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SWR Interstellar Overdrive


djpb

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I worked on the development of this product in 1993. I haven't seen anything recently posted about it. Has everyone tossed them out or are players still using them?

 

If there are still people using them, are they interested in mods? There were a few things I would have changed about that design.

 

Don

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I used to have one, and liked it, but ultimately stopped using a pre/power amp setup and had no use for a 5 watt practice amp, so when I had the chance to make a few $ on it I sold it. I think it was at its best as a tiny practice amp - the distortion was fine, but it sounded wonderful with all of my basses powering a 1X10 cabinet. Still have fond memories, and probably would have kept it if the preamp features were all useable while using it as an amp by itself.

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I had one for a couple months and ended up getting rid of it because it didn't work well with the cabs I had at the time (Acmes). It was a nice preamp and had some decent tones in it, but I just couldn't make it cut well enough with the Acme cabs. I'd love to try it again with some more aggressive sounding cabs and see if I could get a sweet gritty tone out of it.

 

I would have liked to see a more flexible preamp and maybe some extra gain on the output for driving finicky power amps like QSC ones. And it would have been nice to be able to use the EQ and overdrive while using the unit as a practice amp.

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  • 4 years later...
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My first post here... I hope I don't get off to a bad start by resurrecting a zombie thread!

I just picked up a used Stella, found the schematic for it, and I'm looking for ways to get the best out of it. I've already done a little tube rolling - an old Mullard 12AX7 (in unknown condition) improved it a bit, and as soon as I dig out some EL84s I'll try swapping them too.

I'd be interested in hearing about anyone's experience with one of these, the possible mods, advice on bias adjustment, etc.

 

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  • 3 months later...
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Maybe i experiment with it more than actually use it,  and always keen to hear ideas to improve.

Would be great to hear of your mod ideas.

What about the MiniMo... any mod ideas there? Change distortion  diode configuration to get rid of the fizzyness?

How about the best way to interface the two? IO in one of the MMo Fx loops? In series with one channel????etc.

Apologies for abruptness, but chuffed to hear about someone who might know something worthwhile about these units.

 

I currently run the following in 'recording and live' situations:

SWR MiniMo + MoController

SWR Interstellar overdrive orig blueface

SWR Sm900 prefender

Marshall DBS 7400 heads (3)

Trace Elliott HexaValve Head

Marshall 9200 stereo valve head

SWR Triad

Marshall DBS 7210

Marshall DBS 7212 (2)

Marshall DBS 7115

Mesa Engineering 2x10

Mesa Engineering 4x10

Mesa Engineering 1x15

Lotsa Other Stuff....

Cheers..

 

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