The Guitar Magazine – September 2019

By now, he’d developed an appreciated for vintage
transformers and their contribution to the tone
and was also indulging his predilection toward the
retro styling that any Swart player would instantly
recognise today.
“I continued the process of gutting old single-
ended and small low-wattage push-pull hi-fi amps
and rebuilding them into guitar amps in all sorts
of unique enclosures,” he tells us. “I would use old
suitcases from the 40s, guitar cases, anything that
spoke to me. You know, one of the critical learning
aspects was working without schematics on many of
these amps, learning to follow the signal path with
attention to results... what worked and didn’t work,
in the ultimate tone quest.
“I had a small studio above my garage and all
these creations began to populate the space. We
would have musicians and studio clients come in
to play and record and be totally smitten with these
one-off designs. I don’t know how many times
I heard the phrase, ‘Cool man! Can you build me
one?’ That’s when the idea first hit; people dug
something I made!”
The look of these amps became more fully formed
when Swart stumbled upon a heavily patina’d old
single-ended Supro while at a local flea market. It
had a nasty hum, almost zero output, but something
about the ancient combo was calling to him.
“I got it home and tinkered with the circuit,
making a few changes with parts and wiring and got
it sounding amazing. In short, the amp now just blew
me away. Okay... I wanted to make something with
this soul, this vibe, but my own take.
“My uncle was into woodworking and he agreed
to make me a cab of my design. I really loved the
tone of pine, so that’s what we used. It’s hard to beat
the warmth of pine. His little cab was awesome, just
amazing work with dovetail joints. I was trying to
think of some original take, when I hit upon actually
covering the amp with funky fabric from this local
old-school fabric shop. Each amp would be a different
fabric, sort of a virtual one-off and totally unique,
from purple polka dots to something that looked like
it could walk into a 60s bar.”
To get the venture up and running, Swart enlisted
the help of Kelly Holsten, an old friend, fellow
musician and writer whom he’d met at the college
radio station. Holsten had been doing web work
and was deep into tube audio gear; he presented the
notion of selling Swart’s amps on eBay, and set up
an elaborate sales page to get the job done. The first
single-ended Swart combo sold within a week and
the next in just a matter of days.
“I think I built six more amps, each selling in under
a week,” Swart recalls, “as fast as we could list them.
I believe having a cabinet design that was not your
typical Fender, Vox or Marshall set us apart from
the rest of the builders at the time; this, combined

with less-is-more, well-crafted circuits that pointed

towards tonal purity over complexity. Another

difference? You could see the tubes! They were not

hidden away.”

ATOMIC SPACE TONE

With some sales success under his belt, Swart’s vision

turned more toward an amp to fulfil his own needs,

but the venture would result in his best known and

most popular model to date.

“I started wanting to design an amp that I could

use for gigs that had reverb and tremolo built in,” he

recalls. “I felt most of the boutique guys at the time

did not have a killer circuit with great reverb and

tremolo, likely because they thought it might add

unnecessary complexity.

“I understood the reasoning, but I wanted to make

an amp that sounded amazing with the options I

BELOW Swart’s Night Light Jr

attenuator is designed for

any 4-8 ohm amp that is

15 watts or less

BELOW BOTTOM A Swart-

designed LED footswitch

for use with the company’s

amp range

SHOP TALK

GUITAR MAGAZINE 87