Ibanez SW65 Sound Wave

65 watt bass amp, 12" speaker and tweeter. The usual tone adjustment knobs plus gain, presence and volume. A boost button for extra volume (really works), a headphone jack and RCA stereo inputs for external audio source.

This amp is very suitable for practice, for learning material, plug in your CD player and jam along, use your headphone for privacy. The sound is very good. Not a boomy traditional bass amp, but clean lows and highs. It cranks fairly loud, you could rehearse with it and play small venues, depending on the style of music. Heavy metal or high energy rock forget it. Coffee house or small jazz lounge, perfect. I have several 4 string basses with passive pick-ups. It sounds OK, but nothing spectacular. But plug in my Ibanez 6 string with active electronics and this little baby shines ! The limiter kicks in pretty quick if you crank it but it does a good job keeping the sound clean.

So far so good, solid well made amp.

No experience with Ibanez.

I use a full size stage rig for paying jobs. This amp will not replace that, but for it's purpose, practice/rehearsal easy to carry around, knock-about, reasonable price, it is an excellent value.

As everyone else said. I dont want to repeat myself.

Heres where I am different. And yes I have always done this. I play a guitar through it. I love the way a ghuitar sounds through a bass amp. It has that deep throaty sound to it. I play a Gibson SG and an Ibanez RG370. Sounds great. I crank the distortion on and bam it goes right along. Doesnt like gain with the more distorted pedals. But i live.

Seems tough. No problems

Great amp.For the price you cant beat it. I have always used a bass amp for guitar. Had a Case before. it sucks balls compared to this amp. If stolen I would buy it again.

This is a 2003 model, bought to replace a Fender Bassman 60 that was stolen from our church. This is your basic bass amp, with tilt back cabinet. It uses a 12 inch bass driver with a pizzo tweeter. It has one input with a 10db push button to allow for passive or active pickups. Controls are; Gain, Bass, Middle, Treble, Presence, and Volume. The tone and presence controls are neutural at 12 o'clock positon then can be set for + or - 15db................ There is also a cd input with RCA jacks, a line out, and headphone jack all on the front panel. On the back is a speaker out jack, but the internal speaker is plugged into that, plus effects send and return jacks. More features than most amps in this price range.

Okay, remember this Ibanez amp was only $230, with that in mind, one cannot expect a lot of sound. I have been playing bass, guitar, and keyboards for about 40 years and have had dozens of different amps, Fenders, Ampegs, Peavey's, when gigging now I am using a Peavey Mark IV with a monster cabinet with an 18" inch black widow and two 10" scorpians. Lots of sound but muddy, don't get me started. I have played everything from classic 50's and 60's rock, to country, jazz, and blues. But, for the Christian pop and worship music I am playing with the church the little Ibanez is okay. Like I said earlier, it was bought to replace a stolen Fender Bassman 60. The Fender had great bottom end punch and little on the high end. (not sure the tweeter was ever working in the Fender?) and the Ibanez is the exact opposie, lots of high end but not much on the bottom. You can crank the lows and mids up but doing so just flattens out the speaker so what is the point? But, for the lower volumes we play at church (small building, 150 seats) it is adequate. They were always telling me to turn down with the Fender but not so with the Ibanez. It just does not carry the room the way the Fender did, less boomy, just does not have the presence of the stolen Fender amp. But for what they paid for it, it is "okay" it will work well enough, just not great.

Sorry, cannot say much about the reliabilty as yet, give me a few months or a year and then we will see. My longest lasting amps were always Fenders, had a Fender bandmaster fall out of the band trailer at about 60 miles per hour. Pretty scuffed up, but only one tube fell out and when put back, it still worked that night. And my Peavey is about 20 years old, and has never failed with lots of abuse. If the Ibanez is as good as those, it will be great.

The amp was bought from a local store and I have not had to call customer support so far. I will let you know if I do. I think it has a one year guarantee from Ibanez. Bought from Ted Brown Music in Silverdale, Washington, a very musician friendly store with great people.

Like I said, been playing for over 40 years, mostly with Fender basses and guitars, though i have to admit, the best bass I ever played was of all things a Mosrite from the sixties, that and an old Gibson of the same vintage. I have owned everything from a 1957 precision to my five year old jass bass, plus a couple of different Peavey's, even an old St. George if anyone remembers those. I think I sold that for $25 to a student. Would like to have it back actually. I did not have much say in the purchase of this amp, my choice was an Ampeg B50R butthey did not have that much money so........ If this one were to get stolen, I would push really hard for an Ampeg, and then a room with a steel door and better locks.

It has everything a bass amp should, even things bass
amps don't normaly have like a cd input and a limiter
that is always on.

I bought this amp mainly for solo practice and rehersals
with my band. I have to set the gain and volume on ten
Just to be able to be heard over the drums, and a small
amp cranked to the limit usualy sounds like sh*t.This
is no exception. Sounds fine at bedroom levels, but put
it next to some drums and you might as well have not
shown up to practice. unbearable high end (fries are up).
It's not like I'm taking it to an Iron Maiden rehersal either.
We play jazz and blues. Pathetic amp!

I don't know. I've only had it two weeks and it's going
back to the store pronto!

see above

Good for bedroom practice, but that's it.

65 Watts (into 4 Ohms ?)
Tilt-back
Closed back, front 2 1/4" port
12" speaker with piezo tweeter

Bass, middle, treble, and presence controls
100Hz, 600Hz, 4KHz, 9.4KHz

Limiter with LED (always on)
10bD input pad
Master Volume
CD inputs
Headphone out
Line out
Effects send and return
Speaker in/out connector

I tried it out at the store with an Ibanez bass and it was solid on
the lows at full volume. It was hard to get the limiter to kick
in and the 12" speaker flattened out on the low E but didn't
get quiet. Cranking the presence added some hiss and seems to
just control the piezo so reducing it took out the "slap"
highs but little else. Very uniform. I've been using it
with my Telecaster while it burns in and it's not a bad jazz amp.
Setting the controls centered, it's quite neutral with a rich
bass and good volume. Should be good for keyboards, especially
for just $213!

It's brand new, I'm burning it in now. With the
built-in always on limiter, it seems that it
would be hard to distort or abuse.

Defects and workmanship: 5 years
Speaker : 1 year

I bought at Sam Ash in Buffalo Grove, IL
and they had a liberal return policy. The
manual is a bit sparse and the web site
doesn't help with anything.

I compared this to a Fender 65W with 12" speaker for $368 and this
was a smoking deal at $213. Similar features and seemed to weigh a
bit more than the Fender. The Fender had a switchable limiter and
a built-in aural control but was very similar in sound and power.
I'd have to spend more time to find something the Fender was $155
better at. I bought it as a first bass amp for my son and it needs to be rugged and keep up with the drums. Might be the best $213 bass amp
on the market. ?!

I've listed this bass amp under synths because keyboardists are often called on to play a bass line from a synth. I have designed a strap on 3 1/3rd synth bass for left hand to supply the acoustic bass sound for my piano students. I shopped for a low cost light weight unit and chose the Ibanez over other units. It has a 12" speaker and enough power for a walking bass type sound. I was surprised to find that I needed to take the headphone out from a Yamaha TX81Z tyo avoid using the preamp boost. The module is already a line level unit yet I needed the extra boost from the headphone out. I found that the mid setting on the amp combo was very useful when I needed to have a more cutting sound in a noisy room. I use the unit for private parties in large homes. The SW65 is fairly easy to carry with a handle but manufacturers should find another design for handles or straps. The unit rocked on it's angled platform in the back of my wagon and I was surprised how tippy a tilt back design can be. It perhaps should be loaded side down.

Since the amp was priced at $220 at Sam Ash I don't expect too much construction integrity. The "literature" that accompanied the combo amp was perhaps purposely minimal.

Is everything made in China today? Ibanez address is about 40 miles from my place so I may take a drive there to see just what exactly is "done" stateside. Maybe there is only a crew stateside to slap on shipping labels on the box?

So far it is servicable. The acoustic upright sound is not a "cutting" sound and my custom TX81Z patches need the 65 watts for modest levels. I had considered the 10" 35 watt model but felt it would not deliver an adequate level. I did try the unit with other synth sounds and it was super loud. Again I stress that an unmiked plucked acoustic upright string bass doesn't have alot of cutting timbre and my patches also need the 65 watts to blend effectively with grand pianos on jobs. If one had an actual upright bass a 35 watt combo amp would be enough additional reinforcement. With only a synth module you'll need the SW65. I hope more user comments will follow from those who supply bass parts and are experimenting with combo amps.