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SWR. Hate 'em? Love 'em?

#21
I have a Redhead with a Triad for the extension cabinet.

I love it. It's a great rig, not sterile at all. I have no difficulties getting great tones out of my rig. I have to wonder what was up with the ones you guys are complaining about, Mine is awesome.

With just the Redhead I had some problems with getting lost in the mix. But adding the Triad cured that.
 
#22
I love my Workingman's 4004/4x10/1x15 stack.

On the other hand, I got it when they closed out that model line last year at ~55% off. If I'd paid full price for it, I might not feel quite so warm and fuzzy about it. I'd have probably gotten the 1x15 combo and been happy with that. Either way, I like the clean sound, and this one's plenty loud for the stuff I do.

My only real complaint is from my back, which sorta wishes I'd just gone with a nice 2x10 or 1x15 combo in the same price range. There sure are a lot of good ones that don't outweigh me and require a friend's truck to move.

:help:
 
#23
I own the WorkingPro 700. Its a great amp and my current work horse. It is very versatile and has a great sound. But....I haven't liked any previous SWR stuff, and there is a good chance I won't buy another swr amp...I think my next choice would be something from eden.
 
#25
I have (and am selling) the Workingman's 4004 stack (4004, 4x10T, 1x15T) I liked it quite a bit when I was still somewhat unexperienced in the world of SWR level (or pricerange) amps. Obviously the Workingman's line is a value line but here are my complaints. It's heavy as hell! The 4x10 is 108 pounds (10 more than an Eden 410XLT which is bigger). The tweeters are really delicate and make everything sound far too tinny but Im always too afraid to use them anyway. The tone just never cuts through. It's loud enough for what I need but I always have to crank it to hear myself, and then boy does it sound like crap. The eq isn't very effective or just doesn't have much usable tweaking power. The preamp also clips very easily. So yeah, it would have been fine for playing alone and practicing alone but I'm moving on to better things..
 
#26
I have an older (early 90's red face) SWR Bass 350 head that I run full into a Hartke 410XL and an SWR Big Ben (18") and I absolutley love it. I have had not a single problem with the head or cab in some 15 odd years. It's plenty loud and I really like the tone. I must - I haven't changed my set up since I got it, lol. I went through a lot of different equipment before that, you know how it is, but I am still happy with really everything about it.
 
#30
Any old SWR Engineering heads are tops. a little underpowered compared to some with similar power ratings, but the the original heads/preamps were well built, and the tone might not be for everyone, but it was a definitive one.

The goliath 1 and 2 are still some of my fave old cabs, and the goliath jr 1 & 2 were pretty cool too. The triad sounded great, but the 15" tended to get blown if you put more than 250 watts into it. The big ben was OK, the 8x8 was a very cool cab, and the 4x8 sounded entirely different than the 8x8, but was neat as well.

I have not been as impressed with the newer cabs in the pro series, especially the goliath 3. it's ok, but the mojo of the 1 & 2 is missing IMO. I think the pro heads still sound good, but i wish they's keep them simple and take the X/subsonic stuff out and stick with the original rabe preamp.

LA? yuk. Workingman's/workingpro? blah. However, the WM-15 and WM-12 are two of the coolest combos i've ever played, (and I hate combos).
 
#31
Bard2dbone said:
I have a Redhead with a Triad for the extension cabinet.

I love it. It's a great rig, not sterile at all. I have no difficulties getting great tones out of my rig. I have to wonder what was up with the ones you guys are complaining about, Mine is awesome.

With just the Redhead I had some problems with getting lost in the mix. But adding the Triad cured that.
Click to expand...
woah. that was the rig i wanted years ago. not enough watts to blow the 15" in the triad, but the combo sounds monsterous. I remember trying the redhead then plugging in the triad back when i first heard of SWR. I cried all the way home. :p
 
#32
adept_inept said:
well, part of this is that SWR is designed to provide more of the sound of the bass and not to color the sound as much.
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This is a good point. SWR gear doesn't suck the tone out of a bass that already sounds good (at least not in my experience). There isn't a "tone robber" knob on them that's superglued in the 10 position. I can quite clearly hear the tonal goodness of whatever bass I plug into mine, and that's been the case with all the pro line SWR gear I've ever played through or heard as a drummer or audience member.

There's also a difference (IMO) between the sound of an amp when you're playing it in Guitar Center and the sound of that same amp when the signal it's producing is being buried with guitar, drums, keys, etc. My take on SWR's flagship amps is that they're designed to sound good live.

And anyone who thinks the Interstellar Overdrive sounds sterile needs to get their ears checked.
 
#33
SWR is a fine company who has not in recent years innovated as much as they once did. They have produced some very fine products and some that are not. The next few years will be key for their success or failure...
 
#34
msquared said:
This is a good point. SWR gear doesn't suck the tone out of a bass that already sounds good (at least not in my experience). There isn't a "tone robber" knob on them that's superglued in the 10 position. I can quite clearly hear the tonal goodness of whatever bass I plug into mine, and that's been the case with all the pro line SWR gear I've ever played through or heard as a drummer or audience member.

There's also a difference (IMO) between the sound of an amp when you're playing it in Guitar Center and the sound of that same amp when the signal it's producing is being buried with guitar, drums, keys, etc. My take on SWR's flagship amps is that they're designed to sound good live.

And anyone who thinks the Interstellar Overdrive sounds sterile needs to get their ears checked.
Click to expand...

Never tried the IOD, but would have liked to.

My experiences differ, however. Alone, I thought that the SWR stuff sounded pretty dang good (hey, I did lay down the cash and take it out of the store:) ). But once I got the rig in a live setting, it just wasn't what I was looking for. I needed something with a much fuller sound than what the SWR was delivering.

And it sucked, too, because I really wanted to like the amp.:hmm:
 
#35
adept_inept said:
well, part of this is that SWR is designed to provide more of the sound of the bass and not to color the sound as much. so, basically, i think a more authentic sound of the bass is produced. so if ur bass sounds sterile, it will be produced by the SWR. however, if ur bass sounds great on its own, the SWR wil just help it out. thats my take, at least. good guitars sound better, cheaper ones sound worse.
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Well, my "cheap"(is a Modulus Quantum 5 a cheap bass??) basses sounded great through it, alone. But it was lacking in the live department, for my needs. I needed a fuller sound, like I stated. At the time, I was playing in a band that included 2 guitars, drums, fiddle/mandolin, and keys. I needed a rig that had some warmth, and more presence than the SWR seemed capable of. Of course, YMMV.
 
#36
I loved my SWR IOD. It's a far cry from all these guys calling it "sterile" and i used and abused a workingmans 15 combo for many years and it never gave me any problems.

heck, i'm still looking for something that can satify my craving from the overdrive i had from my IOD, and i'm slowly finding my way through boutique pedals to no avail. (currently wrestling with a fulltone bassdrive)
 
#37
msquared said:
This is a good point. SWR gear doesn't suck the tone out of a bass that already sounds good (at least not in my experience). There isn't a "tone robber" knob on them that's superglued in the 10 position. I can quite clearly hear the tonal goodness of whatever bass I plug into mine, and that's been the case with all the pro line SWR gear I've ever played through or heard as a drummer or audience member.

There's also a difference (IMO) between the sound of an amp when you're playing it in Guitar Center and the sound of that same amp when the signal it's producing is being buried with guitar, drums, keys, etc. My take on SWR's flagship amps is that they're designed to sound good live.

And anyone who thinks the Interstellar Overdrive sounds sterile needs to get their ears checked.
Click to expand...

I agree - my SWR sounds great with all my basses (a Zon Sonus 4, a Stingray 5, a Tobias Growler 4 fretless, a Hamer Chapparal 8, and Ibanez Soundgear 4 Mahogany) and is awesome in a live band situation! I am always happy with my basses in a mix.

I forgot to mention, however, that I absolutely hate the Interstellar Overdrive. I have never been so disappointed with any gear in my life. After years of looking I found one used on EBay, I tried it out but sold in again in less than a month (I did make a profit on the bay though, lol). I though it sounded small and, as said before, very sterile. And unbeleiveably it squished out a lot more bass that I would have liked. Plus, it's retardedly expensive! I use a crappy Chandler Tube Driver for my distortion, which btw has no tubes, lol, and it sounds 4x as good. IMO.
 
#39
IvanMike said:
Any old SWR Engineering heads are tops.
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This has to be highlighted big time! Forget about "pre-frender":rolleyes:. What you want to look for is pre SWR Sound. This is when SWR really started going down. This was about the time that Steve Rabe left the company.

Every SWR Engineering product I've tried has always sounded better than it's SWR Sound counterpart. To my ears the SWR Engineering WM 15 sounds better than the SWR Sound WM 15, as does the Read Head compaired to the Supper Red head. The latter being an SWR Sound product. Just my $0.02
 

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