Acoustic Guitar Amplification

I have both an Epiphone PR-5 and Takamine NP65 C, with built in electronics. I have owned a couple of acoustic amps over the years to take advantage of the electronics. I prefer to use an amp even when plugging into the PA or house system as it provides control over the tone such as controlled through the pre-amp, eq and/or effects. A line-out feature is a must. 

The first acoustic amp I purchased was a Roland AC100.  I had picked it up used through craigslist in Toms River, NJ. Wheels had been added but otherwise it was all stock. It had seen little use and was covered all of its life. It appeared to have been stored in a basement and required some cleaning.

The AC100 has a, tri-amp configuration with two 25-watt amps powering two 5” speakers and one 50 amp powering one 12” speaker.   This configuration provides a wider frequency response to capture more of the nuances associated with an acoustic instument. The amp provides two channels, Roland’s famous chorus and reverb, and a 3 band EQ. Input include hi & lo impedance and controls are nicely laid out.  All these features drew me to it. I used it at church and in open air environment and it performed well but not admirably. It was loaded, well featured... but I was never satisfied with the tone.
I kept it for less than a year before moving on. It was resold on craigslist and I broke even. I was in some respects sorry to let the amp go. Its a good amp. But space is limited and when you have a better amp, this one would never be used. It left my hands in better condition than I received it.

Before the Roland, during and after, I had looked at Fender, Fishman, Marshall and others. I came across a few articles about the SWR California Blonde. Each article was very positive about its performance.

I discovered it was an acoustic amp made by what was predominately a  bass amp manufacturer. But the  features indicated someone at SWR really understood amplifying an acoustic instrument while giving the performer versatility in its setup and operation. I also discovered SWR had been sold to Fender in 2003. Experience and everything I read told me to look for a pre-Fender version (maybe 1999 or 2000). I started collecting serial #s information so that I could be certain to get one manufactured in the time frame I was interested.  Another important reason why I decided to go used was price. New amps were more than I wanted to spend.  I came across this California Blonde on craigslist. It was being sold by a young musician who had toured with it but had taken very good care of it. The price was just slightly higher then what I was thinking. I decided to take my guitar with me to test drive the amp The amp performed flawlessly. The minor blemish the seller indicated the amp had was so small was not worth mentioning. He would not budge on the price but I felt fortunate to have found a mint pre-Fender SWR. I paid his price and am so glad I got it!!

When I bought the SWR California Blonde, it had no cover. Over the years I have learned that a cover is the best investment for protecting an amp and it was the first thing I bought for it. As you can see from the pictures, the amp is oddly shaped and I could find no stock amp cover that was going to fit. I found a place in Michigan that would custom make a cover with quality materials and had plenty of options in color and piping. I took measurements and created a visio drawing of top/front and side views. The fit of the cover they made is slightly more loose than I would have liked but is very well made with very high quality material. (SWR Caifornia Bonde measurements). I am very pleased with the custom fit look and find the investment well worth the small investment. I have thought about having the cover custom air brushed or silk screened but have not come up with exactly what I should put on it.

I am thinking about the something like this...

I think that would be pretty cool. Someday...

It is a two channel, 120-watt amp with one 12" speaker and one high frequency supertweeter. This amp produces a crystal clear sound across the frequencies produced by my Takamine NP-65C. The sound is perfectly clear.
 






The front panel includes:

• Instrument Input Jack
• Stereo Input Jack
• Tuner Out Jack
• Balanced Mic Input Jack
• Gain Controls with LED Overload Indicator and Pull Phase
• Aural Enhancer Control (Channel 1)
• Bass Controls
• Mid Range Level Controls
• Treble Controls
• Effects Blend Controls
• Reverb Control
• Master Volume Control
• Power On/Off Switch

 The back panel includes:

• Line Fuse: 3A slo-blo
• A/C Power Cord Receptacle
• Stereo Headphones Jack
• Speaker On/Off Switch
• Effects Send Jacks
• Effects Return Jacks
• Balanced Line Out
• Line Out Jacks (Channel 1 or 2)
• Post-Reverb Return Jack
• Reverb Footswitch Jack

The Crossover Panel includes:

• Tweeter Attenuator Control
• Extension Speaker Out Jacks (SpeakonL and 1/4")
  
  

Here is a copy of the manual SWR California Blonde Manual where you can read about the many capabilities including stereo, out of phase, configuring channel one to bypass reverb while leaving it on channel two and much more. Simply an amazing amp that sounds absolutely fantastic.