Product: SWR SS-180
Price Paid: GBP 255 USED
Submitted
05/02/2007
at
01:01pm
by
edward
Features
:
7
This amp was only produced in 1986 so it will be that old. The controls are: high+low gain inputs, gain, limiter, aural enhancer, bass, then there's a 4 band EQ with low, low-mid, high-mid, high and a footswitch to control the EQ. Treble and master volume controls, then an on/off switch. The amp is 180 (hence, the name- ss180) the power amp is solid state and there is a 12ax7 tube in the preamp.
Sound Quality
:
8
Well for a start i don't think this amp is really that amazing in terms of features, the aural enhancer on full basically gives nice rounded mids when on full, but it just sounds a bit crap on anything else so i just have it on full. I don't have a footswitch for the EQ but it wouldn't be much use anyway, the only real use i could forsee with it is having a volume boost of a particular frequency but the bass and treble controls are so much more powerful then the EQ anyway it wouldn't work. so i just tend to have it on 1 setting. The setting, however, is good. I have the aural enhancer on full, the bass on about 8. low:6 Low mid:10 high mid:7 High:8 treble: 1 or 2. I do wish the EQ had more control of low end because if i have it on high (which i want) it's at the wrong frequency and it doesn't sound very good. so i have to have it down a bit, but it's still respectable. This amp gives out a lot of low end. A word of warning though is that this amp is not the type of amp you get today where you can just plug a peice of crap bass in and expect it to sound good. It really picks up the small nuances of any bass you put in and if you've got a good bass it will sound brilliant, if not it will sound crap.
Reliability
:
9
This amp must be reliable because it's 21 years old and still in full working order. SWR have always been about no-nonsense workhorse amps and this one's no exeption.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
never dealt with them but the website is good about finding out about stuff they don't make anymore.
Overall Rating
:
9
I've been playing for about 2 years and this is my second bass amp. I have a peavey basic 112, a columbus jazz bass copy and a peavey milenium BXP. I like the tone of it and the price (??255 with a 4X10 cab and a flightcase) I wish it had a boost or distortion so i could get a bit of versatility but, hey that's what pedals are for. If it were stolen or lost i would prolly get something else just because i don't buy the same stuff twice :P
