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Amplifiers

M50 / M50HR

Technical

All the controls are recessed beyond the cabinet edges to prevent damage and are stainless steel or chrome plated steel to ensure long life and durability. We use Switchcraft jacks so you won't have to worry about your connections & there are NO plastic shafts, nuts or micro switches to break off! The highest quality switches are all you'll find on a Swampdonkey.

Rear Panel

The back panel features the Auxiliary send control and send / return jacks, a 4 pin DIN jack for the included "Boost" footswitch, 3 jacks for connecting speakers (4 ohm, 8 ohm and 16 ohm) and the main power switch, fuse holder and IEC power cord socket.

Front Panel

Drive - Controls front end gain and when set low, it's almost like dialing out a preamp stage. As you crank it up, it first offers that classic preamp bloom and sustain followed by overdrive as you wind it up. Higher settings bring on earlier output tube breakup along with a huge increase in volume. Use it to add a little fire to a clean setting or morph a great crunch tone into a classic rock lead wail. The Drive control gives you completely variable gain at the front end of the amp resulting in dramatic variations of your tone & distortion character.

Voice - 6 position rotary switch that affects the voicing of the first two gain stages and offers Crisp, Bright, Full, Natural, Warm and Fat settings. Use this to dial in your general EQ / Gain Structure and then tweak it with the Treble / Mids / Bass & Edge controls.

Treble, Mids, Bass - patterned after the familiar tone stack used in early Fender and Marshall amps that most players are very comfortable with. The tone stack is positioned between the 2nd and 3rd gain stages.

Volume - Placed between the 3rd and 4th preamp stages, the Volume control allows the player to dial in compression, crunch and distortion at the phase inverter & 4th preamp stage which yields a wide range of tones from sparkling clean to outright mean.

Boost - This control, unique to Swampdonkey Amplifiers is engaged via the supplied footswitch and lets you dial in a little or a lot of additional gain at the volume stage of the amp. It also brightens the tone a wee bit letting your solos stand out without the bottom end going soft. A red LED lights up on the front panel and on the footswitch when "Boost" is engaged.

Master Volume - Situated between the phase inverter and output stage. Set high, it offers up warm or punchy tones, depending on the volume and drive settings. Dialed down, it eases the onset of output tube breakup and permits massive preamp and phase inverter overdrive and meaty distortion at studio / living room levels.

Edge - or "Master Tone" control rolls off the treble slow and smooth. Perfect for fine tuning your tone just before the output tubes.

Standby / Run - Heavy duty 600 VAC Carling Toggle Switch to last and last and last....

Power Indicator - A classic faceted clear jewel that lights up amber for "Standby" mode and changes to red for "Run" mode. Dual LEDs ensure long life.