I have a SWR Silverado Special combo from the late 90's. I bought it new the last year or two they made them. It's basically a pro series redhead with 2x12 instead of 2x10. I got it because I loved the tone. (though I always turn the tweeter off) As I got more live experience, I realized that it was never as loud as I expected considering the weight, and it started making strange distorting noises near the end of the waranty. I got it fixed under waranty, but now it's two years past warranty, and the noises are back but worse whenever I push the gain and volume past the halfway point. It still has great tone at low volume but what good is great tone if you can't use it?
Amp repair prices being what they are, my next project will be removing the head and speakers, replacing them with a carvin power amp and higher rated speakers and using it as a slave for my portabass 250 head which has tone that I like just as much in a much smaller package.
If SWR put out a basic pre, I might be interested, as I love the swr "sound" but nothing in their current range currently has my attention.
