Swart Space Tone Atomic Jr. - Nice Little Kickaround Amp

[Rackman]

I finally got sick of the shitty soldering on my Fender Pro Jr. and threw it out. It wasn't worth fixing again. I've got a lot of applications for a small amp though:

• For my daughter to use
• To use when teaching when not at my house
• When performing kid-related things or solo at low volume
• As an amp for use when playing electric guitar with non-electric instruments in jazz, bluegrass, church etc.

To fill the hole left by that POS Jr, I just bought a used Swart Space Tone Atomic Jr. It's a 5W single ended 6V6 amp that can also take a 6L6 and probably make a little more. The speaker is a Weber Ceramic 8" which is somewhat more efficient than most Champ-type speakers. The features are pretty cool too - it's got volume, tone, and believe it or not tube driven reverb. Tiny little pan, but it's there and it actually sounds pretty damn good. The tone is definitely to the tweed side, but with the tone control and reverb you can get a lot of blackface-type functionality too. The wiring is point to point and should be easy to fix if need be unlike that damn Fender.

I bought it used and it also came with Swart's pedal-sized attenuator. I haven't messed with it too much, but it gives some master volume like functionality that's much needed.

I'd never heard of Swart honestly, but I think this is a legit solution to my needs. I thought some people might find it interesting. I would not pay close to what they go for new, but at less than 1/2 that used, it seems like a pretty decent option.

 

[VonBonfire]

As soon as I saw the blue jewel light it became VonBonfire approved. Congrats Senor Rackman.

Nice Suprema too btw.

 

[Rackman]

Yeah the blue jewel light is kinda nice. Too bad it's on the backside of the amp.

The Suprema is mostly a good amp, but the master volume on the gain channel is poorly thought out in terms of taper.

 

[Music&Chaos]

I finally got sick of the shitty soldering on my Fender Pro Jr. and threw it out. It wasn't worth fixing again. I've got a lot of applications for a small amp though:

• For my daughter to use
• To use when teaching when not at my house
• When performing kid-related things or solo at low volume
• As an amp for use when playing electric guitar with non-electric instruments in jazz, bluegrass, church etc.

To fill the hole left by that POS Jr, I just bought a used Swart Space Tone Atomic Jr. It's a 5W single ended 6V6 amp that can also take a 6L6 and probably make a little more. The speaker is a Weber Ceramic 8" which is somewhat more efficient than most Champ-type speakers. The features are pretty cool too - it's got volume, tone, and believe it or not tube driven reverb. Tiny little pan, but it's there and it actually sounds pretty damn good. The tone is definitely to the tweed side, but with the tone control and reverb you can get a lot of blackface-type functionality too. The wiring is point to point and should be easy to fix if need be unlike that damn Fender.

I bought it used and it also came with Swart's pedal-sized attenuator. I haven't messed with it too much, but it gives some master volume like functionality that's much needed.

I'd never heard of Swart honestly, but I think this is a legit solution to my needs. I thought some people might find it interesting. I would not pay close to what they go for new, but at less than 1/2 that used, it seems like a pretty decent option.

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That is so cool looking - and I'd bet it sounds great! Run an RCA smoked/grey 6v6 in the output section - I am certain you will dig it. Nice new amp and nice Rivera hanging down there as well.

 

[Rackman]

That is so cool looking - and I'd bet it sounds great! Run an RCA smoked/grey 6v6 in the output section - I am certain you will dig it. Nice new amp and nice Rivera hanging down there as well.

It does sound good. The thing they managed to do that's sort of remarkable IMO is to get it to not sound boxy with that tiny 8" setup.

It doesn't chug, but it's a nice step up from a buzzing Pro Jr. I'll see about tubes - for now it's just a very practical solution to needing some output at a weight my daughter can carry. But it may have recording applications too.

 

[Rackman]

One interesting tube note is that it has a 12DW7 (an asymmetrical gain dual triode) as the reverb send/return. Seems like the supply on those is OK, but it's definitely not one of the more common tubes.

 

[Music&Chaos]

One interesting tube note is that it has a 12DW7 (an asymmetrical gain dual triode) as the reverb send/return. Seems like the supply on those is OK, but it's definitely not one of the more common tubes.

Oh I actually thought of dropping one of those into my Rivera for testing so ot drives the Reverb at a different rate than the ax7 side. Really cool stuff. I feel like you should be able to find cheap NOS variants on ebay.

 

[Rackman]

Oh I actually thought of dropping one of those into my Rivera for testing so ot drives the Reverb at a different rate than the ax7 side. Really cool stuff. I feel like you should be able to find cheap NOS variants on ebay.

Yeah - JJ also makes them, as well as the reverse version (which AFAIK doesn't have a 12xx7 name).