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**New SWR headlite™ Mini-Amp**

#81
wvbass said:
The controls look extremely similar to the Baby Blue series of amps, with the addition of a couple bells and whistles (compressor, mid freq shift). I wonder if there is any chance that SWR got a little lazy design wise and basically just strapped a digital power amp to the baby blue pre?

That would be a very, very good thing. The Baby Blue is one of the best sounding amps ever made, IMO.
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Here's my interest in this model. If the Headlite sounds anything like my Baby Blue then I'm in. The BB's 150 watts was always just too little but I can certainly live with 400.
 
#82
like has been stated, for those not wanting or liking the MarkBass sound or EA sound, or Genz-Benz sound (or Eden, etc,Etc.) here's a chance to get THE 'SWR Sound' (which is a quantitative thing) in a mini package

and as far as gig bags and 'protection' goes... umm, I believe that's why they're called gig bags and not referred to as "cases". They're not meant to be like a road case but rather to keep the elements off of them and to provide pockets/pouches to put things into.

I'd never have the expectation of any gig bag protecting like a road case. Just like I'd never expect a Pilsner to taste as good as a Big Rock ;)

I've gotta say that i personally am with FM here and can not wait to hear these guys.

:bassist::bassist:
 
#83
Concur, 100%
Put this head-which sure looks like the BBII pre to me- in a svelte 210 combo with real speaker, and a real horn, and bring it in at 50lbs, and bam!...killer!!!


wagdog said:
Here's my interest in this model. If the Headlite sounds anything like my Baby Blue then I'm in. The BB's 150 watts was always just too little but I can certainly live with 400.
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#85
Below, from the spec sheet....cut and paste error, or, is there really a tube in there?

"SWR Tube Preamp with 3-Band Semi-Parametric EQ ''

Invalid Link Removed
 
#87
There were comments earlier about racking this stuff...

Of Course everyone can do what they want and companies can market things to whoever they want but.......

FOR ME...The idea of buying a microhead and then racking it with a rack tuner, power conditioner and a wireless is something of interest to maybe someone who has rock star aspirations but not as much for the working bassist who's running from a cocktail hour gig, to a wedding and then some late night jam. With that said I am sure some do just that and prove me wrong. Again if you want to rack this stuff I have no problem with it but I don't think there is a big market for that.

I'm grabbing my micro head in a soft bag, stuffing a pedal size tuner in my gig bag with a 15 foot cable, an extra set of strings, my cabinet and that's it. The TC head with a built in tuner and comp is a great solution to give you some additional feature with even less stuff.

For the rack guys stewart world is making a 1U amp as does Power soft and others...
 
#88
Yeah I wouldn't claim there's a huge market for it, but it's the only angle I could think of.

That said, I'd take a 1u rack bag over a soft bag any day of the week. Leave the cables in the back plugged in, etc. Thinking of getting one for my F1 actually.

The downside is there are no 1u bags out there ;) A 2u bag would be OK I guess, as you could get a multi-effects unit and a micro head in one bag.

It's the rack bags that make it worth considering. Definitely not a huge market for it, but if people think it through it's way better than a soft bag. A lot safer and more convenient, and not that heavy.

And for me, going from a 4u rack to a 2u rack and 1/4 the weight is a worthwhile investment :)
 
#91
Man looking at the eq section again, that is quite impressive. 3-band semi-parametric with the scoop @ 2 frequencies is pretty awesome. Definitely markedly different from most. And getting into a 1/2 u package is pretty nice too.
 
#93
rpsands said:
Yeah I wouldn't claim there's a huge market for it, but it's the only angle I could think of.

That said, I'd take a 1u rack bag over a soft bag any day of the week. Leave the cables in the back plugged in, etc. Thinking of getting one for my F1 actually.

The downside is there are no 1u bags out there ;) A 2u bag would be OK I guess, as you could get a multi-effects unit and a micro head in one bag.

It's the rack bags that make it worth considering. Definitely not a huge market for it, but if people think it through it's way better than a soft bag. A lot safer and more convenient, and not that heavy.

And for me, going from a 4u rack to a 2u rack and 1/4 the weight is a worthwhile investment :)
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I understand where you are coming from for the most part.

I don't see where a well padded bag is any less safe then a non-shock mounted rack though. I have a power cable, instrument cable and a cable from the tuner out to my tuner. If you drop either one there is a chance of an internal component coming loose.

I've used a 2 space rack bag for my Glockenklang Soul and a 4 space rack bag for my Glockenklang HR; the 2 space didn't make my life any easier. Now if your coming from a 6 or 8 space hard rack that's a different story. None of that is as convenient as throwing my EA Doubler into my gig bag with a few cables and a tuner.
 
#94
synterx said:
SWR needs to be commended in my opinion because of the simple fact they built these things in standard 1/2 rack format. I have used all the micro amps (and settled for now on the GK, because it takes up 1 rack space) and the weird sizes they are using, and all different ones at that is very annoying. How many of use use JUST their amp head? I need a good tuner and a wireless at all times. Plus, a power strip of some kind to plug all this crap into. Rack mounting still makes sense and was ignored by all the micro amp guys except SWR. Heck, GK never even though about the rack ability of the MB2 series - the rack ears were an after thought.

What I'd like to see is a full width 1-rack space mega-micro amp. You'd have more room to space out the controls, or even add a few, you could throw it in a shallow 2-4 space rack bag or case and be ready to rock.

The ultimate for me would be to make a 1/2 rack space amp or 1-full space that can slide out of the rack with the release of a button or something. Then you could throw it in a gig bag for practice or small gigs.

I believe that this type of thing is how real working bass players use their amps.

Of course, this is all meaningless to anyone but me.

That said, I like everything SWR is doing with their new amp, especially the tuner in the pedal board...that is brilliant for an analog type bass amp system. But the 400 watt thing kind of bothers me. Look around at the marketplace, and make it 500 watts just to be on equal footing with the competition. Even if their 400 is equal to others 500.

Now if Peavey would step up and blow us all away.
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RPSANDS - This is where the disconnect is for me not your comments, for the record...
 
#95
synterx said:
I don't think that's all that true. Overwhelming majority? Nah, I bet it's less than you think. These things are being used by every type of player. Tuners and wireless systems, and other stuff are all part of most peoples systems. And I'm not referring to the 1980's when a 12 space rack was normal. I'm talking small light racks under 4 spaces.

For example, for awhile I hauled my GK MB2-500, a pedal tuner and my X2 wireless to gigs, and all the cables, power supplies and whatnot, all in a couple of small padded bags. Then I spent 15 minutes hooking all the crap up every time. Then tear it all down again.

Then I bought the GK rack ears, bought a 3-space padded rack bag and threw in a cheap old Korg rack tuner. Velcro'd the wireless down on the tuner, and used short cables to wire it all up. I now have less to carry because it's all in one small case, already wired up ready to go. I literally throw it on the cab, plug one cable in the wall and the speakon and I'm done. Rack mounting makes sense many, many times. That's why it was invented.

So to have Markbass, Genz, Carvin and all the others all come out with completely different size amps that are goofy to rack mount (have you seen a Shuttle 6 rack mounted in their rack ear kit? That looks so bad).

I actually built my own rack kit for my Shuttle 6 when I had it. It was cool but clunky. I could slide it in my rack and tighten two knobs...then for practice or other times I didn't want the whole thing, I just loosened two knobs and slid it out. Modular.

That's what I'd like to see, use standard sizes and systems. Think how cool a true two-space high 1/2 rack amp like the Shuttle would be? You could mount it in your rack, and on the other side mount your 1/2 rack wireless and a "not yet invented" 1/2 rack tuner. 2 rack spaces of ready to rock goodness.
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And This..
 
#96
peterpalmieri said:
RPSANDS - This is where the disconnect is for me not your comments, for the record...
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lol. It's weird but most of the bassists around here use combos, and the ones that use amps use old heavy stuff with a rack tuner almost invariably.

I don't think I've ever seen an ultralight head used at a gig in Phoenix.

However, I think for Talkbass, probably 50%+ use just a head and pedalboard :)
 
#97
rpsands said:
lol. It's weird but most of the bassists around here use combos, and the ones that use amps use old heavy stuff with a rack tuner almost invariably.

I don't think I've ever seen an ultralight head used at a gig in Phoenix.

However, I think for Talkbass, probably 50%+ use just a head and pedalboard :)
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I'm not convinced 50% of TB use a pedal board, since you run in that circle it may seem that way.

I still see many local guys here using a Hartke 3500, SWR SM500, GK800RB or a combo amp. Most guys I see with rack setups have a 20 year old SWR or Hartke and biggest most popular accessory is a 3 space metal draw followed up by a power conditioner and rack mount tuner.
 
#98
peterpalmieri said:
I'm not convinced 50% of TB use a pedal board, since you run in that circle it may seem that way.

I still see many local guys here using a Hartke 3500, SWR SM500, GK800RB or a combo amp. Most guys I see with rack setups have a 20 year old SWR or Hartke and biggest most popular accessory is a 3 space metal draw followed up by a power conditioner and rack mount tuner.
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Well sorry, I meant pedalboard in the most liberal context :) Everyone I see has a tuner of some kind, and lately it's seemed to be more pedal tuners. So I'm counting "head + Tu20" as head + pedalboard, in my numbers, so I don't have to divide stuff up into more categories.

It's really amazing how many racks with tuners and power conditioners I see around though. Usually SWR 750s or Ampeg SVT3's.
 

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