NickyG

Gus109, that's very kind, i may take you up on that if I get stuck. Do you get your gear locally?

Thanks htb, don't know why i haven't come across these guys yet! I'll pay a fair price for good service any time, especially when it comes to good kit

No, hadn't come across them. I'm not too far from Huntly, Tarves/Meldrum area. I'll look them up tomorrow

I'm in north Aberdeenshire. The nearest one is in Banchory which is quite a hike for me. The stihl dealer is a miserly old sod, i've bought expensive machinery from him in the past and not even a wiff of a discount!

Thanks folks, really helpful feedback. I'm using the saw quite intensively for short bursts of a few days, then away again for a week or so, throughout the year. I'm definitely leaning toward the 550XP at the moment, the only thing bothering me is that a) i'd need to buy it online b) there nearest dealer is 70 miles away, and i'm thinking with such a modern saw dealer help would be handy. I have stihl and Echo dealers close by. The new Stihl is just outside my wallet's reach ( and within the wife's punch radius ), although it does look very similar to the 550XP. Decisions, decisions! I'm without any saw at the moment and i feel like i've lost a limb!

The husky 550xp is available for high £400, how does that compare to the echo CS500 Really sorry for the questions!!

Thanks, the echo 500 looks great. My local dealer doesnt stock it only the 450 and 550. BTW I'm fairly novice ( as you can tell ) what is the benefit of modifying the muffler, i hear lots of people mentioning this. I'm really hooked on this site, some great info and advise that isn't available anywhere else!

My husky 435 has just died. I'm looking to replace it with a better saw, i've been looking and there are a mind boggling array of saws out there. So my question is for felling small to medium size trees and cutting firewood what is a quality saw without going ott. I've been looking at an Echo 550 and 600. Hope my question doesn't sound to amateur but i don't want to get stung by buying a supposedly quality saw. Any advise much appreciated