Brett Farrey

Here’s a some tips on how to setup your bass guitar…

The Ultimate Guide To Perfect Bass Setup by Jerzy Drozd
Kindness – Basic Setup
Kindness – Fret Leveling/Crowning

To whom it may concern,

My name is Brett Farrey and I’m a bass player from Madison, Wisconsin.
I’ve been playing bass since 1987  and I’ve been using SWR gear for about 10
years. I’ve been playing SWR for a multitude of reasons, but mainly
because it gave me the sound I was looking for, it was very reliable,
and had a great reputation.

I currently own a SWR SM900, Goliath 4×10, a Big Ben, and a Super
Redhead, which were all purchased just months before Fender took them
over. My first problem with my gear has been with the 4×10 cabinet.
I’ve had to replace different speakers in that cabinet six times, and
it currently looks like I need all four of them to be replaced. The
two speakers in my Redhead actually need to be replaced too. I’ve
been told that slapping the bass actually dents the speakers, which
was never a problem with previous cabinets I’ve owned. I’ve had no
problems with the Big Ben.

Also, a few years back, the SM900 died on me. A local music store sent
it off to a service center in Milwaukee, WI to have it serviced. It
took about 6-9 months to get fixed, and then when I got it back it was
missing over 20 screws in the chassis. I contacted SWR to try and
purchase replacement screws, and they told me to contact the service
center that did the work, and then the service center told me to call
some parts store. The parts store sent me some screws, but they were
the wrong screws. I never did get the screws.

A few months ago, I talked to a couple of local bass players that I
have great respect for and have been playing SWR gear for many years.
I was surprised to find out they were both upset with SWR, mostly with
the customer service since Fender took them over, and one of them had
already sold his SM900 and Goliath 6×10 for a new Aguilar DB750 and
4×12 cabinet. I guess my point is, I don’t think my case is an
isolated incident.

Anyway, I’m not writing this email in any attempt to have SWR fix a
wrong, but rather make SWR aware of issues that are happening.
Unfortunately, it looks like I’ll be selling all of my SWR gear and
going with another brand. I wish you and SWR the best of luck.

Thanks,
Brett

I sent this letter on January 26th, and I’ve never gotten a response. In the meantime, I’ve sold all of my SWR gear and have more or less written SWR off as having awful customer service and below-average product. I just bought the new Thunderfunk 750, which absolutely destroys the SM900,  and I’m shopping around for cabinets. SWR is history.

I’ve been bashing SWR a lot lately, but believe me, that is about to come to an end. I just bought a Ampeg SVT-VR and a 610HLF bass cabinet. I plan on replacing the grill on the 610 to match the VR head. I CAN’T WAIT! Instead of a Goliath 410 on top of a Big Ben 118, I’ll be pushing one 610 cabinet. I plan on holding on to the SWR rig for a while, so I suppose I could use the Big Ben along with the 610 if I had a big show….but we’ll see.

I’m really starting to wonder what is going on at SWR. This is the second day I’ve noticed their site being down. Ever since Fender took them over, their service has been awful. I talked to a local SWR dealer, and they had nothing good to say, including the fact they hadn’t received any product from them in over a year. As much as I love SWR bass amps, I’ve decided to find another amp. Currently, Ampeg and Aguilar are the front-runners.

I had my SWR SM-900 bass amp sent in for repairs over a year ago, and I finally get a call from Good ‘n Loud it’s back. Awesome! I go to Good ‘n Loud, we take it out of the packaging, and realize it’s missing most of its screws that hold the chassis together. We counted over 20 screws missing. Some of the screws that weren’t missing, weren’t even the correct screws. Some of them were silver instead of black, and a few were bigger and didn’t sit flush with the chassis.

Whoever sent that back to Good ‘n Loud has been smoking way too many drugs on the job, and should be fired for being such an idiot. SWR has some of the best bass amplifiers on the market, but I’m beginning to wonder if their customer service is nose-diving since Fender bought them. Either way, I want some results, and I want them now. I emailed SWR’s customer service and look forward to posting their reply on my website.

I bought a 1972 Fender Jazz bass last Summer from Chris Plata’s wife, Ann Plata. Actually, my co-worker at the time was working on her bass, and brought it into work so she could pick it up. He showed it to me and told me that she might be interested in selling it. It was all original, but one of the pickups had something wrong with it. He got back to me and said she only wanted $900 for it. SOLD! It also came with an extra set of Bartollini pickups and a BadAss bridge, which I could use on one of my other basses; I’m thinking my fretless.

It played really well, but it needed either a fret leveling or to be re-fretted. I do most of my own work on my basses, but I have all of my major work done by George Rondinelli, from Rondinelli Music/Audio in Dubuque, IA. I’ve been pondering for a long time what to do with this thing but decided that this is going to be my main bass for quite some time and I might as well have it refretted. I also had my pickups sent off to a company called Lindy Fralin to take a look at my pickups. They decided that they needed to be rewound, which was done to spec of a 1972 Fender Jazz.

Anyway, it might be done by this weekend, so I might be making a trip to Dubuque to pick it up. After that, I’m thinking I’ll be busy for a while.