Well, my Swart AST Pro has arrived. Picked it up in NY yesterday AM and spent the afternoon playing it in tandem with the Tone King Meteor.
It's pretty much as advertised - good reverb and trem, not much headroom, a base tone that's woody/smokey, very much in the Fender tweed camp.
I started by replacing the stock tubes with NOS across the board. Stuck with a 5AR4 rectifier and 6V6GT's. It wasn't long before I pulled the 6V6's for a pair of NOS Tung Sol 5881's (lower power 6L6's). That added a little more headroom but still not too much, and I dialed it in from there, fussing with settings and inputs as I went along.
You really have to work to get nice clean tones at any kind of volume. My go to pedal combo to emulate Blackface cleans is the Keeley Java Boost -> Catalinbread Silver Kiss, and it usually works incredibly well, but less so here. This little amp just wants to overdrive, and I quickly discovered that it's best to just let it go, that's where the real magic is.
The Swart really excels when it comes to crunchy rhythms and soaring leads. The sustain is effortless, it's just a matter of getting the high end dialed in just right, which I'm finding a little tricky at times (some interactivity going on here, I think). It responds well to all three pickup positions of my G&L Bluesboy, and every pedal I threw at it (the Greer Ghetto Stomp is an especially good match). It's a ton of fun to play when you're rocking out.
The sound is surprisingly big for a 1x12 in such a small enclosure, but the overall tonality is still a little boxy (one of the main knocks against the original AST). It's not so much noticable on its own, but became quite evident when I switched over to the Meteor sitting beside it. It's simply no contest - the Meteor sounds huge and far more open in comparison. Likewise, the much heralded Swart reverb doesn't hold a candle to the TK, though the trem fares much better head to head.
Comparisons aside, these two amps sound fantastic together, either seperately for rhythm and lead, or together. Running the Meteor clean or with just a bit of grit with the Swart overdriiving beside it sounds glorious, especially for edge of break up rhythm stuff.
Those are just first impressions based on a couple hours of play time, and there's lots of experimenting left to do. I'd like to try the 6V6's again, but this time matched with a 5Y3 rectifier (the traditional Tweed Deluxe setup). I have a 5751 sitting in V1, and may try another in V2 to see if that provides more headroom and open things up a little more. I also want to try the amp up off the floor where it has more room to breathe, and upstairs where there are more reflective surfaces to see how it sounds in that environment (I'm hoping to use it at kitchen and deck parties, which may also require a Swart Night Light attenuator).
The idea behind getting the Swart was as a very portable grab and go with onboard reverb and trem, and as a lead amp to complement the TK. It will certainly fill the bill as the latter, and I'm pretty sure that it will be well suited to the former as well.
It's pretty much as advertised - good reverb and trem, not much headroom, a base tone that's woody/smokey, very much in the Fender tweed camp.
I started by replacing the stock tubes with NOS across the board. Stuck with a 5AR4 rectifier and 6V6GT's. It wasn't long before I pulled the 6V6's for a pair of NOS Tung Sol 5881's (lower power 6L6's). That added a little more headroom but still not too much, and I dialed it in from there, fussing with settings and inputs as I went along.
You really have to work to get nice clean tones at any kind of volume. My go to pedal combo to emulate Blackface cleans is the Keeley Java Boost -> Catalinbread Silver Kiss, and it usually works incredibly well, but less so here. This little amp just wants to overdrive, and I quickly discovered that it's best to just let it go, that's where the real magic is.
The Swart really excels when it comes to crunchy rhythms and soaring leads. The sustain is effortless, it's just a matter of getting the high end dialed in just right, which I'm finding a little tricky at times (some interactivity going on here, I think). It responds well to all three pickup positions of my G&L Bluesboy, and every pedal I threw at it (the Greer Ghetto Stomp is an especially good match). It's a ton of fun to play when you're rocking out.
The sound is surprisingly big for a 1x12 in such a small enclosure, but the overall tonality is still a little boxy (one of the main knocks against the original AST). It's not so much noticable on its own, but became quite evident when I switched over to the Meteor sitting beside it. It's simply no contest - the Meteor sounds huge and far more open in comparison. Likewise, the much heralded Swart reverb doesn't hold a candle to the TK, though the trem fares much better head to head.
Comparisons aside, these two amps sound fantastic together, either seperately for rhythm and lead, or together. Running the Meteor clean or with just a bit of grit with the Swart overdriiving beside it sounds glorious, especially for edge of break up rhythm stuff.
Those are just first impressions based on a couple hours of play time, and there's lots of experimenting left to do. I'd like to try the 6V6's again, but this time matched with a 5Y3 rectifier (the traditional Tweed Deluxe setup). I have a 5751 sitting in V1, and may try another in V2 to see if that provides more headroom and open things up a little more. I also want to try the amp up off the floor where it has more room to breathe, and upstairs where there are more reflective surfaces to see how it sounds in that environment (I'm hoping to use it at kitchen and deck parties, which may also require a Swart Night Light attenuator).
The idea behind getting the Swart was as a very portable grab and go with onboard reverb and trem, and as a lead amp to complement the TK. It will certainly fill the bill as the latter, and I'm pretty sure that it will be well suited to the former as well.
4 comments:
Here goes the neighbourhood!
does this one go to 10 or 11?
11, of course! It's one louder, innit?
Nice write-up, bro!
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