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Read the full reviews on the pages indicated below!
1. Peavey Invective.MH — $699 street, peavey.com
2. Chase Bliss Dark World — $349 street, chaseblissaudio.com
3. Comins CGS-16 — $2,399 street, cominsguitars.com
4. Ernie Ball Music Man Short-Scale StingRay — $1,999 street, music-man.com
5. EBS MicroBass 3 — $349 street, ebssweden.com
Recorded using a Squier Vintage Modified Telecaster with Curtis Novak Tele-V bridge and JM-V pickups, and a Gibson Les Paul Traditional with 57 Classics. Amp miked with a Royer R-121 and a Shure SM57 feeding an Apogee Duet going into GarageBand with no EQ-ing, compression, or effects.
Clip 1: Telecaster (with pickup selector in middle position for rhythm segment, then in bridge position for lead segment) feeding Swart’s amp-1 input with toggle in bottom position, “space” and master volume at maximum, amp-1’s controls set with volume at 1 o’clock, tone and tremolo speed at max, and trem depth at 10 o’clock, while amp-2’s controls had volume at max, tone and trem speed at minimum, and trem depth at 3 o’clock.
Clip 2: Les Paul neck pickup feeding Swart’s amp-1 input with toggle in top position, “space” at 3 o’clock, master volume at maximum, amp-1’s controls set with volume at 11 o’clock, tone at 9 o’clock, tremolo speed at minimum, and trem depth at 10:30, while amp-2’s controls had volume at 10:30, tone at noon, trem speed at minimum, and trem depth at 3 o’clock.
RatingsPros:Fantastic tones. Incredible touch sensitivity. Gorgeously spacious reverb. Independent tremolo circuits facilitate both 3-dimensional wonder and delectable disorientation. Cons: Can’t sum outputs for use with mono cabinet. Street: $2,399 street (head), $859 street (2x12 cabinet) Swart Stereo Master 20 swartamps.com
| Tones:  Ease of Use: Build/Design: Value:  |
Stereo rigs typically entice players heavily into sophisticated delay, reverb, and pitch-shifting effects—not exactly the target market for Michael Swart’s line of vintage-inspired designs. But you don’t have to be a fan of the latest algorithm cruncher from Eventide or Strymon to fall in love with Swart’s Stereo Master 20.
Originally conceived as a means of packing a single chassis with the harmonic possibilities you get from through two differently voiced amps, the SM20 became something more compelling. Whether you plug straight into its “amp-1” input, or route stereo signals from your space-station pedalboard to both of the SM20’s inputs, the Stereo Master sends your signal to two 20-watt, 6V6-powered amps, each of which can then feed either its own cab or the deceptively normal-looking 2x12 shown here.
The kickers: 1) Each amp has its own deliciously hypnotic tube-driven tremolo circuit, and 2) this Swart 2x12 has an internal cabinet divider isolating a pair of diagonally oriented Celestion Creambacks (other options are available as well). Still not grokking why this is so cool for both old- and new-school types? Let’s just say the SM20 is all about the glorious, oft-ignored world of contrasts.
All-Class Class AB
Swart offerings have long evoked some of the coolest visual aspects of early amps while still looking fresh and unique. The Stereo Master manifests this in details like lacquered black tweed and gold accents over finger-jointed solid-pine cabinets, and a front-panel presentation that feels Atomic Age without being hokey. Circuit-wise, the SM20 combines the tremolo, reverb, and simple volume-and-tone preamp circuit from Swart’s Gibson Scout-inspired Atomic Space Tone with the input EQ toggle from Swart’s STR-Tremolo and Antares models (more on this later). Craftsmanship is stellar: Components are neatly handwired on a central turret board, with longer wires snugged up against the chassis and routed at right angles, and the tube sockets and pots are all chassis mounted. Tube access is a cinch, too. Remove five screws, and the front panel comes off to yield easy, no-flashlight-required access. That’s cool for routine maintenance, or for light modifications like switching 6L6s for the stock 6V6s in either or both amps (sans biasing!), or swapping the stock 5AR4 rectifier with a 5Y3 for more sag in the response. Oh, and the output transformer is impressively gigantic.
The Conundrum: Vertiginous or Enveloping?
I tested the SM20 with a 57 Classic-equipped Gibson Les Paul Traditional and a Squier Vintage Modified Telecaster Custom with Curtis Novak JM-V and Tele-V pickups, both of which sounded absolutely fantastic. This can be attributed to two main factors: First, any qualms about perceived limitations of a single tone control are decimated by the fact that you can set different tone recipes on each amp, and the SM20’s clever 3-position input toggles, which select different cathode-bypass capacitor values in the first gain stage to determine which frequencies head to the second stage.
The middle position is flat, the top yields more bass presence, and the bottom cuts low end to accentuate mids and highs. This feature is so handy for dialing in different guitars that you might wish it were footswitchable (blues and blues-rock players will go gaga for the beefier setting). Second, the amps’ identically voiced tone knobs (which increase midrange and treble as they’re turned clockwise) are expertly tuned. There’s plenty of the velvety character you expect from a vintage 6V6 design, but at minimum the tone knobs don’t get flubby or indistinct, and at max tones are lean and incisive but never shrill.
All this would make the Stereo Master 20 compelling even if its control set were halved and all four 6V6s were dedicated to making it a single 40-watt generator of classic American tones. But it’s the Swart’s capability for contrasts that really make it a fantastical sound playground.
After spending hours exploring settings, I settled on a favorite: Plugging directly into amp-1, flicking its input toggle to the mid-and-treble-accentuating position, and dialing its volume to 2 o’clock and its tone to maximum, then setting amp-2’s volume to max and its tone to minimum. With the Paul, this sounded beefy and on-the-verge, with various levels of pick attack producing everything from warm jazz tones to country spank, jangle, and mean rock and punk sounds. A Telecaster yielded similar but tamer results with more single-coil leanness and chime—while a clean boost from a J. Rockett Audio pushed the amp to its most bristling output. Here, the bridge pickup slashed viscerally, while middle and neck-pickup tones conjured all sorts of ringing, bell-like loveliness.
This is only half the SM20’s magic though, because its ingenious cab’s raison d’être is tremolo mayhem. Whether you play it safe and dial-in identical speed and depth settings on each amp, use trem on one side only, keep speed settings the same but contrast depth-knob positions, or go full-wacko with vertigo-inducing contrasts on both knob pairs, you might find enough captivating options to forego other effects.
Except, of course, reverb. It’s virtually impossible to hear a Swart amp and not be gobsmacked by its spring reverb tones, and the SM20’s (available only on amp 1) is no exception. If, like me, you’re a reverb junkie who gets irked if you can’t dial a tank past 5 without getting loads of trebly, pinging grodiness, you’ll love that the Stereo Master’s cavernous response lets you go full-bore without the trails becoming an annoying distraction.
The Verdict
I’m pretty much at my word limit, but really what more is there to say? If you’re looking for something truly, addictively different in a classic-voiced amp, you really ought to check out Swart’s Stereo Master 20. It’s not cheap, but the extra dollars go toward more unique and impactful ends than they might on many similarly priced boutique amps.
Miller’s current live and studio amp rig of choice is a pair of Swart AST Pros that he runs in stereo, with Universal Audio Ox Amp Top Boxes. He loves the amps’ tremolo. “I have not turned my tremolo off since ’81, ’82,” says Miller. “I mean, why would I?” And indeed, the effect, either ping-ponging between two amps in mild disagreement or synched together, is part of his sonic signature. He also loves the Swarts’ tube-driven reverb. And the Ox Box was an integral part of Miller’s strategy for making his latest album with Julie Miller, using it to record with her at low-volume at home, taking advantage of the Ox’s power-attenuation and cabinet modeling.
This 1934 Gibson L-00 was acquired from Nashville luthier to the stars Joe Glaser. It came with an archaic vintage capo in its case and a brown string that looks like glorified twine for a strap—old-style. It has impressive clarity and definition, string-to-string, which translates well to recordings. 
Miller likes to chase the end of the tonal spectrum his fellow stringed-instrument players are not. So when somebody plays a chiming axe, he’ll reach for a bass or baritone. And when the low end’s already covered, he may reach for this mando-guitar. It’s a Hammertone 12-string, with a Vox-y look and a drumskin finish. Miller explains it’s “basically a 12-string guitar tuned up an octave.” He used it to play the signature riff on Lucinda Williams’ “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.” He owns four or five of these instruments. “They don’t last too long, because they have so much string-tension that the necks bow on them, but they’re great for recording,” he offers.
Miller plays a salt-and-pepper couple of Wandre guitars, primarily using this black 6-string and its white sibling as his main instruments. He had to sell one of his Wandres—a red-finish one—years ago because he needed money for his wedding to Julie. The buyer: Larry Campbell, who toured with Dylan and has played with a host of others, including Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, and Rosanne Cash.
Drawn to its cream-sparkle finish, Miller got this Wandre in a Colorado pawnshop for $50. It ignited his passion for the ’60s Italian brand, for which he’s single-handedly inspired a small revival of interest. The neck is aluminum under the fretboard, and the metal plank continues back to the tremolo bridge, with the single-coil pickups mounted onto it. They never make contact with the body. But as anyone who’s heard Miller’s work—from his solo recordings to his touring as a member of the Alison Krauss and Robert Plant Raising Sand band and Plant’s Band of Joy—knows, it sounds rich, deep, and full. Note the push-buttons for pickup settings and the strips of electrical tape holding the plastic body together. The neck pickup is backwards and wired out of phase. At one point, when Miller lived in New York City, this guitar was stolen. Somebody then found it under a truck, in its case, and returned it to Miller. “The person who stole this thing threw it out,” Miller says, laughing. “They were hoping for something better.”
The headstocks of one of Miller’s Wandre guitars—he has four, all bought for $50 apiece—reveals the name of the Italian accordion builder and exporter who got these instruments to America: Noble. It also reveals the aluminum bones that are the core of the guitars’ necks. 
This old Gibson J-45 is another of Miller’s acoustic workhorses. It has an L.R. Baggs Anthem System. He says it has “that old rhythm guitar sound” like you’d hear on an early Dylan recording. And Jeff Bridges played this 1954 model in the movie Crazy Heart.
A Jerry Jones baritone is another of Miller’s favorite instruments. “This is easy for a guitar player to play,” he observes. Miller uses the bari often, but finds it particularly helpful when performing as a duo with female singers who play guitar well—including Emmylou Harris, Patti Griffin, and Shawn Colvin—so he can cover a different sonic area. He acquired this guitar in the late 1980s.
This 12-string Veillette Avante Gryphon came from the famed guitar dealer George Gruhn. This high-tuned instrument is D to D, and the strings are doubled, like a mandolin. It’s a favorite of Julie Miller, who wrote half the new songs on Breakdown on 20th Ave. South on it.
Here’s a rare bird: a Hofner 6-string bass. Check out the crazy push-buttons in the control set! It’s an elegant-looking beast that Miller prefers to Fender’s 6-string basses. He describes it as a “songwriting machine.” One winter, Robert Plant, Band of Joy drummer Marco Giovino, and Miller sat in his studio for a spell and churned out a dozen songs with Miller propelling things with this bass.
This Silvertone acoustic was, let’s say, supercharged by luthier Scott Baxendale in Athens, Georgia, who has made a practice of installing new bracing and other appointments to make these guitars, and old Kays and Harmonys, into better versions of themselves: bigger, fuller, and brighter sounding. This is another of Miller’s favorite recording acoustics. 
As luck had it, we were able to record this entire Rig Rundown on Miller’s vintage RCA 44-BX bi-directional microphone—part of his extensive selection of mikes. “This is a piece of art and a tool that’s been used on who know what,” Miller observes. It’s a ribbon mike, originally employed in broadcasting. This model first appeared in the 1930s.
Miller’s live—and typical studio—pedalboard is pretty basic. There’s a Boss TU-3 Waza Craft tuner, a Boss VB-2 Vibrato, an Analog Man King of Tone, a Fulltone Supa-Trem2, an Xotic Effects RC Booster, a Strymon Volante Magnetic Tape Echo Machine, and a Strymon Multi-Switch. “I’m a simple player,” he says. “I’ve gotten farther with less than anybody I know.” 
Typically, great recorded guitar tones like the kind Miller gets in his studio require some type of compression. Miller’s got that covered, with a pair of Empirical Labs Distressors, a dbx 161 Compressor/Limiter, and his Telefunken V76s tube preamps. The latter are his favorites.
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