After eight months of development, the latest greatest beast is currently under the iron, cabinets in the making, soon to be on the floor of your nearest Swart Dealer. Michael’s all fired up about this new amp and I told him I would maybe give it back if the sun ever came out.
So take some of our favorite qualities from the MOD84 and mix it with some of our favorite takes from the AST with that venerable 6V6/6L6 3D holographic, ethereal voodoo… What do you get? Frankly, it’s like no other Swart while being like EVERY Swart. It’s the ANTARES and we are smitten with this beast, even if a bit biased about our youngest child.
It’s more than an 18w AST on steroids, more than an AST with top mounted controls. It’s the Swart Magic worked on twin, push-pull 6V6 with a bit bigger reverb, deeper bottom-end foundation, with a new custom output transformer borrowed from the MOD84 Lineage. It has our killer three-way EQ ala STR-Tremolo, our single-ended favorite. Toss in the AST’s all time favorite, über sweet tube bias tremolo and you have the makings of an addiction. And yes, it does have top mounted controls for easy access. And to top it off, it’s all housed within an all new Pine cab with tilted back baffle.
