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MARKBASS little marcus 58R

#46
agedhorse said:
Actually, that wasn’t the reason.
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What was the reason? Of course I defer to your knowledge and inside info. From my perspective it was a successful, innovative brand made in Los Angeles. Fender buys them and and suddenly they're marketing $100 practice amps, using more "juvenile" color schemes, and making things in Mexico but charging the same price. From the player's perspective the brand lost all its cache. People point to the fact that they didn't "go light" soon enough but the brand lost its luster long before that.
 
#48
Screenshot_20230520-182954.png
MultiScaleMale said:
Rics for me are a combo of cool and ugly. Been close but never pulled the trigger on one.
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I don't mind Rickys but that Jackson thing is rough on my stomach.
*Sorry all for straying off topic.
 
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#49
I
matante said:
What was the reason? Of course I defer to your knowledge and inside info. From my perspective it was a successful, innovative brand made in Los Angeles. Fender buys them and and suddenly they're marketing $100 practice amps, using more "juvenile" color schemes, and making things in Mexico but charging the same price. From the player's perspective the brand lost all its cache. People point to the fact that they didn't "go light" soon enough but the brand lost its luster long before that.
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I never minded the SWR look but I did not care for their tone. If ever an amp line needed a HPF. Wasted subsonic energy and a big hole in the mids made me lean elsewhere.
 
#50
matante said:
What was the reason? Of course I defer to your knowledge and inside info. From my perspective it was a successful, innovative brand made in Los Angeles. Fender buys them and and suddenly they're marketing $100 practice amps, using more "juvenile" color schemes, and making things in Mexico but charging the same price. From the player's perspective the brand lost all its cache. People point to the fact that they didn't "go light" soon enough but the brand lost its luster long before that.
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SWR was on the decline well before Fender acquired it. Fender revamped the line by making the existing models globally safety compliant and in the process designed out many of the problems. Fender also introduced the HeadLite and AmpLite class D amps plus the GoLite cabinets which were successful too, but in the end it was just a little too late as the market was changing faster than the brand could adapt. Cost was an issue too, the cost of building safety compliant amps was higher but didn't bring an obvious feature to the customer.

SWR never made $100 "practice amps", and I don't recall "juvenile" color schemes other than what the original SWR did.
 
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#51
I was referring to the LA Series which were the practice amps below the Workingman's line. Didn't feel anything like a a genuine SWR product.

As I remember it, the new design language of the "Mo'Bass" and "Interstellar Overdrive" products were from the Fender era.

It doesn't surprise me that the company was already in decline, but it still had a certain prestige when Fender bought it. That's probably why they bought it. But being bought by Fender only served to lessen the prestige even further.

And I would guess it was like the Genz Benz situation. That was never a big company with a ton of sales but at least it was boutique and seen as a cool company. That goes out the window if the brand becomes a division of Fender or Gibson.
 
#52
matante said:
I was referring to the LA Series which were the practice amps below the Workingman's line. Didn't feel anything like a a genuine SWR product.

As I remember it, the new design language of the "Mo'Bass" and "Interstellar Overdrive" products were from the Fender era.

It doesn't surprise me that the company was already in decline, but it still had a certain prestige when Fender bought it. That's probably why they bought it. But being bought by Fender only served to lessen the prestige even further.

And I would guess it was like the Genz Benz situation. That was never a big company with a ton of sales but at least it was boutique and seen as a cool company. That goes out the window if the brand becomes a division of Fender or Gibson.
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Actually, the Intersteller Overdrive was a Steve Rabe product long before Fender, as was the MoBass which was in development before Steve sold the company to Jamison. Steve didn't actually sell it to Fender, Jamison did about 5 years later.

The WorkingMan and WorkingPro were also original SWR products that were redesigned by Fender for compliance. The LA series was also pre-Fender, a simplified combo amp targeting lower volume applications. They were never close to cheap enough to be considered practice amps.

The Genz Benz situation was very different. Genz Benz products were well ahead of anything Fender was doing at the time. Once they acquired Genz Benz, they had the technology in-house to develop the Headlite for SWR and then the amazingly successful Rumble series with class D power amps and then the class D Bassman Pro amps with the Neo cabinets. They made their choices and Genz Benz became redundant in their portfolio. The rest is history.

Hope this helps clarify what really happened.
 
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#54
agedhorse said:
Actually, the Intersteller Overdrive was a Steve Rabe product long before Fender, as was the MoBass which was in development before Steve sold the company to Jamison. Steve didn't actually sell it to Fender, Jamison did about 5 years later.

The WorkingMan and WorkingPro were also original SWR products that were redesigned by Fender for compliance. The LA series was also pre-Fender, a simplified combo amp targeting lower volume applications. They were never close to cheap enough to be considered practice amps.

The Genz Benz situation was very different. Genz Benz products were well ahead of anything Fender was doing at the time. Once they acquired Genz Benz, they had the technology in-house to develop the Headlite for SWR and then the amazingly successful Rumble series with class D power amps and then the class D Bassman Pro amps with the Neo cabinets. They made their choices and Genz Benz became redundant in their portfolio. The rest is history.

Hope this helps clarify what really happened.
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Ahhh. Ok. Thanks. I thought I remembered complaining at the time about the LA Series being Fender's fault. A small combo that was high quality was the Baby Blue. 10" but meant as something serious. The LA Series to me was just cheap stuff to cash in on the brand name.
 
#56
matante said:
Ahhh. Ok. Thanks. I thought I remembered complaining at the time about the LA Series being Fender's fault. A small combo that was high quality was the Baby Blue. 10" but meant as something serious. The LA Series to me was just cheap stuff to cash in on the brand name.
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The LA series was their lower end stuff, but it wasn't cheap enough to compete in that market segment so it went away. I am pretty sure Fender discontinued it fairly early on, though there was some old stock that moved very slowly.
 
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