SWR California Blonde II-- with problems

fnordlyone

fnordlyone

Jun 12, 2013
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south Louisiana
www.talkbass.com
#1
Hello, all!
Wouldn't you know it, I got a bit of GAS? I read a local cl:

"The reverb does not work. I got it to work for a while and then it stopped again. I am sure this can be fixed, I just do not have the tools nor the experience to attempt to do so. Also sometimes when you first turn the amp on you have to turn the volume up a bit to get it to kick on. Also probably not a complex fix. Anyway it sounds good for vocals, keyboard, guitar and I have even ran a bass through it a few times."

Then there are broken wing gestures by seller, and "I'll take best offer before Friday"--seems to live close to the college. Is the glib young person correct about the complexity of the fix?
thanks,
fnord!
 
#2
A good tech should be able to sort this out for you. I would start with a Fender service center first, as Fender was the owner of the brand.
 
#3
I once fell into two of these - both "pre-Fender" and both in essentially new condition. The amps are packed with features and offer a decent amount of power - although I think the rated power output has been essentially obsoleted by any of the contemporary production cabs. I did not have the extension cabs that were made for them. But you can disconnect the amps from the speakers and I ran one combo as the extension for the other. And, as appears the norm, the amps run hot, apparently using the entire chassis to wick heat away from the guts.

I found that both of them were unable to produce low B at even practice/den levels and both 'struggled' with and open E. Above E I thought the machines were pretty nice, but babying the E was just no fun for me.

I've found accounts here on TB wherein DB players praised them. But I - a pretty inexperienced learning player - concluded that these were not well suited for electric bass.

I contemplated mucking with back-engineering different drivers using the modelling programs talked about here on TB - but elected to buy what I really needed and get back to practicing the instrument. I sold and used the proceeds to buy Duke's Audiokinesis stuff and that has worked well. Im not mucking with soldering irons and screwdrivers and that leaves so much more time to tease out all the nuances of "Happy Trails to You." Good luck.
 
#5
fnordlyone said:
Thanks for the replies. I'm passing on it. I was only thinking of using a twanger through it, or some vocals. I'm just a sucker for old semi-broken gear at low prices. Fun to look at pretty toys.
fnord!
Click to expand...
How much of a sucker??? I might have a bridge available ;)
 
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