Ibanez Review: SW35 Soundwave Bass Amp

History:

Purchase: Bought the SW35 at a typical music store in KL, Malaysia for roughly USD180. It's probably cheaper now as it's getting old and they'll want to phase it out.

What I Like About This Ibanez SW35 Soundwave Bass Amp: Truth be told, this is not a monster - 35 Watts will only get you so far, but I really like it. Its volume level is fine for home practice or small or even medium gigs (if you can stand the hiss - see below). The CD-in and line out are nothing to scream about, but nice to have anyway, as is the blue lights for the limiter and power switches. Also, there's a 10dB boost switch for your pleasure. Soundwise, I really like this amp. It's got a very nice crisp sound to it. Whilst it does not reach deep into the bass of whatever your bas can produce, especially if you have a five-string, the mids and trebles are definitely clearly defined. The addition of the tweeter in the middle is what does it for me. In addition, you can also use this as an accoustic guitar amp. A cheap and good accoustic guitar amp. Because of the clear bass (duh) and tweeter speakers, your accoustic (mine's plugged in via a Dean Markley Pro Mag) is going to sound beautiful. I like to use the 10dB boost switch here because it adds a little more body to the tone.

What I Do NOT Like About The Ibanez SW35 Soundwave Bass Amp: The only thing I'm really dissappointed with in this amp is the slight hiss that you can hear if you really turn up the volume. It gets louder too if you turn up Treble and Prescence, so i usually leave those flat(at 5) and use the active EQ on my ass instead. I suspect that it may be because of dirty power, but I haven't had a chance to check that up. A small niggling detail that bugs me is the fact that I can't get the limiter to cut in no matter how loud I push the volumes. This is probably due in part to my bass having a slightly quiet output. Therefore, I wasn't able to review the limiter function, and personally for me it is a bit of a wasted feature.

Ibanez SW35 Soundwave Bass Amp Quality Rating: The unit is built pretty sturdy, but with plastic edge protectors instead of metal though. Still, they do the trick for me. I often transport this in my car boot, and the way I drive leaves it lying in all manner of different positions by the time I arrive, yet the amp still looks and sounds fine. The amp also features a tilt-back design, so you can point it at your head instead of waiting for your sound to traverse the room and bounce back to you to hear it. As for the mesh in front of the speaker, well, either you like it or you don't - it's some sort of springy shiny black plastic, which can look like like cloth from moderate distances. Well, I like it.

Review Summary: It's pretty much what it claims to be - a practice and small-gig bass amplifier, for good deal on your money. Throw in the fact that it performs really well with an accoustic guitar and tilts back too, I think it does well for it's asking price

Rating of this Ibanez product: 4

This Ibanez SW35 Soundwave Bass Amp Bass Guitar Amplifiers Review Submitted By: gykh

Review Date: 2003-09-18