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SWR LA 12" combo amp review.

S

sorefingers

Mar 19, 2008
24
0
#1
well im new to playing bass. so far i know most of the scales and can play songs, slap, chords and all that good stuff. So hello talk bass people, lol. but anyways i wanted to say, DO NOT BUY SWR AMPS! or well at least the LA series, i have one and it sucks. if you turn it up past the 3\4 mark it buzzes like CRAZY. but yah, so drop some comments if you have one, and what you think about it. also i went to my first jam today and played like 3 hours of bluegrass with my mom's banjo, best friend od drums, and himmom on piano. it was the best. :hyper: whoo.
 
#2
I have one and it's my practice amp. Works fine for home practice and jamming with a guitarist or two. I don't think it's meant to be used as anything else. Not many amps will sound good if you turn the volume up 3/4 of the way :eek: For a jam with a drummer, you'd want an amp with a bigger speaker or a lot more watts.
 
#4
well to be noticeably louder youll need somethign with double the watts. or you can double the speaker area( by adding another 12)

Yeah i heard the La series ain't that great But WorkingPros are solid. Well time to sleep.
 
#5
them are junk.

workingpro's are marginally better.

recent pro stuff is alright, but you can do better for the same money.

original stuff is actually pretty good but getting more scarce. still fairly cheap though.

I've found post SWR Engineering but pre Fender stuff to be a mixed bag.

nothing SWR ever made is particularly loud for the wattage.
 
#7
I have had a LA-12 for a couple of years now and still love it.
I use it for the small gigs without drumset and for playing at home.
It's loud enough and i find it super neutral sounding, no colouring at all. I like it especially for practice, because it really shows sloppy playing. I realize often that licks that sound killer on my big rig with the drums hammering and an OD pedal engaged sound seriously lacking on that small thing due to bad finger technique. When i practice so it sounds good on that amp, it sounds better on the big one.

...and my cheap basses sound cheap, no matter what i EQ, while my boutique stuff sounds great.
 
#8
To expect sonic bliss from something that inexpensive is asking a lot.
The LA series were entry level, novice, practice, & small gig amps.

Now.
I put a great Celestion 8" in the LA-8. Doesn't buzz at all.
I plug into the aux in bypassing the pre. Then it can sound quite neutral.
I played a funeral reception with a '57P ri into the pre. Mostly Dylan and '60s folk.
Sounded just like a P in appropriate music.

My feeling is you need a louder amp.
My warning is, any amp will act crazy if you thrash away, over eq. and disregard your quality of touch.
 
#9
I have the LA 15 and it is good only for learning songs at home. It has an 'aural exciter' on all the time and that makes the mids jump out louder. The back panel is the only cooling and the amp will overheat and shut down. Mine makes a nasty loud sound when swiched on that resembles a microphone being dropped onto the floor. I am sorry I bought it but it is still working .
 
#10
Avoiding the value of the great pre Fender SWR Pro gear because the admittedly inexpensive entry level is limited is unwise.
See, some of us remember when SWR was boutique with tiny ads in the back of music mags.

Heck, I remember when Mesa Boogie was boutique. When the three volume control Boogie was introduced I was so intrigued I called Randy. This was when they would sit in the Cali sun and solder them in the nude. I said hey I love the concept of the Boogie what you got for bass? Randy said we're working on it. Then came the 400.

Back on topic. The SWR Pro gear is a real value and many pieces can be had in pristine condition.
 
#12
I was looking for info on the SWR LA 12, but now I'm obsessed by the idea of the guys at Mesa soldering in the nude. That's radical. Even wilder than deep frying in the nude with no apron. Didn't they ever hear of solder splatter?

ficelles
 
#14
I just bought one...maybe a month ago. I'm pretty happy with the tone and everything seems to work as it should.

For practicing with CDs, it may be adequate, unless you have a serious stereo. It's alright as a small practice amp. I bought mine hoping to use it for small acoustic gigs, but it's not capable of keeping up with PA supported vox and acoustic guitars. Our slap-top cajon player does fine with no PA support, so I thought the 60 watts would do the trick. I was wrong.
 
#16
i have a swr full stack but im thinking of trying to trade my no name raven pro b-40 for a swr la 12 that my local pawn shoo has maybe im ocd and wanting all my amps to be same brand and it would just be used in the house or if i played a real small coffee shop but if i need more ill bring the 6x10s
 
#17
I bought one many years ago when they first came out. Quite honestly, it was a POS!! Had a horrible popping sound when turning it on and off. Not quite loud enough to gig with so it functioned as a practice amp only. Loaned it out to a fellow musician. When I got it back, it was beat to hell and had cig burns. I ended up selling it for $25 to some bloke.
 
#18
i now agree i was gonna trade for one at my local pawn shop it sounded like a blown speaker so i nixed that deal there was also an ampeg ba-110 it sounded amazing but they wanted $50 more and i would of had to give to much of my gear to trade i went in with my amp that not common a raven b-40 which is forty watts and 15 inch speaker and was made in New York by P-R-0 sound engineer its an late 80s or early 90s but it has built in compression and i brought ky zoom mh-60b+ and my irig hd im so glad i talked myself out even though that ampeg is soo tempting i want a practice amp thats not super bulky and i kinda wanted to stay with a swr since my big rig is swr but yeah poor la 12 was a big let down ive been running the swr sm 400 on my zoom pedal to get close to my rigs sound so that covered but still be nice to have something i can travel easier with but G.A..S almost got me i still think of a trade i did 20 years ago i had a regal resignator acoustic bass i traded and got a mim fretless jazz which played amazing and was beautiful but even then i was wanting a practice amp and i came across the new then Orange crush amps and traded for one and i so regret that look at the difference in prices of a fender jazz and a orange crush big cost increase of the fender and the orange crush wasn't anything to write home about it just looked cool since it was first one i saw that wasn't $1k back then. sorry this was long winded reply
 

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