass.

 

[Alex001]

The compressor and "Enhance" function are throwing me off. I need to learn how to use it. I've had it for a few hours now, and I just can't seem to get good tones. I know Eden is supposed to sound phenomenal though, and should sound amazing with an EBMM bass.

The enhance function is nothing but a mid scoop. Whether it enhances to your liking is a different story. I personally hate scooped-out mids.

I believe the WT series have 'auto compression' - it kicks in automatically, correct? Maybe they have since axed that. You should be able to pull that knob out to defeat that feature (it may even be the enhance knob that you pull out to defeat the auto-compression.) I can't quite remember as I had a WT400 ages ago.

 

[kamakazee]

Its an older Eden. Its a 2001, so it has the button instead of knob.

 

[Alex001]

Its an older Eden. Its a 2001, so it has the button instead of knob.

For enhance or auto compression defeat?

Turn the 'Enhance' all the way off and kick-off the auto-compression - Start from there. If the flat sound is horrible to your ear, you can stop right there. The less EQing you have to do the better.

Their cabs are pretty good, but I wasn't too happy with my WT400 overall. There are so many factors, the room you are playing in, whether you are playing at stage volume or not, etc, etc. If you are looking for a tone through the headphone jack don't bother - it's a waste of time.

 

[kamakazee]

I'm running it at about 1/3 volume. And the button defeats the compression. I don't think it can override the Enhance. I would like to do all the EQ on my Bongo, since that's what the EQ is for. I'm gonna have to take it out on the porch tomorrow morning, since the living room is only 14x20 and I'm sure I'm getting alot of low end bass bouncing around.

 

[oddjob]

Had a Metro for a short while - could never get what I was looking for out of it. To me, it sounded a bit squashed and I could never get the mids right without losing "cut-though." Now, that is just me and I know a few players who love them and they sound great - so I think it is more about the player and what you define as "your" tone.

 

[bovinehost]

I'm gonna have to take it out on the porch tomorrow morning, since the living room is only 14x20 and I'm sure I'm getting alot of low end bass bouncing around.

I have two good friends who are both excellent bassists and get great tone and both of them have/have had Eden amps and adored them.

Wanting to be like the cool older guys (yes, there are 40 or so people older than me), I once picked up a WT-550, I think it was. Plugged my Stingray 5 in and said, "Hey, has anyone seen my midrange?" Yeah, I could EQ it back in, but it wasn't very natural sounding...

....and those low freqs you have bouncing around? I could never seem to figure out how to control that. It was like I had my own invisible modern sound guy, mashing me through subwoofers.

Now the two aforementioned humanz did get good tone out of THEIRS, so maybe it was operator error......

 

[projectapollo]

Eden WT 405

Im using a Eden WT-405 and really do like it quite a bit. My only comparison is a Mesa Walk About Scout and a Genz Benz shuttle. To me, the Eden was much better than those two amps with my EBMMs. Maybe smoother, less solid state sounding.

I use the enhance feature sparingly, only about 8 or 9 o'clock on the dial. But this feature does sound good to many Eden users; very popular feature.

The 405 also has a "warm" circuit that took me getting used to, but it adds some tube-like drive at the front end and used sparingly does sound good. All-in-all I think the 405 is a great value. Pretty sure its been closed out and I bought mine new on ebay at a good price. Built like a tank, too.

 

[Kamakiriad]

My experience is the same. I have a Nemesis 2x10 combo, but since I've got my Little Mark 250 I just bypass it and run that through the speakers.

They're absolutely great amps, immaculately built with lots of options, but I've never been able to get "my tone" out of them.

I have two good friends who are both excellent bassists and get great tone and both of them have/have had Eden amps and adored them.

Wanting to be like the cool older guys (yes, there are 40 or so people older than me), I once picked up a WT-550, I think it was. Plugged my Stingray 5 in and said, "Hey, has anyone seen my midrange?" Yeah, I could EQ it back in, but it wasn't very natural sounding...

....and those low freqs you have bouncing around? I could never seem to figure out how to control that. It was like I had my own invisible modern sound guy, mashing me through subwoofers.

Now the two aforementioned humanz did get good tone out of THEIRS, so maybe it was operator error......

 

[Rick Auricchio]

I had the WT550B and still have a WTX260 as a backup head.

The general idea is to keep the enhance at a minimum. It sounds great when you're playing solo, but its mid-scoop just doesn't work in a mix.

Eden's EQ is very powerful; a little goes a long way. I always ran mine flat.

Try with only the 410 cabinet. The combination of 410 and 115 may be changing the tone in an unusual way.

 

[Sonnyonbass]

Correct.
Scooping out all those mids is a big mistake. While it may sound great when playing alone it kinda makes your bass go unnoticed in a band situations. (unless you have 2x700 watt 410's behind you) Mids cut through a mix not lows.

Anyway. I use a WT1205 (the big guy) with a 410XLT and 210XST with my SR5 with maple board. Most of the times I leave the EQ on the amp flat. Maybe cut the lows a bit.
But the midrange growl coming out of that 410 with that SR5 is just something out of this world. And it's LOOUUUDD! (if that is important to you) ;-)
Even though the Eden colours the sound quite a bit, I really like the combo EBMM/Eden when playing on stage.

But hey. It's all about what YOU like.

 

[LightGroove]

Thanks for the post...Ive been dabbling a bit and looking at picking up a Eden wt405 myself . After digging around I found the opinions varied and most discussed CS which has nothing to do with the tone. I ended up sticking with my GB Shuttle 6.0 which Ive been told can dial in a nice Eden tone. Im still intrigued but wont break something thats working for me. Give it sometime and def. start with a flat tone and grow from their. Ive found that sometimes my displeasure in tone is actually me over eqing things.

 

[nashman]

I have an Eden WT550, 4-ohm D212XLT and 4-ohm D210XST that I play with my HH Ray. I don't use enhance at all - it's kind of like the "loudness" button on a stereo - OK at low volume. I set EQ mostly flat - a tiny bit of bass bump on both the amp and Ray (one "click" each). Don't over-do the EQ on an Eden - a little goes a long way. Eden cabs are quite efficient - you should get excellent mids from the 410XLT - add an XST driver cab for additional low end.

 

[kamakazee]

The low-mid is whats lacking. The Bongo's low-mid knob is good to compensate, but it makes it sound "phony"

 

[BassMent]

I had the Time Traveler head in an Eden 1x12 combo that I used with an Eden 2x12 extension cab. I personally loved the compression circuit... it seemed to give me lots of sustain without sounding squashy.

But I struggled forever trying to get a tone that I loved out of that rig. Can't tell you exactly what was wrong in terms of Hz and so forth, but it was just never right. And it wasn't all that loud for the wattage.

Converted a year or so ago to Markbass, and I'm absolutey delighted with my tone... and the volume is legendarily ridiculous. EBMM and Markbass seem to work really well together.

 

[r goldsmith]

I'm a long term Eden user, and settled a few years back on the WT-550 head, which I run with a couple of cabs, usually a D210XLT paired with a D210XST (or sometimes a D112XLT combined with one of the above).

To my ears they are a perfect match with a Stingray. The EQ is essentially flat, perhaps some tweaks on the mids and a tad bass boost but like the other posters say it is very strong EQ so you have to be subtle. The enhance usually remains off or maybe slightly on, say 8 o'clock. I leave the compression on but its effect is pretty subtle.

 

[Bassmedic14]

I use eden cabinets 4x10 and 1x15, I would go with hybrid like Mesa or Ampeg

 

[kamakazee]

Thanks for all the info guys. I'm starting to find some tones with this rig. The 2 way EQ is just really hard to get down right.