All user reviews for the SWR SM-400S

Tube preamp (12AX7) and power amplifier transistor (2 * 250 watts stereo or mono 500 watts into 4 ohms).
This model prior to the current 500 sm has been discontinued since the release of the latter, but overall it remains the same. Sm on the 400s there is a built-in crossover (which disappeared on the SM 500 is a pity). It is practical and efficient to separate the sound from a 4 * 10 "and 15" (stereo amplifier position in this case).
Against by not Speakon connectors, but the jack 6.35 (stereo outputs) or bridge (mono).
That's basically it SWR pro, robust and transparent as water. This amp does not distort the sound of your instrument, on the contrary it will highlight (4-band EQ, aural enhancer ...). Otherwise, no effects processor.

UTILIZATION

The config is not obvious at first, but like any good hardware buttons in the facade are not there for decoration. So naturally, when it reaches a, it changes the sound. These settings allow precise to cover a wide range of different sounds. These variations are difficult to understand at first, leaving a maximum of possibilities. So easy or not, hard to say it all depends on what is desired.
Nevertheless, there is always an excellent and well defined. With regard to the sound (the one we have in the head for 25 years without ever managing to find it), it will also depend on the instrument and especially that branch there, because this amp is fairly neutral and does transform not the sound of a cardboard bass, fender jazz of its precision (like no other amp in the world for that matter).
I put 9 for taking in hand not obvious at first (but which is largely responsible for product quality, when we understood the trick).
Having bought this head used, I have no manual. That said, it is available online on the manufacturer's website: http://www.swrsound.com/support/manuals/html/sm400som.php

SOUNDS

I play it with a Godin A4, a musicman stingray and a warwick fortress in the registry rock n 'roll, pop and even metal / hard core. I always find a good set regardless of the instrument. With the stingray, it is simply monstrous, the sound I get.
Owner of EBS pedals, I must say that the compressor and octave gives a definite plus in some passages. But is it really necessary?

OVERALL OPINION

I use this head for 4 / 5 years now and I must say it surprises me still. We discover the intricacies of setting the time. That said, I suggest, to note its settings when it is appropriate. That's where I lost a lot of time at the beginning, looking for settings in the dark.
Before that I played on an old Peavey head super vintage (in view of the cracking of knobs, she had dated at least the seventeenth century, a combo Peavey 210 TX (newer and clean), then a triple body Trace Elliot (Head GP12SMX + 2 * 10 "* 15 + 1").
Quality / price ratio excellent, especially in relation to the price where I dug up (800 euros fly SKB 2 U). Nine, it's worth double it's been expensive (unfortunately like all high-end hardware). But excellence has a price?