SWR Baby Blue II

This killer little combo has a 3-band parametric EQ, an aural enhancer, tube preamp & 160 watt solid state power amp. It has head phone & extension jacks and a very accurate direct out, 2 8" drivers and a tweeter. It has enough wattage for practice sessions & small clubs (with extension cab.) If it had another 100 watts I would use it for every gig I played. I mostly play rock & metal, and dabble at a few other styles, and this amp handles them all equally well. Every feature you need to sculpt your signature sound.

I have ownned dozens of amps over the years including Marshall, Ampeg, G.K., EBS and Fender, but this is hands-down the best sounding and most versatile amp I have ever played. This is the only amp that does justice to my Rickenbacker 4003 - no EQ or effects needed to get classic Geddy & Squire tones. This a clean machine - if you want dirt or fuzz, you'll need an external processor. It records wonderfully, sounds great through head phones, and the pre amp can be used to drive a high wattage power amp for larger venues.

I have owned it for 4 years now with no problems. It does tend to run a little hot, but SWR has an excellent reputation for reliability, and I believe this little wonder is going to last many years.

I have never had to contact SWR, so I can't really say...

I've been playing for 28 years. By basses include a Fender Geddy Lee Jazz Bass, a Spector Euro 4 LX, an Ernie Ball Music Man Stingray, a Hamer import 12-string and my baby, a Rickenbacker 4003. I love this amp because it allows the individual characteristics of each bass to come through, and it allows you to find YOUR personal voice. If it were lost or stolen, I'd look hard to fine another - they don't build them anymore. The New Baby Blue is the same amp, but uses a single 10" driver and does not sound quite as good at the 2x8" version. Highly recommended!

made in 05. most versatible amp i've ever used. i gig 3 to 4 time per week and this amp see all my smaller gigs. mostly blues and small bar rock. tons of features, tube pre, simi parametric eq. effects loop ( which is bypassable), active and passive inputs, aural enhancer (defeatible), effects blend (bypassable),gain control with clip indicator, master volume with clip indicator. you can even a/b the eq with a pull of the aural enhancer knob.the balanced out can be pre or post with pad and ground lift.it has an extension speaker out, head phone out, effects send and return, line out and tuner input. the speakers tweeter can be full on, -6db or turned off. 120 watts with enternal speaker and 160 with and extension. this is more than enough for most small to meduim gigs but is not loud enough for the big shows.

i use a roscoe 3005 and an american p bass most of the time. getting the sound you want is very easy using the 3 band simiparametric eq. it will do any style or sound you want. warmest sounding amp i have ever used but not a distortion maker. clean warm tube sound. an swr trade mark. very , very quiet, no hiss or humm.

i've been using this amp for the past year. no problems at all. i do push it to the limit and i do worry about how reliable it will be under the punishment i give it, really i turn it up till the clip lights light up and then back it down just a notch under . this amp gets HOT.

never had to deal with them

i've been playing for 30 years and this is the best sounding amp i've ever used. it is not loud enough for most gigs but in the studio the engineers eyes light up when i walk in with this one. i would get another one if this one were lost or stolen. i compared this amp side by side with the eden 1 10 combo, i bought this one. my big rig is a gk 800 rb with an assortment of speaker options. i also own an ashdown rig. the only thing i wish this amp had other than more power is the ability to unplug the internal speaker and use the amp alone with other cabs, the internal speaker is hard wired.

I think this amp was made in 2002. 160 watt (w/ internal speakers), 45 lbs. bass combo amp. 2x8, with 5"cone tweeter, one preamp tube. One channel. The amp is versatile enough for me, however, one could always want more (and sometimes less). My styles are classic rock, jam band and my originals -- kind of like singer-songwriter rock. The main features I wish it had that it doesn't are:

1) some onboard overdrive distortion (it actually is suppossed to be able to get some through its preamp tube, but even with a cranked Fatboost my Jazz bass didn't generate much overdrive back when I experimented with it about a year ago. Gave up on that and haven't tried it since.
2) regular passive tone controls in addition to the parametric eq. (or even a graphic equalizer Why? - simply because I'm mre familiar with them. Actually, I'm really happy with the sound and I can eq it how I want, so this is no biggie. It's just that [i]sometimes[/i] I've just wanted to reach for a regular ol' tone control. On the other hand, more tone knobs probably equal less tone, and the parametric EQ allows for very specific control).

I never use the Line Out (I use the balanced XLR out, usually in "Direct" mode), effects loop, headphone jack (I just turn down amd play quietly), or extension speaker (though I want to try this feature out in the future). I do use all the front controls and such, except for the active input (as I use passive basses). I've recently gone to an in-line tuner pedal (Strobostomp) and stopped using the tuner out, so that I can do silent tuning.

I like the Aural Enhancer/EQ defeat. First, the aural enhancer can be dialed in for a subtle improvement in tone, and the same knob can be pulled to instantly return the amp to a completely flat eq. Nice for getting back to ground zero.

Does it have enough power for me? This is aways the big question with portable combos, and I'd have to say, basically, "yes". It has the power to do what I intended it to do when I bought it. I was originally shopping for a home practice and recording amp that could do double dutie for jams and small gigs if it came to that. It has done exactly all of that for me. It's only 160 watts, so you can't seriously rock hard with it on its own. A loud drummer and screaming guitars would drown it out, but in more controlled volume situations (such as the "sensible" volumes used by the [classic rock cover] band of 40-somethings I ended up playing some bass in for a while), it does fine. Enough volume for small places where the band's volume isn't blowing people away. Enough for band practice if you practice at volumes that don't leave your ears ringing for hours afterwards. I've used a volume boost pedal to get just a little more out of it when we rocked a little harder 'n louder. Obviously it has its limits though -- it won't cover big, real loud, full on testosterone driven situations on its own (w/out PA, and maybe stage monitors).

I'm currently using a Fender MIM P upgraded w/ Fender Original '62 Precision Bass Pickups, CTS pots, orange drop cap and shielding. Before that I was using a Fender Traditional Series Jazz Bass. I'm using D'Addario Soft Guage roundwounds for strings. My bass style is kind of simplistic/fundamental, with some occassional fast runs thrown in. Fingerstyle or pick -- no slap.

As for tone -- Wow! That is, simply, why I bought this amp. It simply sounds delicious.

Now there are other good sounds. Many people love the tone of the Ampeg B100R, for example, but that amp sounds very different than the Baby Blue II. The Baby Blue II has great clarity, and the preamp tube serves to warm up the tone and add a bit of sponginess to the response. Warm, spongy notes of great clarity. With some nice pickups, it's actually a sensual pleasure to play each note [at those times when you think about such things].

So far, so good. I'd use it without a backup (who carries two bass amps?!), but I have a seperate DI for direct to a PA, if needed.

I've heard grumbles, but have no direct experience

I'm not the most experienced bass player, but I wrote this review because there has only been just the one review on this well-regarded amp here. I've owned the amp for a year and a half now, and have finally used it in a variety of situations (and have compared it to other amps), so I thought my thought might be worthwhile for someone. I've been playing bass to some extent for 3 years, but only playing bass in a more dedicated way for just this last year and a half (since just before getting the amp). I've been playing guitar for 20 years, and other instruments as a kid before that. I'm not a professional musician. I've now got some limited experience playing bass in a band, jamming with friends and doing home recordings (plus, of course, just messing around on my own). I consider myself primarily a guitarist (Les Paul, SG or Strat into a Tone King Comet 40A or a Laney LC-15), but have really been enjoying bass lately. If I lost it or had it stolen, I would hunt myself down and beat myself with the owner's manual for my stupidity for not keeping my eye on it better. Would I buy it again...Hmmm. It was expensive (imported to where I live), is now discontinued and would be a project to replace. Also, like most 100w-ish combos, it's sort of a 'tweener amp in that it's a hair large for super portability (and, at the price I paid, a hair precious for a throw 'n go practice amp), but it's a bit underpowered for a hard rocking band. I might be tempted to get a bigger rig (head and seperate cab), and just use that as my practice amp too. I'd check out the current Baby Baby Blue model. I'd like to check out some all tube heads, and some of the bigger SWR Professional Series heads. In other words, this is my first bass amp, so I might shop around a bit, but I would certainly gladly have another Baby Blue II. In fact, I keep my eye open for a second one, or for just either the head version or its matched cab.

The speakers are supposed to be modeled after studio reference monitors, and I also sometimes use the Baby Blue II at home as a monitor for my Korg D-16 portastudio and my Alesis DM Pro Kit (electronic drums). It serves really nicely in these alternative capacities for me. If I had another Baby Blue II, I could run 'em in stereo as a home PA! Or use them both for more sound on stage.

Anyway, enough musing. The amp was way over my budget, but after comparing it to various other combos (including various models by EBS, Hartke, Warwick, SWR Workingman's, Ampeg, Peavey and a few others), it was the clear winner for me (and my wife strongly agreed -- in fact, after hearing it, she strongly encouraged me to go for it even though, because of price, I wasn't really considering it for purchase!). I am, overall, really pleased with this purchase. There's just something a bit special about it that makes me happy, plus, from a purely utilitarian point of view, it has completely met every need I've had of it so far.

I love it, but I'll take one point off (so, a '9') because it was pretty expensive.

This is a very versatile amplifier which you can use for playing at small gigs, practices, and especially studio recording. It has a tube pre-amp which gives it a nice warm tone, with a solid state power section (120 watts into internal speaker). The speaker section has 2 custome 8" speakers, and a 5" ferr-fluid cone tweeter. The amp has a 3 band semi parametric EQ which I find makes the amp very versatile, though it takes a while to get used to. It isn't fun coming to a gig 5 minutes before it starts, and try to guess what frequencies would suit the venue! I play a lot of Jazz with upright, but I also play funk, and fusion with a 1967 Fender Precision. The parametrics give you the capability to control feedback well with the upright since you can fine tune frequencies much easier. The addition of 2 8" speakers makes the amp perfect for the upright since there isn't a ton of low end to cause feedback. With the electric, the parametrics give me pretty much unlimitted control over the sound of the instrument. The amp also has a nifty little feature called Aural enhancer which brings out more of the fundamental (less over tones) in your sound. The amp has an effects loop with a blend control over it. Pulling the knob out by-passes the effect. Pulling the Aural enhancer knob gives you flat EQ. It has a line out. It also has an extension speaker out, allowing it to push 160 watts in conjunction with the internal speaker. It's versatile!

I use a David Gage Realist pickup on both my uprights(both are german)
,and I have original "67" Fender Precision pickups on my electric. The amp fits my style perfectly, giving me a lot of warmth and clarity with my 2 uprights. It is very punchy due to the 2 8" speakers, and punches through drums well. It is perfect for small to medium venues. It is probably the cleanest most clear sounding amp I have used for upright. Through my precision, I can vary the sound from a warm blurry low to a crisp tight snap. The amp has a lot more low end than you might think from a pair of 8's. The amp does not distort until basically the knobs (gain and volume) are cranked. Since it only has 8's, it doesn't like extreamly high volumes, but I wouldn't use it anywhere that would require that. It does take a while to get used to parametrics, (I haven't mastered it!) but it is worth having. The range of sounds this amp can produce is outstanding for it's size.

I have had the amp for a little over a year, and I haven't had any problems. I know a lot of people who record with it, and I haven't heard anything bad. The tube does need to be replaced every few years though.

I own two other amps: and Ashdown C-110-300 (a very cool little amp!)
and a 1967 Ampeg B15N. Compared to the other two amps, I think that it is the most versatile. However, it doesn't have the smooth dark bassy sound of the Ampeg (what does!), or the power of the Ashdown (300 watts), but it has the best range of sounds between the two.I have had a couple of amps, and this is one of the nicer ones. It is a tough decision between this and the Gallien-Krueger MB for upright, but the SWR is more versatile. It would be nice if it had a little more power, but you can always stick on an extension speaker. The bottom line for me is that this is the best Acoustic upright amp available, and one of the best for recording.