UA Woodrow blues

[rggillespie]

I like to record my fender deluxe tweed amp but its too loud really, so I jumped at the chance of the UA Woodrow tweed amp simulator. I'm afraid its been a wholly disappointing experience, it needs a usb c cable which I didn't have to get going, and which they don't supply. I've got a drawer full of cables and typically the one I need I don't have. I trudged off on Sunday and bought one for £12. They also don't supply a power supply and I cant get it work with my various tc electronic, strymon, korg, arturia power supplies. I've tried all my keyboard and pedal power options. The software keeps telling me its not connected, disconnect and reconnect etc. It's an expensive enough item why cant they supply it with what it needs to work straight out of the box! Every other pedal I've ever bought new comes with whatever it needs to work. Well I'll be dammed if I'm shelling out for their dedicated power supply too, so its going back. Great shame, but I think some manufacturers take their customers goodwill for granted, my money shall go elsewhere and that's the end of me and UA. If they cant be bothered to supply you with what you need, why should i bother with them?

[Wonks]

I don't know where you got yours from but Andertons make it clear that it's sold without a power supply. The UAD one is £25. If it's going on a pedalboard, then the boards PSU will power it. It needs a 400mA 9v supply, centre negative (the standard these days), which means that you'll need a PSU output to match, and not all can provide that much power.

Nothing is 'free' and if it came with a PSU it would put the price up,. For many people this would be unnecessary and another unwanted PSU. If we have any hope of saving the planet, we need to cut down on unnecessary waste, and though a small item, it all helps a little bit.

So only wanted PSUs are purchased and produced, and the price is cheaper for everyone else.

As for a USB C cable, what connector goes on the other end of it to make it compatible with the owners' computer? There's a choice, and unless all types are supplied with it, then someone's going to complain that they haven't got the right cable.

And if you already had the right cable, then you've got more waste.

So I can see several reasons for not supplying a PSU and a USB cable. I've bough several expensive pedals and they didn't come with a PSU or a USB lead (where appropriate). So UA aren't alone in taking this approach.

I hope you checked the mA rating of the PSUs you tried with the pedal, as it will need fairly close to the quoted 400mA to run. Also, did you double check that the PSUs were all 9v and DC with centre negative? An AC PSU or an 15v or 18v PSU may well damage the pedal (I have no idea what sort of input voltage protection it has).

It may of course simply be a faulty pedal.

I do think you are asking a bit too much to be provided. UAD do sell a PSU for it. The pedal does work without a USB cable. Both items would put the price up and not everyone needs them.

I'd sleep on it and try and get it working with a PSU with at least a 400mA rating/single output. If it doesn't, then assume it's faulty and return it. If it does work, and if it does sound very much like your tweed Deluxe, then it would be pointless to not use it.

[skipper01]

How does it record, sound and perform in your opinion..?
You’re in a great position to say as youve got the real McCoy to compare too.
I’m really interested in one and would value your opinion.

[rggillespie]

Thanks for the considered reply Wonks, sorry I was letting off some steam last night, but its irritating to be trying and failing 3 days after getting a pedal to get it to work. I was aware it needed power but wasn't expecting it not to work with all the options I have to hand. Truth be told when you are faced with a selection of wall warts from various manufacturers its hard to know what they are actually supplying. Only ASM actually bother to put their name on their supply, a small but very useful thing to do. I don't want it getting power from my pedal board as I wanted it by my side at my desk and near the pc. It needs to be connected to the pc to get full functionally. Whilst I totally agree from environmental point of view about suppling unnecessary things, I feel that UA should supply what you need or at least give you the option of getting it at reduced buyers rate at the point of purchase. Any other recent pedals that needed power have come with it, including many much cheaper than the Woodrow. I have one supply per pedal so I need now to disconnect one other item to power the Woodrow. I've paid £337 for the pedal then 12 for usb cable and now they ask a further 25 for a power supply. The equivalent Strymon power supply is 17, why is theirs 30% more? The pedal may well be faulty, it worked a little while on Saturday and then not really again on Sunday or Monday. It cant keep its connection and there is plenty of extraneous noise coming through. I'll send it back and have a think.

Skipper01 when it was working I had it going for an hour or so so not enough to be exhaustive but enough to be able to say it sounds stellar. I wasn't enjoying the Iridium particularly but I think I know now why. I've only ever used a fender champ and then later lazy J which is a fender deluxe type amp. So I think I'm now pre-conditioned to think that what a guitar amp sounds like and should sound like. That's what I'm looking for, I think the iridium gives a more generic fender/vox/marshall tone that's fine but not what I'm after. So really what I want is something that sounds and behaves just like a deluxe and the woodrow does that. From the get go it just sounded familiar and right to me, just a shame I can't get it to work!

[Wonks]

The Strymon PSU is 650mA, so it should have worked with that, so it definitely sounds faulty.

I’d return it as such and see what the replacement is like. There should be no problem using a generic 9v PSU with it providing it’s centre negative and can provide more than 400mA. Another Strymon one would work well, though a more generic one via Amazon/eBay etc. should be closer to £10.

It’s not great when these things go wrong right at the start.

[ore_terra]

I’m right now playing a UAD Dream with a regular cheap PSU delivering 500mA max. It should work

[Wonks]

These days I write the voltage, DC or AC, mA rating and center negative or positive status on my various PSUs in white acrylic marker pen, so I don't pick the wrong one or have to look up the details on the underside that are normally there in very tiny writing.

[Sam Spoons]

^^^ This, I once killed a pedal by plugging in a non-regulated PSU. It had the correct voltage but Peterson StroboStomp's are not well protected and the 13/14VDC the PSU from my Boss Micro Cube put into it killed it. Got it fixed and wrapped the PSU in red LX tape with warnings all over it.

[rggillespie]

Marking the wall warts sounds like a smart idea, as you unplug and move things about overtime, mine have got mixed up I'm sure. An old TC electronic and new ASM one are the only ones labelled so you can easily match them to the right thing. I started from scratch last night with it and had some success. I just went straight from the guitar into the pedal into the rme, no usb connection or pedal board. I changed the short 1/4 inch guitar lead between the woodrow and rme for a balanced one. It seems to work fine like this, the power was taken from a strymon iridium. Sounds really very good, not as much fun as plugging into the real thing but it does sound very much like it, back through the monitors. The buzzy/static extraneous noise has gone so I assume that's the balanced cable at work. UA sent me some power tips and it turns out there is a compatibility issue between it and the gigrig timelord. Sods law I'm a gigrig user. I'll gingerly try the usb connection tonight, the main issue is there I think, it kept losing its connection. Hopefully be able to pinpoint the issue sooner or later, by a process of elimination. Many thanks for the tips and advice

[Wonks]

The Woodrow only has TS connections, and UAD say that whilst a TRS cable can be used, it offers no benefit over a TS cable.

So it's not quiet because you are using a 'balanced' connection, because the UAD output isn't balanced.

There may be a high resistance issue with the short cable you were using if using the TRS lead cured that noise issue.

Otherwise possibly a ground loop that has now gone because you are using different PSUs to before. Though you wouldn't expect individual PSUs to create ground loops, if one of them did tie the 0v line to earth, then you could create one.

Also with the USB lead connected as well, that's another possible ground loop path. If the noise comes back when you plug it in, then you'll need one of those USB ground loop isolator devices (of which I have no direct experience) or else use an isolation transformer like the ART DTI box in the audio line.

[rggillespie]

I tried the usb connection last night to get the extra features working on the pedal it worked though lost connection about 3 times, you can't update the firmware from your phone. Once I realised that and did it through the pc it seemed stable. The app seems glitchy and looks bare but the preset sounds are very good. It would be nice to know what the settings are for the presets so you can use that as a starting point for your own. So, a week after getting the pedal its up and running, and it sounds excellent. Over the years I've tried a pod xt, amplitude software and the iridium all with not much success. The iridium was comfortably the best but I feel the woodrow is a step forward again on that. Less versatile for sure, but better at the one thing its aiming to do, sound like a tweed deluxe. Early days but used without pedals so far its exceeded expectations. I've found a power supply on Amazon for a tenner called a sonic cake, hopefully that's that sorted. Wonks and everyone thanks for the tips and guidance its much appreciated

[Wonks]

I'm just glad it was worth the effort in the end.

[Drew Stephenson]

How does it compare with the real thing?

[rggillespie]

Hi Blinddrew, its only just dawned on me this last week that I really only know one amp sound, its a tweed deluxe, its the only amp I've used for the last 20 years plus. The Lazy J version has one of those power soaks so its can be played at home. I just love it clean, it's fat sounding and full. I use an overdrive/boost and a delay with it, mine has reverb unlike the woodrow. The iridium I was using has fender, vox and marshall settings probably offers much more than I need. You tend to get vox types, fender types or marshall types not many players seem to play all three. The woodrow just does the one thing and for me that's where it wins. It mimics the controls on the deluxe closely and I think if I compared the recorded sounds from my mic'd up amp to the woodrow they would be very close. It sounded really familiar from the off, despite it coming back through monitors and not a speaker cab. There's something in the treble that's golden and sweet that I really like as opposed to a glassy treble sound. I think maybe the vox blue speaker has that characteristic, that's the speaker I know and that's the option I like best on the pedal. I think the idea of having a pedal that's exactly the same as the amp you know is very appealing especially as I can't wind the amp up too much at home. The other big thing for me is having it beside me on my desk at home. I can quickly change things to get more or less of whatever I want. So its early days but I think its a winner, not because of its ease of set up for sure, but because it sounds very much like a tweed deluxe to my ears. Hope that's of some help, sound is really quite hard to describe!

[Drew Stephenson]

That's really useful, thanks.

[paulsmusic]

I recently bought a UAD Dream '65, and bought this adapter on Ebay for £8.49 which works fine.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/150559882747

I also had a problem registering the pedal via a USB cable to my PC, but you can do it via Bluetooth instead (with the Mobile App), which I have done and it worked fine.

I hope this helps - it's worth persevering, as I think these are amazing pedals - I love my Dream 65!

[ore_terra]

How does it compare with the real thing?

The Dream sounds better than any emulation I’ve tried, and that includes helix, quad cortex, iridium. Way better.

I still have to go and “capture” my own silverface Del. Rev. with the QC and compare with a capture instead of emulation - I became a dad 2 days ago and I’ve been kind of too busy to go to the studio - but I thing it will be quite close.

I used to have this amp “profiled” in my kemper, but sold it before the Dream got home so I could not AB test.

[Wonks]

I became a dad 2 days ago and I’ve been kind of too busy to go to the studio

Congratulations!

At least your studio will be relatively soundproof, a place of quiet refuge when you need it.

[Drew Stephenson]

Congratulations ore_terra!
I can understand how this might not be a priority...

[Folderol]

I became a dad 2 days ago and I’ve been kind of too busy to go to the studio

Congratulations!

At least your studio will be relatively soundproof, a place of quiet refuge when you need it.

Indeed!

Oh, and you'd best brush up on nursery rhymes and counting songs

[rggillespie]

Many many congratulations to you ore-terra!
Thanks for the tip paulsmusic I'd already picked up one from Amazon.
I agree with you both about the pedal, mine does seem to be quite an improvement on anything I've tried before.

[ore_terra]

Thank you all, folks