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SWR Bass 350 (red face)...any love for this amp?

Crabby

Crabby

Dec 22, 2004
4,404
410
#1
I bought a 1998 model red face bass 350 yesterday along with an Eden 115 bass cab. Both in dead mint condition for $330 Canadian!

I was so amazed at this deal that I didn't even try them out as the pair was sitting on consignment at a local store.

I used to own the same cab so I knew what to exect here. A very mid rangey round 15 thats very efficient and damm loud without too much deep low end.

The Bass 350 was a mystery to me. The only SWR amp I had ever owned was a pre Fender Workingman's 12 which has a very similar control layout. I have to say, I was extremely pleased when I got this amp home and tried it out with various cabinet combinations.

I set the eq completely flat, enhance circuit off and then boosted the mids at 200hz. With my Stingray, the tone was warm and fat with lots of sweet mids. Dialing in some of the enhance circuit gave some really deep lows and sparkle on the top end.

Through the Eden 15 cab, the tone was loud and full with a ittle bark in the midrange as one would expect of a hornless 15 cab.

Through my Ampeg SVT810E, this little red amp was really smokin loud with a gorgeous punchy tone. There seemed to be lots of headroom and with the input gain set to around 2 oclock and the output level around 9 oclock, I was shaking the whole house.

Afterwards I tried the amp out with my Ampeg 112 cabs and it was equally impressive but not as full in the mids as these cabs are brighter with horns in them and have a bit less mids to them.


I really didn't need another amp or cab but this little head is about 15 pounds and it made me wonder if I really need to be attempting to carry a six space rack around with a 65 pound power amp in it and all the other gear.

I am really jazzed by this little amp. Anyone out there use one regularly?
 
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#2
I had one of the early 350 silverface amps, pre "X" version. It worked good for me at the time. I had the amp modified to get rid of the "thump" at shut off. I later started running a tech21 RBI into the amp section bypassing the swr preamp. the rbi seemed to cutthrough better in a band situation, but I liked the swr pre while practicing solo. I paid about $400 USD in 2003?

later I finally needed more power so I had to move on...
 
#3
I've been using a 350 from the first year it came out (when they called it the Basic 350) with a Stingray SR4. It just has my tone; a little bit of enhance and EQ flat. The only thing I'll do is cut some lows if it's too boomy.

I've tried to dethrown it twice. Once with an iAmp 800 (which sounded COMPLETLY different) and once with a Thunderfunk 550B. The other two amps are gone and the Basic 350 is still around.

LeonD
 
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#8
Mine is an early silver face. Warm and punchy. I set it with 12 o'clock EQ, top and bottom, and a small mid boost (~200hz), sometimes a tiny cut on top.

I've used it since about '99. I use it as a backup or for rehearsals and small gigs. Love it. Works great with external Pre-amps, too.

I'll never sell it.
 
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#11
I had that amp...twice. My friend has been using one with a Goliath cab for years. They are a LOUD band and it gets worked hard, but it's ready to go and sounds great night after night. I filled in for him once and used his rig as it was already there and it sounded great.
 
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#13
A great used amp at a great price.

I had one like yours with the fan in the late 90's, which had replaced a Studio 220 (also a great amp).

I went on to replace it with a Mesa Walkabout in 2003 because I liked the Mesa's tone and portability a little bit more. But even used, the Walkabout is still two or three times the cost of a Bass 350.

Enjoy, and try not to get GAS.
 
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#14
Chef said:
2 ohm ready too, if you need that.
Click to expand...

Indeed I do ;) I've been thinking of one of these (the red face, two rocker switch model) as a backup head for a while. I currently use the venerable GK 800RB for backup/rehearsal duty, but it only goes down to 4 ohms, which would leave me to use only one of the two 4 ohm cabs I use on stage in the event my main head (an Eden Nemesis NA650 running @ 2 ohms) were to go down. I still love the GK and I'm never parting with it, but I'm pretty convinced that the Bass 350 will take over in the backup dept. Besides, I think it would look (and sound) pretty badass sitting atop my Bigfoot 212 and Goliath Jr II cabs. Has anybody done any extensive tube rolling on this model's pre?
 
#15
Congrats on the steal of the day!!

I had one of the first Basic 350's and liked it a lot. Lots of sparkle on the high end. i used it with a Big Ben and Hartke 2X10.
I used to love the smell of the output transformer when it was new. It remimded me of a 1950's RCA TV we once owned. LOL
 
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#16
I have also wanted to try some different tubes in it as the one in there now seems to be a generic tube.

Funny to hear it compared to the GK 800RB as that was my mian amp for about 9 years. I loved how reliable and freakin loud it was for a lightweight 300 watt amp. The SWR may not be as loud, I'm not sure yet but it has quite a different sound. A little more warm i think. I am really liking this amp and think its going to get a lot of use.
 
#17
I just sold my second basic 350 (both early year modals) I would say they sound like a mini high-fi amp to me, but it can get the job done in most band situations, it depends on the cabs. An 8x10 can get plenty loud, but played with a 2x10 just didnt seem to cut it for anything with a semi loud drummer, where as my 2000rb with the same 210 cab seemed to do fine and the cab didnt sound too pushed by the extra watts? Just not a tone of headroom with basic 350's. My new Nemesis RS115 combo seems to be louder to me.

The Basic is a dry sounding amp that cuts very well if you lay off the bass, and lay off the Enhance so you dont end up drowing your sound out in the mix... use a very efficient 410 and you should be set!
 
#18
Well, I wasn't really comparing the Bass 350 with the 800RB (which remains as one of my all time favorites) as I'm sure the SWR has a different voice. I'm interested in it as a matter of practicality by having it as a backup with the same impedance of my main head. Speaking of impedance, I've read not only in this thread, but others about how underpowered the Bass 350 is in comparison to other brands and I'm suspecting it's because the users aren't operating it at 2 ohms. Naturally, a 4 ohm minimum head will have more headroom since it's running at it's nominal impedance (I've gathered most users run their rigs @ 4 ohms). I suspect the Bass 350's headroom would be more robust when using two 4 ohm cabs, which is my gameplan when getting this head.
 
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