Swamp Works Possum Stomper, just bought one !!

[jschwalls]

Went to Nashville Amp Expo this weekend and made a deal with Swamp Works Amps to get my dream rig from them....

http://www.swampworksamps.com/possumstomper.htm


It's a 400watt TRUE hybrid bass amp.. it has a 8watt EL84 power tube that feeds into a 400watt solid state poweramp section.

Sounds like a SVT but at manageable volumes and weighs in right at 30lbs !!!

The Cab is an Eden cab loaded with 10" Sica Speakers. AMAZING speakers!!!!!!!!

http://www.sicaspeakers.com/pl10b25s.html

I hope to get some soundclips soon..

[mikeddd]

What an interesting amp! Definitely want to hear your impressions. Congrats!

[koobie]

Cool amp concept, enjoy! What does it have in the way of tone controls? Does it have a line out that is post the EL84 tube? Are the fans fairly quiet? And I'm not familiar with the Sica speakers, I see they're made in the same plant as Jensen in Italy.

Were there any other builders showing bass amps and/or preamps? I'll have to check in at TGP to see which guitar amps people are buzzing about.

[jschwalls]

Originally Posted by koobie

Cool amp concept, enjoy! What does it have in the way of tone controls? Does it have a line out that is post the EL84 tube? Are the fans fairly quiet? And I'm not familiar with the Sica speakers, I see they're made in the same plant as Jensen in Italy.

Were there any other builders showing bass amps and/or preamps? I'll have to check in at TGP to see which guitar amps people are buzzing about.

controls are Gain, BASS, Treble, Style, Master

Style is so damn cool.. its hard to explain what it does... but you can introduce second order harmonics ( thats what it sounds like to me ) and crank it to really smooth out the sound... I am waiting on the builder/designer to send me a detailed description of that control..

It has D.I. but I honestly cant remember where it is at in signal chain.. again I am waiting on the manual....

I have been lusting after this amp for over a year, and things worked out between myself and Swamp Works, I was so happy to get it and endorse their product , that I forgot to pay attention to the tech details.. hahaha

I didnt see any other bass amp builders, ALOT of guitar amp builders...

Nolatone makes INCREDIBLE gear ....

Wallace Amps have the BEST master volume I have EVER heard on a Marshall type amp...

Reason Amps, are a STEAL of a value... and sound great !!

Retro-King Amps makes a beautiful sounding 18 watt 2x12 ...

too many to start listing here...

all builders were great, fun guys to hang with...

[silky smoove]

Originally Posted by jschwalls

It's a 400watt TRUE hybrid bass amp

What makes this more of a "true" hybrid then say a Mesa M-Pulse 600?

[jschwalls]

Originally Posted by silky smoove

What makes this more of a "true" hybrid then say a Mesa M-Pulse 600?

mesa is a tube preamp only.. this amp has a tube power amp as well and that is fed into a 400 watt solid state power section

It is basically an 8 watt all tube bass amp with the signal from powertube going into a solid state power output section.

[grovest]

Very interesting concept, thanks for sharing!

[silky smoove]

Well, by definition a hybrid is a solid state power amp being driven by a tube preamp. I wouldn't agree that this is any more "true" than other designs. My suspicion is the output transformer has more to do with the tubey'ness of it's tone than the use of an 8 watt power stage. There have been other amps in the past to do the same thing with mixed results.

I will say that what I've heard (very little) this amp does sound great and I'm glad it's working out for you. I'm not in love with the form factor, but if it delivers the goods... well... Great!

[koobie]

Originally Posted by jschwalls

Style is so damn cool.. its hard to explain what it does... but you can introduce second order harmonics ( thats what it sounds like to me ) and crank it to really smooth out the sound.

It'd be interesting to know if the Style control is adjusting how hard you're hitting the EL84 and potentially changing the amount of tube-driven even-order harmonics. My Hughes & Kettner BATT has an EL84 output section that can be padded down and routed to both an instrument level out and a line level out. It's for real, it sounds and responds quite differently than the 12AX7 section on it's own.

I had a feeling there wouldn't be too many bass amps at the Nashville show. The guitarist side of me would have loved to have tried out some amps. I can't imagine how the promoters of these amp shows find hotels willing to host the events, the volume levels would have to p.o. any other guests!

[jschwalls]

Originally Posted by koobie

It'd be interesting to know if the Style control is adjusting how hard you're hitting the EL84 and potentially changing the amount of tube-driven even-order harmonics. My Hughes & Kettner BATT has an EL84 output section that can be padded down and routed to both an instrument level out and a line level out. It's for real, it sounds and responds quite differently than the 12AX7 section on it's own.

I had a feeling there wouldn't be too many bass amps at the Nashville show. The guitarist side of me would have loved to have tried out some amps. I can't imagine how the promoters of these amp shows find hotels willing to host the events, the volume levels would have to p.o. any other guests!

Sarge and the guys at Creation Audio reserved the ENTIRE hotel for the weekend, my buddy and I got VIP access and a room at hotel. Even though there wasn't alot of bass gear, it is still just a great experience meeting and hanging with real world amp/guitar builders and having them run you through their gear...

he's a great player and we tried out so many amps it was sickening.. hahaha

[will33]

Originally Posted by jschwalls

It has D.I. but I honestly cant remember where it is at in signal chain.. again I am waiting on the manual....

I have been lusting after this amp for over a year, and things worked out between myself and Swamp Works, I was so happy to get it and endorse their product , that I forgot to pay attention to the tech details.. hahaha



all builders were great, fun guys to hang with...

Hate to pee in your cheerios and I'm sure it's a great sounding amp and all but this pretty much says it all. BTW, they're not the first or the last to use a low power, power tube in a pre design. Not saying it's a bad design or anything, it may very well be badass but it's pretty hard to get as turned on about it as you are.


There....I'm done being condescending and mean, but it makes me feel better. I could make more girls dance with a Peavey if that's what needed to happen.

[jschwalls]

just realized the front view pic wasn't posted

[MAMMOTHvolume]

i've made an amp very similar to this for myself using ecc99's though. shuold hopefully see more of this popping up, great valve tone in a light weight package

[Kelly Lee]

I would love to hear some clips of it in action. BTW, how much are these going for?

[Gopher Bob]

clips or it didn't happen

[LowB-ing]

IIRC this concept was pioneered by the SWR interstellar overdrive. A low watt tube power amp in a rack with a line out to connect to your SS power amp of choice.

I believe EBS also has something similar in one of their heads (Fafner?), but with a SS pre before the power tube, unfortunately.