SWR. Hate 'em? Love 'em?

[LoveThatBass]

I bought a used SWR350X Pro a year ago and love it. It is Pre Fender and uses quality parts such as German Wima caps, a 12AX7 tube socket that really grips the tube. Very well contructed. It has an Active and Passive/Active inputs, but I just use the Passive Active for my Jazz with J-Retrosound as it just sounds better to me. I put a NOS RCA Blackplate 12AX7in and it improved the overall sound and increased punch.

 

[Ian Perge]

The X production is a Fender thing.

No - the 750x was announced in this press release in August of 2002. The Fender buyout was "official" on June 3rd, 2003, almost a full year after the release.

Also, the Mo bass did not change until the buy out. And when the buyout was public.

Not true as well. The Mini Mo' preamp was released in the spring of 2003 (BP's review) around the same development time as the X-series of amps - production of the Mo' Bass was halted during the development of the Mini Mo'. There was talk of a "Mo' Bass II" redesigned around the improved Mini Mo', but it looks like that will not be happening. In fact, the overdrive/distortion on the Xs were derived from the Mini Mo' circuit. That suggest the same (pre-Fender) development period for those products.

Fender already had the reigns for some time.

You can't "have the reigns" of a company you don't own, period. Even the lower-level tasks such as moving SWR's production line to Fender property in Corona, CA (next to the Fender Custom Shop), shifting the WorkingMan/Pro construction to Fender's Mexico facility, reworking all their products to fit international electronic specs, and generally integrating the company as a Fender subsidiary by all accounts took several months.

It's impractical to think that SWR/Fender could rework all their products as well as redesign/develop the Mini Mo' and X-series in that short a time period with everything else that was going on. It's logically to surmise that the first new products to come out in the "Fender period" have been the new WorkingPro heads, combos, and cabinets.

Please don't take this to be an attack - we're actually in agreement in terms of Fender not being the source of all problems SWR. I just wanted to clear up some factual/timeline mistakes and give pre-Fender "SWR Sound" the credit it's due in terms of product development.

 

[seansbrew]

No - the 750x was announced in this press release in August of 2002. The Fender buyout was "official" on June 3rd, 2003, almost a full year before the release.



Not true as well. The Mini Mo' preamp was released in the spring of 2003 (BP's review) around the same development time as the X-series of amps - production of the Mo' Bass was halted during the development of the Mini Mo'. There was talk of a "Mo' Bass II" redesigned around the improved Mini Mo', but it looks like that will not be happening. In fact, the overdrive/distortion on the Xs were derived from the Mini Mo' circuit. That suggest the same (pre-Fender) development period for those products.



You can't "have the reigns" of a company you don't own, period. Even the lower-level tasks such as moving SWR's production line to Fender property in Corona, CA (next to the Fender Custom Shop), shifting the WorkingMan/Pro construction to Fender's Mexico facility, reworking all their products to fit international electronic specs, and generally integrating the company as a Fender subsidiary by all accounts took several months.

It's impractical to think that SWR/Fender could rework all their products as well as redesign/develop the Mini Mo' and X-series in that short a time period with everything else that was going on. It's logically to surmise that the first new products to come out in the "Fender period" have been the new WorkingPro heads, combos, and cabinets.

Please don't take this to be an attack - we're actually in agreement in terms of Fender not being the source of all problems SWR. I just wanted to clear up some factual/timeline mistakes and give pre-Fender "SWR Sound" the credit it's due in terms of product development.

I certainly was not trying to mislead anyone, but if you are in fact correct. I was given alot of eronious information.

 

[msquared]

so nobody likes swr anymore, huh?

Just because this thread is absolutely silly doesn't mean nobody likes them.

I sold my blackface SM-900 a couple days ago. It was a sad day. I really loved that amp but because of my gig situation I need to go back to the preamp/poweramp route. I'm happy knowing it's in good hands but I already regret it.

This is the first time in years that I haven't owned any SWR gear. It's kind of weird.

 

[Scott Lynch]

I had an SWR Basic 350 for years. While it worked, I loved it. Then the power section died, and I hated it.

 

[Stubb]

I'm going to reiterate my post earlier - the SWR WM1x15T is a great, great cab. Stacked mine solo for a while, then with an Avatar 2x10. As far as tone goes, I'd totally say the SWR was better. I actually sold it to my guitarist, and then he sold it, but I ended up buying it back and won't make the mistake of parting with it again. The value of a light 1x15 that has some serious balls is far more than the $130ish I paid for it the second time around.

 

[The Golden Boy]

i've never had an swr overheat and fail, but they do get hot. to be honest, most or all of the times i used swr amps that were two space rackmount they either had nothing racked on top of them, or they were racked in the middle of 3 spaces. (IIRC, swr and other manufactureres might have reccomended doing the latter whenever possible).

I'm curious, thegoldenboy, what era was that sm-900 from, was it an swr engineering unit, or swr sound? a year of production would be neat to know as well. i dont think you said it was post fender, but the original swr was engineering, and later they changed the moniker to sound.

It's a 2001 model IIRC. It's right about the time they did the switch from SWReng to SWRsound. The polishing cloth came with an "Amplify Your Future" tagline on it, while the Bass 750 had the "Feeling Is Believing." It's pre-Fender and prior to the "puffy" SWR logo.

I don't recall the user manual specifying that nothing be racked or to have an empty rack space within the rack. I vaguely recall suggesting that it be on the bottom of the rack. You really can't tell from the pic, but all that's in there is the DTR-2, which is less deep, and the power supply. I don't think either is even half the depth of the amp.

I should say that I really like the sound of this amp. I really liked the sound of my Bass 750, but I think they were both put together painfully poorly.

IvanMike, I recall having a conversation with you about this amp a long time ago- and I think you questioned my EQ settings- a perfectly logical explanation. Here's about how the EQs are set:

There's other little things that really set me off- especially while I was in the middle of trying to get everything cleared up from the Bass 750 blowing. This happened right before the summer festival season- at the time I had 2 gigs going as well as any pickup gigs I could have landed, but I only had one functional cab. I mentioned that the Bass 750 took out all the 10s in my Goliath II. SWR made me pay full price on 2 recones, parts for one and comped me one. That's their amp blowing up one of their cabs and I still ended up shouldering a majority of the cost. While I was always on the phone with the "customer service" rep- inquired about name badges for the Goliath and the Triad, the fuse holder clips (for the horn protection circuit) and one black banana jack input. They sent them to me, with a bill. I guess I can understand the fuse holder clips- as they were still being used on cabs- but the others were discontinued parts- the banana jack input was the last one in the shop. For God's sake- I just dumped a load of cash for 2 pro series amps, they're making me pay for recones of speakers their amp blew and I asked about- didn't order, asked about some discontinued parts for cabinets and they charged me-

I'm really happy with the cabs. I'm happy with the sound of the amp. I'm completely dissatisfied with the reliability of the amps and the company.

 

[Edwcdc]

As I mentioned before. I dig my SWR 750. It has a fan and it has never overheated. Even when I work the amp a bit it stays cool. On the other hand my Workingmans 4004 head never overheated but it used to get hot as hell. I removed the amp form the wooden case and I installed it in a rack. I had to customize the rack as the 4004 is about 19" wide without rack ears. Doing this allowed me to mount a fan on the inside of the rack. I mounted it blowing across from side to side. This kept the amp cooler but I only ran it when it was real hot.

 

[jz0h4d]

About heat in 400,550 ,& 900 series amps.
You must alow airflow into the amp by not blocking the air vents. That much we all agree on right?

What most of you missed is it's just as important to give the hot air coming off the heat sinks a way out of the rack. It vents out of the side of the amp usually into an amp case sitting 1/2 inch from the side of the amp. Solution get a cheap plastic rack case (SKB)and drill lots of holes under the handle to vent the hot air, problems greatly reduced.

 

[The Golden Boy]

Solution get a cheap plastic rack case (SKB)and drill lots of holes under the handle to vent the hot air, problems greatly reduced.

So you're compromising the the integrity of the rack to compensate for the engineers' seeming lack of thought regarding heat dissipation?

How about a better idea of laying the amp out so the air flows from front to rear or vice versa?

You've got plenty of room on the front panel, plenty on the back panel.

Mesa managed to do it...

 

[ihixulu]

Well, I like both my Engineering era 400 and my Sound era 900. The 400 blew a biasing transistor once, which I replaced and otherwise has been rock solid. The 900 has never given me a problem.

I just played a gig with the 900 + Aguilar 212 setup in a large room doing covers ranging from country to reggae to pop. The amp was loud, clear, fat and the tone got compliments from playing customers. Works for me.

 

[seansbrew]

My sm 500 overheated a few times when I used it to power my goliath SR. To alleviate this problem I installed a computer fan at the rear, then drilled half inch vent holes in my rack case where the SM 500 vents. In these holes I pouned .500" o.d. bushings so as to keep the integrity of the case; problem solved.

 

[pickles]

SM-400s do run hot enough to fry eggs, but they typically do it without complaining. The main reason to give it a blank rack space to work with is to keep it from heating up the device above it! My SM-400 would be as hot as a tube amp after a rehersal or gig, but other than blowing a fuse one time, it never gave me a speck of trouble. It also had a great sounding DI, great tone, and powerful EQ. Only problem was it wasn't quite powerful enough for me. I should have just picked up an SM-900 but instead I embarked on a psycho rack gear adventure that contiues to this day.

 

[Tony G]

I'm still enjoying my WorkingPro 700, and will continue to post so regularly untill it gives me a problem.

 

[ctbass]

BAck in the day, SWR was IT!!! In recent years and with the sale to Fender, innovation has really come to a halt.There are so many better options. I have an orginal Baby Blue head, Goliath II from the early 90's. I keep them for the memories and posterity sake.

 

[dougjwray]

I had an SM-400 for a few years and hated it because its intrinsic "voice" was so clean and bland. I struggled in vain with its many EQing possibilities, and finally gave up and went back to Ampeg. Whew-- NOW we're talking. GKs are also great-- different from Ampeg, but great.
(This is purely subjective-- my SWR was certainly sturdy, reliable, well-built, etc.)

 

[dougjwray]

DON'T ever turn this head off with it still connected to main board (line out). It slowly starts to wind up w/this god awfull noise then takes forever to wind back down. I did this in church when some people were praying one on one w/leaders & I brought that to a shocking halt. It was like a scene from a movie, I just kept apologizing.

HA! I'd forgotten about that nasty little SWR quirk! I did that a few times (unintentionally, of course) and almost got beaten up by enraged soundpeople. Horrible amps...

 

[cgworkman]

Why didn't you just unplug the line out?

 

[dougjwray]

I usually did that, of course, but sometimes I'd forget.
I'm telling you, that was the worst shrieking, squealing noise ever.

 

[pickles]

I usually did that, of course, but sometimes I'd forget.
I'm telling you, that was the worst shrieking, squealing noise ever.

Based on that, I learned to always ask the soundman to kill my slider before I power down *any* device that is DIed. Also, pulling the XLR plug can produce a "pop" that will also make the soundman angry. Better to wait for the go-ahead.