Thanks to everyone for their help!
Waves support never got back to me - but I've got everything running correctly. Here's what I did:
(I can step in now, when I see people with Waves problems) ;-)
 
- I left my activations alone - they're on a USB stick
- uninstall everything via Waves Central
- delete everything (left) in C:\Program Files (x86)\Waves
- delete C:\Users\John\AppData\Roaming\Waves Audio
- reinstall everything via Waves Central (not the "easy" one)
- copy "WaveShell-VST 9.6_x64.dll" (or whatever version you have) from C:\Program Files\VstPlugIns to my location that I like. (C:\vst plugins\64 bit\Waves)
- open SONAR and run a vst reset
 
Now everything works fine. Old projects are OK and new the plugs openin new ones
 
 

dcumpian
I would load Waves Central, move your local licenses back to your cloud account. Then, uninstall Kramer, restart Waves Central (probably not necessary, but just to be safe) and use Easy Activate and Install to reinstall/install both plugins.
 
Dan
 

Dan has the key.  Although after you move your plugins to the cloud, uninstall waves central, reboot, reinstall waves central, reinstall the plugins, reset vst's and of course make sure that you have the vst search engine pointed to the right place.  This will work.

That's way too many "tasks" ;-)
I didn't need to touch the activations,and there's certainly no need to uninstall Waves Central.

Most of the problem was because I wasn't sure what was going on. If I had done the VST2 reset the other night, I would have been OK ;-)

The steps above worked fine...

When confronted with that Waves request for the V9 folder, just delete appdata/Roaming/Waves Audio folder before reinstalling.

I'm sorry I didn't see your post earlier so I could help you out. The reason some of the other processes seem to work is because they include the step I mention which is really the only one. It doesn't matter where your licence is, cloud, computer or USB.

I'm really surprised they didn't get back to you. Did your WUP expire? Their support was amazing the one time I needed it and I always hear from others they get back right away.

It was not doing the VST reset that got me ;-)
That's why SONAR was still looking for the older shell file...

Sanderxpander
I'm really surprised they didn't get back to you. Did your WUP expire? Their support was amazing the one time I needed it and I always hear from others they get back right away.

Ahh, the api is covered but not the Kramer Master Tape. That must be why they're not in a hurry to get back tome ;-)
 
Is it worth paying for upgrade protection (the next thing I was going to investigate) for these old plugins? I wouldn't think so...
 
 

I don't think so. If you have a larger bundle they add plugins over time so it might be worth to, but for separate plugs only if a major version update happens and your DAW stops supporting the old ones.

Thanks Sander - that's what I thought. I'll do a little more research, but it seems like you can take out wup whenever you want - ie if something changes or an upgrade comes out.

Been trying to make my new waves bundle work for hours before I found your post... Erasing the waves folder in the %appdata% worked for me.
Problem solved!