Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
SWR Workingman's 10
- Thread starter main_sale
- Start date
i bought a 2x10 for $130 (after taxes) used. I mainly bought it cause it was a good deal, i will probably sell it to a buddy or one of the local bassists for $100. If anyone wants a 2x10 workingman and is coming through NC send me a PM. 
-Jon
-Jon
Dang! Too bad no 4ohm.
How can we find out if the Deltalite
is a good candidate for the WM10? Although you really
should check the stock speaker out using the Sansamp as
a preamp. I own one of the older amps. This thing rocks for
such a small beast. Again if I can use the Deltalite and not
loose the low push, I'm there.
If it weren't such a PITA to get to, I'd take the one out of my Schroeder and put it in my WM10...heck, if I'm bored this weekend, I may do it for grins. I'll let you know how it works if I do.
Zombie thread revival.. !
Anyone out there still playing Workingman's 10? Has anyone found the best speaker replacement?
Anyone out there still playing Workingman's 10? Has anyone found the best speaker replacement?
i put a eminence beta with the whizzer cone in mine, bypassed the tweeter, and it sounded great. best? i dunno, but better than the original swr speaker that was in it, which was also an eminence btw.
Zombie indeed. I have the LA-8. Plugging an active bass into the CD input bypassing the pre gives marked improvement.
Hi.
After a longish period with Hartke XL10 in mine, and a quick try with Hartke TP10 (which surprisingly resulted pretty much the same performance despite the 2/3 price tag), I finally put one of the Deltalite II's I had in there.
Both Hartke's were an improvement over the original (fully working) driver, but the Deltalite II was a huge upgrade.
I only wish I had done it sooner.
Some may see putting a driver that costs the same or more as the whole combo as polishing a turd, but the speaker swap elevates that little SWR to a much more useable league.
Not that it wasn't useable before, but the driver upgrade sure is an actual upgrade.
IMO/IME anyway.
Regards
Sam
After a longish period with Hartke XL10 in mine, and a quick try with Hartke TP10 (which surprisingly resulted pretty much the same performance despite the 2/3 price tag), I finally put one of the Deltalite II's I had in there.
Both Hartke's were an improvement over the original (fully working) driver, but the Deltalite II was a huge upgrade.
I only wish I had done it sooner.
Some may see putting a driver that costs the same or more as the whole combo as polishing a turd, but the speaker swap elevates that little SWR to a much more useable league.
Not that it wasn't useable before, but the driver upgrade sure is an actual upgrade.
IMO/IME anyway.
Regards
Sam
LMAO polishing a turd
I agree the SWR workingmans 10 is somewhat of a turd, but in some instances, it is really useful.
Here in Portland I saw a girl doing a street gig with a ukelele and vocal mic plugged into a workingmans 10, and oddly enough it sounded sparkly and magical. I couldn't believe my eyes and ears
I bet with a new driver it could be a killer practice/small gig machine
Hi.
You're welcome.
Definitely no loss of low end, quite the opposite really.
Since the cab tuning stays the same, it obviously doesn't go any lower, but even without any scientific measurements to back the claim up, I'd be willing to say that the impact across the frequency range is at least the same as adding an original extension cab, ie ~3dB.
I was speaking generally about using that much money on something pretty cheap, but yes, the early WM10's especially are kind of turds.
Like I said earlier (a lot earlier
) in this thread, the early runs of the TDA chip-amp they decided to use instead of the "standard" SWR discretes, craps out sooner than later.
And that's not on just WM10's, but on anything that used that chip.
The replacement is easy(ish), cheap, and a crapped out WM10 can be had for peanuts.
IMO it's just that.
I've used mine (with the Hartke XL10) as a personal monitor on numerous gigs when I have had my way and gone straight to PA.
Nowadays our gigs are usually so loud and the overall monitoring is so inadequate that I have to rely on my big rig for everyone to hear the bass.
Regards
Sam
You're welcome.
Definitely no loss of low end, quite the opposite really.
Since the cab tuning stays the same, it obviously doesn't go any lower, but even without any scientific measurements to back the claim up, I'd be willing to say that the impact across the frequency range is at least the same as adding an original extension cab, ie ~3dB.
I was speaking generally about using that much money on something pretty cheap, but yes, the early WM10's especially are kind of turds.
Like I said earlier (a lot earlier
) in this thread, the early runs of the TDA chip-amp they decided to use instead of the "standard" SWR discretes, craps out sooner than later.And that's not on just WM10's, but on anything that used that chip.
The replacement is easy(ish), cheap, and a crapped out WM10 can be had for peanuts.
IMO it's just that.
I've used mine (with the Hartke XL10) as a personal monitor on numerous gigs when I have had my way and gone straight to PA.
Nowadays our gigs are usually so loud and the overall monitoring is so inadequate that I have to rely on my big rig for everyone to hear the bass.
Regards
Sam
Huh, I actually like the stock speakers in the WorkingMan's series...they had a kind of unrefined midrange that's totally missing in the SWR Pro series speakers. And I preferred the cheap WM piezos to the wretched, scratchy bullet tweeters in the Pro cabs.
At lower volumes the WM combos worked very well for me on both electric & upright bass, which I can't say for many small combos of any era.
At lower volumes the WM combos worked very well for me on both electric & upright bass, which I can't say for many small combos of any era.
Just saw this thread revived. Since my original postI've used a number of other small combo amps. I still keep my (very old) WM10 in my office for prctice and students. I have to say, I still find when using this combo with a Sansamp to bypass the stock preamp, I still get compliments up the wazoo. Good is good, weather its seven years ago or now. I still like mine.
I'm working on getting a 1x10 extension cab for my WM10. Then maybe in a few weeks I can add a sansamp DI. I think that will make a nice mini stack!
Question- do you think a working pro 10 lightly used for $290 shipped is worth it? Does anybody like the working pro series as compared to the workingmans ?
You cannot add an extension speaker to the WorkingPro 10.
That is why I prefer my WM10.
Also, I use a Sadowsky preamp into the little SWR and the preamp really
Does make the amp sound much bigger. I used to have the extension cab too and both with the Sadowsky was plenty of rig for most stage applications. I don't really see the profit in changing the speaker. That stock Eminence handles the available power just fine.
Years ago I put an Eden cast frame driver in as an upgrade. I didn't dig it and put the stock speaker back in.
That is why I prefer my WM10.
Also, I use a Sadowsky preamp into the little SWR and the preamp really
Does make the amp sound much bigger. I used to have the extension cab too and both with the Sadowsky was plenty of rig for most stage applications. I don't really see the profit in changing the speaker. That stock Eminence handles the available power just fine.
Years ago I put an Eden cast frame driver in as an upgrade. I didn't dig it and put the stock speaker back in.
I really like the stock speaker. Had it for years now...To have an extra speaker cabinet for my old 80 watt workingman's 10, I made a copy of the swr 10 and put a 100 watt celestion BL10 in it. Of course the tuning can't be right, there's no amp in it.
But the celestial is really loud, The set gives a lot more low, and is stil punchy. Not as much as a 4x10 of course, but really nice.
The 10" celestions are really cheap in Europe.
For semi-acoustic performances, home practice my swr is good enough even without the extra speaker. I play a Spector and a Jazz, the stock speaker handles both wel.
For practice with drummer keys and loud guitarists i use a borrowed EDEN 4x10 combo, not as nice as you should think. shame i had to sell my pre-Fender redhead...
But the celestial is really loud, The set gives a lot more low, and is stil punchy. Not as much as a 4x10 of course, but really nice.
The 10" celestions are really cheap in Europe.
For semi-acoustic performances, home practice my swr is good enough even without the extra speaker. I play a Spector and a Jazz, the stock speaker handles both wel.
For practice with drummer keys and loud guitarists i use a borrowed EDEN 4x10 combo, not as nice as you should think. shame i had to sell my pre-Fender redhead...
Would it be possible to upgrade the WM10 internal amp for higher power? Right now it's 100 watts @ 4 ohms with the 8ohm extension cabinet. Could some components be upgraded to achieve more power? If some new caps and transformer were put in 200w that would be awesome!
Hi.
And people call putting a Deltalite II in there a waste of money.
That said, anything's posible.
The TDA chip based power amp is easily by-passable due to the borrowed-in circuitry and the availability of the WM10 schematics, so if the rail style (single/double) and the rail voltage match, it'd be as simple as "dropping in" a class-D module.
I haven't looked into that very deeply even though I do have a WM10 and a Hypex ucd180 that in theory could perform there, because doubling the amplifier power from ~100W to 200W is pretty much meaningless in a real world application.
The WM10 PS supplies +/- 41,6VDC un-reg and +/- 15VDC reg, and assuming it's about 200VA trafo in there as 100W class SS A/B's tend to be, it's plenty stiff since Hypex sells 120VA (which is way too small IMO) transformer for that module.
The ucd180 specs call for 30V min, 45V typ, 49V max, so it should work in WM10.
The specs call for unregulated supply so that wouldn't be a problem either.
The specs also call for 4700uF/rail filtering and the WM10 has 6800uF/rail, more than enough. In fact, some amplifier designs are rather finicky about the correct PS capacitance, so if anything, it should be lowered for the power amp supply rails and probably compensated for the +/-15V rails.
What I'd do If I felt the need to "Mesa Boogie" a practise amp for gits and shiggles if not anything else, is to put the ucd400 or eqvivalent there.
That'd make a more notable difference.
But it does require a whole new transformer that can supply the spec'd 57V typ.
Some modifications are probably needed for the regulated +/- 15V supply as well because the current circuit may not take the almost 20V/rail more without a gag.
Regards
Sam
And people call putting a Deltalite II in there a waste of money
.That said, anything's posible.
The TDA chip based power amp is easily by-passable due to the borrowed-in circuitry and the availability of the WM10 schematics, so if the rail style (single/double) and the rail voltage match, it'd be as simple as "dropping in" a class-D module.
I haven't looked into that very deeply even though I do have a WM10 and a Hypex ucd180 that in theory could perform there, because doubling the amplifier power from ~100W to 200W is pretty much meaningless in a real world application.
The WM10 PS supplies +/- 41,6VDC un-reg and +/- 15VDC reg, and assuming it's about 200VA trafo in there as 100W class SS A/B's tend to be, it's plenty stiff since Hypex sells 120VA (which is way too small IMO) transformer for that module.
The ucd180 specs call for 30V min, 45V typ, 49V max, so it should work in WM10.
The specs call for unregulated supply so that wouldn't be a problem either.
The specs also call for 4700uF/rail filtering and the WM10 has 6800uF/rail, more than enough. In fact, some amplifier designs are rather finicky about the correct PS capacitance, so if anything, it should be lowered for the power amp supply rails and probably compensated for the +/-15V rails.
What I'd do If I felt the need to "Mesa Boogie" a practise amp for gits and shiggles if not anything else, is to put the ucd400 or eqvivalent there.
That'd make a more notable difference.
But it does require a whole new transformer that can supply the spec'd 57V typ.
Some modifications are probably needed for the regulated +/- 15V supply as well because the current circuit may not take the almost 20V/rail more without a gag.
Regards
Sam
