Welp, my Swart ST-6V6se arrived yesterday! The following is an email I sent to Robert after receiving the amp, and he suggested posting it as a review:



I can hardly contain myself. My Swart arrived today abt 11:45 ET!! UPS treated her kindly - not a mark on the very well packaged box, much less any holes or rips. And a free $12 t-shirt Michael told me to be sure to mention in the note w my shipping address, etc...(if you remember, when I bought your DVDs, I have no credit cards by choice, and had to mail Michael a bank check). (Ed by bigG: Michael is Michael Swart. He still answers the phone at Swart Amps!)

I was worried abt where I was gonna set it up. I'm outta room here! But this little jewel is only a little over 13" square and abt 7" - 8" deep, so I set it on my coffee table, plugged it in, and I was ready to go! (I have room to set it in a corner when not in use, and enough closet space to keep the shipping carton in case I need to send it back for any reason.) I've only played it using my Peavey HP Special USA (w coil taps), so the following is re that guitar:

First impressions - is small and solid as a rock! The laquered light brown tweed finish is to die for, and the small speaker opening in the baffle is heavy dark brown grill cloth. Has a Space Tone plate mounted above the grill cloth, and 3 thin dark brown racing stripes running vertically, to the left of the grill cloth. It's truly a work of art and a thrill just to look at (front and back!). An instant classic! I've been over it w a fine-tooth comb and not a single flaw to be found, anywhere!

The sound - is like nothing I've heard before. For 5w, Class A Single-ended w 8" Weber Ceramic speaker it is plenty LOUD! I first let it cook for abt 5 minutes before plugging in, and when I did plug in, I started the learning curve.

It sounds very 3-dimensional - very open and transparent. Honest to God, I simply can't believe these beautifully enormous sounds are coming from such a little package! I fooled w the tone knob first at a clean volume and found a setting of 7 (from 0 - 11) to be ideal for the Peavey in all pick-up settings. Then I started w the amp's volume knob w both pups on in humbucker mode. From 0 to 11, straight up is 6, and around a 5 - 6 setting is where that beautiful, harmonic break-up kicks in. I also ran it abt 2/3 full on, and, in both cases, my guitars volume knob worked magic! With the guitar's vol knob on 7, there's a very sweet, not too loud (for my apt) tone. Then, just running the guitars vol knob up to 10 audibly shook various items in my apt!

This is an EXTREMELY sensitive amp. Light strumming and picking is beautiful, w just a touch of break-up. Strum or pick harder, really dig in on leads, and it screams a heavenly sound! Natural harmonics to die for, pinch harmonics are heavenly! The interplay between the amps volume and the guitars volume is just so perfect!

I next experimented w the mini-toggle that introduces 3dB of feedback/compression. This really noticeably warms up the sound, and adds some great "crunch", I guess is the best way to describe it. (From what Michael told me, it introduces a bit of negative feedback, like the tweeds of old.) It's really like having a 2 channel amp!

Obviously I tried various combinations w the 3dB switch on and off, as well as all p/u configurations, incl coil taps, and man, this little baby Swart can give you just abt ANY sound you could possibly want. The neck p/u is so smooth and creamy, just beautiful! The bridge p/u has a bright bite to it that just singes the tone! The 2 p/ups together drop the volume a bit and have a sweet, crispy-clean tone.

Well, obviously I'm very excited and have gone on more than I should, I guess, but I am simply blown away by what this amp can do! Truly the best sounding amp I have EVER heard, much less owned or played thru! And I'm a VERY critical person - in fact I was kind of expecting to have dropped $850 and be very disappointed when I finally heard the amp. So, I think you can rely on my take as very honest. If there was ANYTHING that disappointed me, I would say so.

That abt covers it for now. Oh, btw, w the bridge p/u tapped, that Keith Richards' Tele tone is right there! Now to try my Strat and Tele thru this little baby...that's next!

Keeping you apprised of the situation...

A VERY happy bigG!

(Ed by bigG: for all specs and soundclips on this amp and all other Swart amps, please go to - swartamps.com - Much better than my listing all that info here, I think. Thanks!)