SWR Electric Blue

The SWR Electric Blue. Ever since I saw this little amp I was fascinated by it; the head section of the famed Baby Blue combo, contained in it's own head case with a removable front lid. Even when I didn't know the background of this amp I was quite taken with the concept of a compact head in its own case, compact and portable, what else is there after that? I ordered what I thought was the Baby Blue head, the head only version of the Baby Blue combo, the same thing minus the compact case. When I got it in I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had gotten an Electric Blue. I knew the store I ordered it from had one of each, but they sent me the other amp. I was initially worried about the head version I thought I was getting because of the knobs on the parametric EQ; this made me all the more happy for the mix up. So the Baby Blue head section: people consider this to be the best preamp that SWR ever created. The first experience I had with this amp was when I tried out a newer Baby Baby Blue combo in a store. I was blown away with the tones I could create, not to mention all of the features of the combo(speaker defeat, tilt back handle on the bottom, etc.). After that I was sold, I had to get my hands on one. I saved up all the money I could, and it seemed like the moment I had the money, the supply dried up. I must have looked around for a month or two at least. I had the money for a used Baby Blue combo, nowhere near enough for a newer model (I would never pay a grand for a 1-10 combo, not unless I had money to burn). I remember one friday night I was looking around on the internet and I found a Baby Blue head. I was looking more for a combo, but I knew that wasn't happening at the time. I purchased it and was blown away. I opened it up and suffice to say, what I found was nothing less than beautiful. When I bought it it was roughly 18 years old, and the inside of the amp was SPOTLESS. I couldn't say whether it was handmade/handwired/whatever, but it was done with high quality parts and it was very nicely done. Tube shield, Mercury Magnetics transformer, which is what all SWR's have, as far as I know. What you're getting when you buy this amp (head,combo, whichever), is essentially a very high quality studio amp, or a WAY too nice practice amp. Wish it was louder, but all I've ever used was an 8 ohm cab, never been able to try a 4 ohm, so this might not be much concern, but with a 15 piece jazz band unfortunately it just doesn't cut it. BUT, it's not called the Electric Blue studio reference system for nothing, it's meant for studio use or the like; most of what SWR has created has been centered around studio use (the Redhead combo, the PB-200, and on down the list). Wonderful EQ, love the EQ defeat feature, great for a/b-ing with a bass's preamp and the amp's EQ. Nice to have a tunable effects loop, as well as effects defeat. I understand a lot of people plug a CD player or similar into the return jack (the effects blend controls the return line level), and as I've never done this, I enjoy the prospect. Tuner out, nice to have, line out, nice to have, nice DI, all the usual controls there, couldn't ask for much more.

I remember the first time I plugged it in; I think the only thing I could think (I was rather speechless) was TONE, pure and simple. I don't think that I could ask for anything more concerning tone. I've always been more of a person to buy a bass over an amp, and SWR suits this trait quite well. I went into a music store once and tried an SVT-3 PRO, and I wasn't taken at all. The tone of that amp was very dark and full of low mids, the "Ampeg tone" I presume. This might be right for some people, but not for me, all players are not made the same, some create themselves the same as everyone else, but as a player who's mostly had Ampeg crammed down his throat, I've always looked for something different and better. As far as I can tell, there is no such thing as the "SWR tone". SWR seems to make their amps to bring out the bass's natural sound rather than color it's tone with it's own sound. As I am a player with many basses, I enjoy this, because every bass has it's own sound. This amp is perfect for my needs, maybe not for players who need someone else's tone, but I couldn't ask for anything else. Something I could complain about, unfortunately the way the effects loop is wired with the blend knob, the volume is cut slightly with the blend knob all the way up. this can very easily be remedied by either turning the blend to the 12 o'clock position, or by simply pulling the knob out, defeating the loop altogether. The amp is SUPER QUIET, clean sounding, and very transparent. It's exactly what I need, and anything else I would ever need, this I know.

I've never run the amp through it's paces, never really gigged with it, but I can confidently say, the components used, construction, and a good reputation by all of the other SWR units I own, this amp would not let me down.

E-mailed SWR once, never got a reply, haven't tried back yet, can't really say because the question was unrelated to this product, and not really concerning a fix anyway.

Overall, I can' find any problem with this amp. I usually run it through a different power amp, and it does fine. If I were to ever lose the amp or if it were ever stolen, I would probably search high and low for another one, and probably never find one. I'm very happy to have this amp, it's a very nice sounding amp, and a very nice piece of SWR history to have. I'd enjoy having a Baby Blue extention cab to run it through, but I've only ever seen one once, and I thought they were just a myth before that. I'll probably buy one of those new Aguilar Jack Cassidy cabs, with the two 8" and one 6.5" drivers. It's the closest thing one could get nowadays to owning an original Baby Blue combo or modularized system with the Baby Blue extention cab.