Members Jonny Five Posted August 10, 2005 Members Posted August 10, 2005 Specifically, the 350x. Anyone play one? I'll prolly go to guitarcenter or sam ash and fotch around a bit with 'em, but advance reviews/opinions from forumites are always helpful.
Members sludgebass69 Posted August 10, 2005 Members Posted August 10, 2005 Yep, I like mine. Don't get much overdriven sound, but get a good full clean sound. The Sub-wave effect is usable, how low you can play using it depends on your speakers. Knock on wood, I've never had a problem, even driving it pretty good down to 2 ohms for gigs. Mine is rated down to 2 ohms (450 watts) where I see they don't rate them below 4 ohms anymore.
Members bville Posted August 10, 2005 Members Posted August 10, 2005 Be careful with SWR "X" series of amps. They have a nasty habit of developing transformer hum problems. I had to get rid of my 550x for that reason.
Members ARES Posted August 10, 2005 Members Posted August 10, 2005 love my 350x, have had it for over 3 years now. sounds great no matter what tone you dial in, even leaving it flat sounds good. it heats up a bit but i've had no problems thusfar, and i frequently hit the power amp limit. only noise is the fan (which is pretty much always on when playing in a band situation), but it's not very loud and doesn't cause any interference. only complaint is it doesn't like to overdrive, but then again 95% of the time that's a good thing. mine is rated to 2 ohms as well, and yeah i noticed they rate them only down to 4 now. mine was purchased before fender bought swr, not sure if that has anything to do with it.
Members sludgebass69 Posted August 10, 2005 Members Posted August 10, 2005 Originally posted by ARES love my 350x, have had it for over 3 years now. sounds great no matter what tone you dial in, even leaving it flat sounds good. it heats up a bit but i've had no problems thusfar, and i frequently hit the power amp limit. only noise is the fan (which is pretty much always on when playing in a band situation), but it's not very loud and doesn't cause any interference. only complaint is it doesn't like to overdrive, but then again 95% of the time that's a good thing.mine is rated to 2 ohms as well, and yeah i noticed they rate them only down to 4 now. mine was purchased before fender bought swr, not sure if that has anything to do with it. Mine is pre-Fender also, so maybe that's it. As for the heat, SWR claims to use the case as part of the heat sink, and it is suppose to get hot on the outside to help dissipate the heat.
Members Jonny Five Posted August 10, 2005 Author Members Posted August 10, 2005 Do any of you guys know the changes made after fender acquired SWR, or played through a fender SWR?
Members bville Posted August 10, 2005 Members Posted August 10, 2005 Originally posted by Jonny Five Do any of you guys know the changes made after fender acquired SWR, or played through a fender SWR? My 550x was a Fender product. The thing sounded very good for about three months and then started craping out. After doing some research I found out that Fender SWRs, specifially the X series, have been plagued by problems. (check out some of the reviews for the 550x and 750x). Some claim that Fender doens't have the same strict quality control that the SWR company had.
Members ARES Posted August 10, 2005 Members Posted August 10, 2005 Originally posted by sludgebass69 As for the heat, SWR claims to use the case as part of the heat sink, and it is suppose to get hot on the outside to help dissipate the heat. yeah. i started to mention that in my initial post, then didn't for whatever reason. Originally posted by bville Some claim that Fender doens't have the same strict quality control that the SWR company had. you know, i don't get it. when did fender go wrong? the newest i had played until a few months ago was my p, a 1996. i've played a ton of new ones lately and they all blew, even the expensive ones! old fenders though, that's some sweet stuff. i have a new swr la12 combo amp that i like, but i've only had it about a month so i don't know if there will be any problems with it yet. thing was made in indonesia, wtf.
Members Subsonicbass Posted August 10, 2005 Members Posted August 10, 2005 Originally posted by ARES when did fender go wrong? Around January of 1965, when Fender was sold to the CBS Corporation.
Members bville Posted August 10, 2005 Members Posted August 10, 2005 Originally posted by Subsonicbass Around January of 1965, when Fender was sold to the CBS Corporation. The ironic thing is that when Fender finally broke free from CBS in '85, the group of investors and employees that took control claimed they were on a mission to restore the company to the glory of years gone by, but they were quickly consumed by the need to squeeze every penny out of the Fender name (ever heard of Fender slippers, tennis shoes? They are out there).
Members Jonny Five Posted August 10, 2005 Author Members Posted August 10, 2005 Originally posted by bville The ironic thing is that when Fender finally broke free from CBS in '85, the group of investors and employees that took control claimed they were on a mission to restore the company to the glory of years gone by, but they were quickly consumed by the need to squeeze every penny out of the Fender name (ever heard of Fender slippers, tennis shoes? They are out there). http://www.zappos.com/n/p/p/7161012.html Apparently, shoes are still doing ok
Members megadan Posted August 10, 2005 Members Posted August 10, 2005 I have the model before that, the SWR 350. it is an excellent amp, very tough, loud enough even at only 8 ohms, and a good tone with the EQ set flat. Like others have said, it doesn't overdrive too much, but I still get a great tone with the gain and master volume at about 1 o'clock. My only compaint is that it lacks a huge amount of headroom, you can get the volume you need but you can't get much more. It seems like the amp is very quiet, going from 8 or 9 o'clock to 12 or 1 o'clock on the master volume does not inspire wall shaking, as I might like... it seems the gain knob does much more to bring up volume that the master... though I suppose that is a feature and not a bug Over all though, it's defintly an amp I will keep around for a very long time. I will try other amps in the meantime in the quest for that sound in my head, but I bought this amp as an investment , and I intend to use it for a long time. It does run quite hot, but as others have said, that is, again, a feature not a bug
Members Jonny Five Posted August 10, 2005 Author Members Posted August 10, 2005 Here's another question: what's the deal with the Red Face? Is it different from the regular besides the purty colors?
Members sunburstbasser Posted August 10, 2005 Members Posted August 10, 2005 Originally posted by Jonny Five Here's another question: what's the deal with the Red Face? Is it different from the regular besides the purty colors? The Red Head combo? Its a different amp altogether I think. Tonewise, dozens of people at NAMM had SWR, and a guy in a band I worked for a few weeks ago was running a 750x through two Goliath IIIs. Sounded AWESOME. I didn't hear one bad tone out of SWR amps at NAMM either.
Members ARES Posted August 10, 2005 Members Posted August 10, 2005 Originally posted by Jonny Five Here's another question: what's the deal with the Red Face? Is it different from the regular besides the purty colors? i thought you meant the redhead as well, but swrsound.com has two seperate manuals for the bass 350, one for chrome, one for red. i have no idea of the differences.
Members Worf101 Posted August 10, 2005 Members Posted August 10, 2005 It was my main rig till I started realizing I needed more head room then it could deliver sooooo out went the 350 and in came the Mesa Boogie Mpulse 600. Mated with my SWR 2-10 and 1-15 bottoms I get sweet sound. Don't realy miss the red head too much, and am kinda glad since they wouldn't honor the warranty on my old gear... Da Worfster
Members sludgebass69 Posted August 10, 2005 Members Posted August 10, 2005 Originally posted by The Ox Bippity bop bop CLANK! right.....
Members T. Alan Smith Posted August 10, 2005 Members Posted August 10, 2005 The red faced 350 is an SWR Engineering manufactured product, made back when Steve Rabe was in control.
Members bbl Posted August 10, 2005 Members Posted August 10, 2005 I'm jonesin' for a Megoliath. Then when I get one, I'll jones for another one, a la JoJo Garza from a show I attended last Sunday night:
Members sunburstbasser Posted August 10, 2005 Members Posted August 10, 2005 Must have been a killer show! LLB knows how to put on a performance!
Members Kaesh Posted August 11, 2005 Members Posted August 11, 2005 Originally posted by bville The ironic thing is that when Fender finally broke free from CBS in '85, the group of investors and employees that took control claimed they were on a mission to restore the company to the glory of years gone by, but they were quickly consumed by the need to squeeze every penny out of the Fender name (ever heard of Fender slippers, tennis shoes? They are out there). 81-85 are the worst Fender years for a reason. As far as current times go. I guess we'll have to wait. Fender has been making really great stuff again (since about 2003) while SWR has been going down for a few years already (it was bought out for a reason ).
Members sunburstbasser Posted August 11, 2005 Members Posted August 11, 2005 SWR and Eden both lost a lot of revenue when Mars Music disappeared. I guess Mars didn't pay back a lot of companies when they closed their doors, and SWR and Eden both took major hits. They had to sell their names or disappear completely. At least, thats one theory thats been proposed to me.
Members bbl Posted August 11, 2005 Members Posted August 11, 2005 Originally posted by sunburstbasser Must have been a killer show! LLB knows how to put on a performance! Oh, it was. But they were tame compared to the Black Crowes, who I saw the night before! THAT was a show (and they're making a DVD). Yes, Kate was there.
Members sunburstbasser Posted August 11, 2005 Members Posted August 11, 2005 Originally posted by bbl Oh, it was. But they were tame compared to the Black Crowes, who I saw the night before! THAT was a show (and they're making a DVD). Yes, Kate was there. I saw the Black Crowes about a month ago, and thought they were rather tame compared to Robert Randolph (who went on before). Course, it was hot enough that day that I don't blame them.
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