SWR SM-500

I bought mine used off Ebay, it's a 2001 I believe, for $550. I came very poorly packed, it was loose in a box! I was so pissed. Many of the knobs were bent and I carefully bent them back so they were straight. The underside was all scratched up and for some reason was missing screws, these screws are likely what scratched it.

So I was hesitant to plug it in and try it. I had an Eden 4x10 at the time (I now have an SWR Goliath III 4x10 and a Gol III 2x10). I set everything flat, turned it on and.... It worked perfectly. No really, abs. nothing wrong with it, everything worked like new.

Many of the features have been covered, so I'll just chime in on my opinions. I don't use the limiter. I wish it had a decent 4:1 compressor, even it it was just a 1 knob with fixed attack, release and ratio, but a knob for threshold, I would love it. I really like the EQ and bridged 500 Watts into 4 Ohms and 400 Watts into 8 ohms it does just fine in the power department.

I'm giving it an 8 mainly for the absence of a limiter.

With the Eq you can get a wide variety of clear or punchy/warm sounds. I can get a lot of low end, punchy mids, I can add or take away "clank" and I can add crystal clear high end. All good stuff. All it's missing is a more tubey, SVT sound. I swapped out the stock tube that comes with it and put in a warmer sounding GT Mullard re-issue tube and then send a hotter signal to the input to give me a little more tubey goodness. It's subtle but for $20 it's a very nice little upgrade to the tone.

Don't get me wrong I love the classic SVT, but it's a one trick pony in some ways. I can get a lot of awesome sounds out of this amp that work "in the mix" but it could use a little more tube complexity (which is subtle and can dissapear in the mix).

Ok, here we go. The design for cooling this amp is not very good. This amp has an opening in the rear to allow air in, and an opening on the side to let air out. There is NOT a fan right on these openings. There is instead a fan in the middle of the amp, that only kicks on when it's too late. By the time this really noisy fan kicks on, the amp is VERY hot. It also does a very poor job since it can swirl warm air around the case instead of taking the direct route of either pulling air directly from the intake or directly out the exhaust.

Again I've never had any problems but I didn't like how hot the amp got after a few loud rehearsals. So I got super quiet computer fans from Comp USA for $15 and mounted them such that they constantly and quietly move air through the amp. I can now run the amp at full tilt boogie all night and it doesn't even get warm now. The internal fan hasn't kicked on once since doing this! I built the side exhaust fan right into the case and I have a wall wart plugged into the power strip to power it.

So while I've never had any problems and I don't anticipate any, I'm giving it an 8 for the waste heat design flaw.

I did ask SWR a few questions about tubes and running 4 ohm bridged loads and they got right back to me. So they were helpful and timely.

I really like this amp and I got a killer deal on it. The only other amp on the planet I may consider is the SVT 6 Pro, which I haven't tried yet, but looks killer.

Probably made last year...
Versatility you say ? HELL YES !!! So pure !
I play in a loud metal fusion band... It suits my needs very well
For now I only play at the rehearsal place
Tube preamp really add colors to your sound

Using a Cort Curbow 4 with active electronics
I needed something that reached the ideal sound I am looking after
No noise... I think it's my shitty cab
No distortion whatsoever
Cannot understand why I think it's not loud enough... please tell me why : I am using a Behringer 4 ohm cab with a Yorkville 8 ohm but never both at the same time

For now I am not totally satisfied with the power

I have been playing for almost 17 years now, got few amps and tried many from Acoustic to Trace-Elliot
It it were stolen I'd trace the bad guy down and he should watch his butt
Compared it to Eden and it was the closest the sound could come
What cabs do you recommend ?

This amp has great features, as you can see from all of the other reviews. I got mine at a pawn shop, and as far as I could tell it had never been in a rack, and never heavily used. I use a madison 4 10 cabinet and an customized 18 cabinet, and this head pushes the 4 10 cabinet as hard you'd ever want to. It can push my whole stack if I want it to but I run a power amp on the 18 just for giggles.

I use two Ibanez BTB's, a four string 510E and a 5 string fretless. This head brings out the natural sound of my basses and I can get any sound that I want with it. I play heavy rock and reggae and this amp sounds awesome on everything I've tried to do.When I was trying out cabinets I'd take this head to different music stores because they never had heads that could match the sound of this one. I've gotten lots of comments on it, it makes me feel important. hehe

I've used it on quite a few gigs and ran it hard, and it's never shut down on me. I had a problem with the speaker on/off switch though, as it got stuck in the off position and I had to crack the head open and bypass that switch. I'm trying to get one from fender because they bought out SWR and I'm having trouble.

Fender bought out SWR, so I give fender a poopy rating. I hope the quality of SWR products doesn't suffer too much from this.

I've been playing for four years, and I'll stick with this amp as long as it lasts. If something ever happens to it I'll try to find another one, or the SM 900. These heads are awesome, I can't say enough about them.

12ax7 tube pre amp. on board limiter,on board aural exciter,on board transient treble effect,4 way parametric EQ,stereo power amps, stereo effects loop. the features ROCK on this amp. I can detect the differences right away, you dont have to cock your head to one side to hear the transparency control in effect, its immediate, I would call the combination of limiter,transients and eq, almost a BBE sonic maximizer, it makes a tighter tone like when you have a BBE running. *misses his BBE*
i A/B'd this amp with the same guitar and cabinet as a carvin r-1000
and this amp blows it away.

the immediate effect is one of clarity. i immediately noticed a huge difference in how much of your attack is audible with this amp vs the carvin r-1000, and my old ampeg svt IV pro, and this amp sounds like you have a really nice bass , even if you don't. (hehe)
I was using an american fender P, no active, 4 string.

only had it a few days, but i have the maintenance history and original sales receipts of this amp. it was purchased new in 2001 for 1100 dollars, exchanged for another head of the same type, and this head is the one I purchased used for 460.00 and tax.I have the original manual and the factory registration by serial number.

never used it, but I have a friend who had an SWR amp that someone tried to build a flourescent light tube into, and they baked the transformer. he got it repaired for a hundred dollars, which i find pretty reasonable for what some people charge for amp repair.

this is the best amp I've ever had, and I've had quite a few. Peavey solid state,Ampeg solid state, all tube, tube hybrid,Trace Elliott solid state,hartke solid/tube hybrid.

Well, as to my knowledge, my amp was built in 2000. The features include a 12AX7 pre-amp, aural enhancer, 4 band eq with frequency controls, dual 250 watt power amps, effects loop, etc. etc. This amp had just about everything you could possibly need, even a line-out for a tuner (even though you probably have a rack or floor tuner if you plan to drop $1000 + on this amp). I play in a modern rock/alternative band, and do some studio work when time permits. I have yet to encounter a situation where this bad boy wouldn't produce the sound needed for specific gigs. Now, I have read the other reviews on this page, and it seems most people actually bitch about how much power this thing kicks out. Why the hell? First off, headroom is probably the most important feature you could want aside from a good, warm sound and a nice,cold beer. And secondly, if you are over-driving your cabinets then you must either have it turned up too loud or have some of the EQ pushed too hard. Does this amp have everything you will realistically ever need? Yes (besides the cold beer). One thing though, the effects blend knob seems to weaken the signal when you mess with it, even though when you aren't running any effects through it. Wierd huh?

I play Warwick basses exclusively. So, as you can imagine, its a chore in itself to find a amplifier that doesn't sound good with one of those chunks of wood. My Streamer Stage I 5-string sounds wonderful through this amp. It has soapbar pick-ups, (which I don't care a whole lot for) but this amp is very forgiving. My Stage II basses have jazz-style pick-ups, and they sound increadible through this amp as well. I use finger-style, picks, slides, andything you can imagine. All of which are complimented by this amp. The fan, as I'm sure you have heard, is quite loud. This is because SWR builds they're professional grade equipment out of aluminum chassis. Aluminum helps transfer heat away from the vital components, therefore prolonging the life of the parts. Of course, this means the outside of the amp can get very hot, very quickly. Hence the monster fan that kicks on soon after powering everything up. This is not a problem live because of stage volume, and when you are recording the amp should be connected to a cabinet in a seperate room anyway. So, enjoy the loud fan and appreciate the fact that it will help your amp last for years. Also, it helps to mask the ringing in my ears. I prefer a more over-driven/fuzzy sound than this amp produces, so I run a Boss ODB-3 pedal on the front end. This amp sounds as warm as a 18 year old girl under the covers.

I have played about 250 shows over two years with this amplifier. It has only needed to be repaired once, and thats because I dropped it hard enough to break off one of the capacitors on the inside. For future reference, if you own this amp or go on to purchase it, crack it open and squeeze some rubber caulking in between the 4 capacitors. This should glue them togther and help keep them from breaking off. Now that I think about it, it did shut off a few times at one show, but thats because it was about 100 degrees in this club and the amp overheated.

My personal experience with SWR has always been very positive. Every time I call they answer any questions I have, and they have always sent replacement parts free of shipping (under warranty). The SM-500 has to have a special Speakon cable made especially for SWR in order to run bridged. The store I bought mine from had lost it (of course), but the folks at SWR sent me a new one no charge. I do hear that they tend to give actual repair shops a hard time. They usually want you to send it to them for repair, which is understandable. However, its not always viable.

I love this amp, it is a straight up 9 overall. The only thing I would change is that it need another 12AX7 or a EL84 in the pre-amp to make it growl a little more. I run it through a SWR Goliath III 4X10, and it is simply a great combo. If you can afford it, buy one. If you can't afford it, steal one from someone other than me.

I think the build date was 1999 for my amp; although, I didn't buy it until 2001. I found this out when I had to have a small repair made. It has plenty of features. Plenty of power. Almost too much for my Goliath Jr. II & Goliath III (I think I have the names of the cabinets correct (2x10s & 4x10s).

I use a Fender P-Bass and a Ken Smith 5-string and the amp handles both well. I play country, country-rock, blues, and classic rock. It was built for any of these styles. I read the other reviews and I guess I have to take some issue regarding the noise. It's a noisy amp in my opinion. The fan comes on frequently and is most audible. If you were doing any live recording, you would pick up the noise. For live play it doesn't really matter that much. It's a very bright amp and sometimes I get some pickup noise. Some of that could be a grounding issue. It's not bad, but it isn't that quiet...to me.

I had to have one repair done. The repair guy basically soldered a capacitor between two "somethings" so that I could use the direct line and not worry about harming the amp. There's a little "blurb" in the owner's manual that I saw AFTER having used the amp for awhile. It seems to be okay. I wish the amp had circuit breakers instead of fuses. Am I asking too much or being too picky? Perhaps.

I think the warranty is one year. The one capacitor I had installed cost me about $26. The folks at SWR actually sent it to the repair guy with instructions on what to do to make the repair. I thought that was nice.

I've had it a couple of years. I use it in my studio and out for larger gigs. It has plenty of punch. I have a Crate bass amp for smaller work and an SWR LA Serious 30-watt bass amp for those living room settings or front porch get togethers. I like SWR products, in general.

The SM-500 I have was built in 1999. I have being using this amp for almost two years now. I play classic rock and blues using either a 1968 Precision bass or 2001 Lakland 55-94. This amp handles these guitar with each. The 4 band eq with shelving Bass, Treble and transparency is very versatile, but I do find that I run pretty much flat, with a slight boost of the bass control. I run it into a a couple of cabinets (2x10 and single 15). The separate power amps work nicely for matching the levels of the cabinets. Occasionally I use it with an outboard effects unit and this works very well.

Definately has all the features (and more) that you need with the the bass.

This amp is EXTREMELY quiet with respect to added noise. Very HiFi and easy to dail in the tone required for the gig. The Aural exciter also adds a nice flavor by scooping out the mids. Absolutely killer clean, no unwanted distortion or coloration. Could be used for virtually any playing style.

This is the only area where I had problems. When I first started gigging with the amp, I run my cabinets in parallel (4 ohm load) with the SM500 set to bridge mode. After about 35 minutes into the first set the amp completely shut down. After about 15 seconds it came back to life. This happened a couple of times during the night. The next day I opened the amp and poked around but did not find anything apparent. I contacted SWR, but there support people had not heard of the problem. I contacted Mercury Magnetics (the maker of the power transformer) and asked them about the transformer that they supplied. I found out that the transformer is thermally protected and is designed to shutdown if the transformer gets too hot. They were aware of the problem as the earlier SM400's had a tendency to catch on fire due to overheating the transformers. Once this was learned, I switched my system to run my cabinets on separate channels and have had no problems since that time.

The only other item I kind of dislike, and this is not a reliability item is that the internal fan comes on pretty quickly, even when running at low volumes.

Overall I have contacted SWR a couple times in the last couple of years and in all cases have been happy with their response (except the transformer question). When I requested a schematic for the amp they responded quickly.

I would highly this amp, has great tone, light weight and can be VERY VERY LOUD. If it were to get stolen I would try to find another (or maybe step up to the SM900). When I was searching for amps, I tried virtually everything out there (Ashdown ABM, Hartke 3500 and 7000, Peavey and may others) this amp won out in the end, features price and power.

I just got it from E-bay today. Took to rehearsal and pactically blew my friends speakers out. You have to be VERY careful with this amp. Tons of power and a tone for just about every style you can think of thanks to the dual 250watt power amps, the 4 band parametric EQ (you can select the frequency and how much you cut or boost each one) and the shelving BASS, TREBLE and TRANSPARENCY controls. I do wish that it had a headphone jack, but this amp is made for the stage and really can go without for most situations. Probably the only feature that I will never use, other than the last 25% of the volume knob, is the effect loop. I've never really been into them, but SWR didn't make this amp just for me. The tube pre-amp really makes the front end warm and tight. If you play a solid state next to it, you can really tell how harsh the solid state is in comparison. Of course the solid state power amp gets you that clean Hi-Fi sound, so it's really the best of both worlds. Overall, this is a very feature packed head and fits my style nicely.

I'm using a Warrior 6-string fretless bass with Basslines pickups which gets a nice woody, but tight sound through the SWR. I did have to cut some of the mids, using the Aural Enfancer, but not too much tweaking was required to find a nice "mwah" fretless tone. The amp has no buzz at all unless you have bad wiring in your wall. Actually the first 5 minutes were spent in panic, due to a ton of 60 cycle hum, but there is a ground lift function that is activated by pulling out on the Line Out level knob on the back; this fixed the situation immediately and ran hum free for the rest of the night. SWR is well known for that Hi-Fi sound with deep bass and sparkling highs, but I really got some nice vintage tones also. Probaly the easiest way to do this is to mess with the Aural Enhancer. It's kind of like the MAGIC knob on this amp. I don't really know what it does, but just a quarter turn in either direction will get you a completely different sound. As I said before though, you need to be careful when driving speakers of a lower wattage with this amp. It is very loud and would probably do many a 700 or 800watt amps to shame. Very dangerous, but sound as good at high levels as at low - no audible break-up (until your speakers start on fire, I'm not joking!). The sound is tight and focused with much tweaking just wating to be done.

I've only had one day, but my other SWR (Workingman's 12) has been a tank, so I hope that this will be too.

They never returned my e-mails, but their website is full of stuff to answer most of you questions. Communication gets a 1 and the website gets a 10, so that figures out to be a....

Though a little expensive, this is a great amp with fantastic tones of all shapes and sizes with tons of power in one of the most cosmetically beautiful enclosures you can buy. You get what you pay for. I'm totally impressed. This is a true 10.

First of all I would like you all to know... that I just bought this amp today... so i am really pumped... but i took out to a gig.. and i love it. It has a nice eq that U specify any 4 freq. and boost or cut it. It has compression/limitor and nice little thing called a tranperency nop with seems to even out the low and the highs and make the about the same volume. it has speakon out. 500 watts. A ream tuner out. effects in and out. and EVERYTHING U could want short of effects.

WEll. I play a tobias with bartolini pick ups. I use the amp with a goliath III 4x10 cab. There is very little buz. And this amp and the best slap sound I have heard (very punchy, and it keep the low end solid) when I play my low B string it sound VERY clear even at lound volumes. my only draw back is... ITS VERY powerful... although my cab 750 watts... that 500 watts seem to overpower it at really hi volumes.

well. its worked for 1 gig so far. (hehehe)

n/a

I have been player for 15 years. I have gone through my share of amps. And this is the nicest one I have played or owned. I also own a hartke 3500 head and the swr smokes it. Over all, I LOVE THIS AMP!!!! if it was stolen... I would buy it again. I Honestly think this is the nicest amp money can buy... uless you want more power... but 500 watts through 8 ohms its plenty enough for me. hehe. My one complain is... DAMN this amp was very expensive. just my amp and cab set me back the price of old used car (around $2300 for both). It just unfair... They should make it more affordable to people with less financial status. So I give it a 9... actually no way. this amp is TOO great for a 9. I give it a....

its a 1999 that i run through a SWR goliath Senior (6 by 10)
4 eq slides plus bass and treble, gain, master volume, limiter, ect....
anoying transparancy knob that just ads crappy backround noise (keep it close to zero)
500 watts very loud
tube preamp / solid state power amp

the best amp fr slap style bass ive ever heard. Greap versitility in sound, from high, poppy slap sounds, to low end bass tones. I use a Spector bass that has active electronicts and bright sound. This is prolly best style of bass for amp, but i have played fender jazz basses through and gotten great tone. I play reaggae and blues infused clasic style rock. Great for all the sounds i need.

i havent had it long enough to make a good judjment, but it looks to be pretty tough

havent used. but website seems helpful

Great amp, kinda expensive, but worth it. Sounds great and is simple to use. SWR is in my opinion simply the best.