Old Splawns vs New Splawns

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Mikeyboyeee said:
I personally thought they were a bit stiff and had this weird midrange.
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I owned a 2007 Quickrod and a 2008 Competition. I did like the tone, but they were both super stiff for sure and they were also pretty fussy about dirty power and the amp could get very noisy, thin and gutless depending on the outlet you plugged them into. I would show up somewhere to play live and it was always a crapshoot if would have decent tone. This is with lugging around a power conditioner and voltage regulator. To be fair, some other amps I have owned could be fussy about dirty power line noise. Thankfully once I got my Friedman Small Box head, I no longer needed stuff like noise suppressors, attenuators, power conditioners and voltage regulators and sold them all. The Friedman always sounds great and never lets me down.
 
John 14:6 said:
I owned a 2007 Quickrod and a 2008 Competition. I did like the tone, but they were both super stiff for sure and they were also pretty fussy about dirty power and the amp could get very noisy, thin and gutless depending on the outlet you plugged them into. I would show up somewhere to play live and it was always a crapshoot if would have decent tone. This is with lugging around a power conditioner and voltage regulator. To be fair, some other amps I have owned could be fussy about dirty power line noise. Thankfully once I got my Friedman Small Box head, I no longer needed stuff like noise suppressors, attenuators, power conditioners and voltage regulators and sold them all. The Friedman always sounds great and never lets me down.
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That's a new one right there.
 
I will say that my Splawn is the pickiest amp I have ever owned when it comes to pickups, cabs and speakers. I also don't find it to be overly friendly to OD pedals. My Archer is the only OD that I have found that really shines with it.

With that said... I still smile when I fire it up to play.
 
I have never understood the Splawn bashing and weird mids thing. I would venture to guess if people didn't know it was a Splawn in clips they would never identify "WIERD MIDS".

Scott rebuilt/modded my 1979 2203 that was having issues in 2003, he used one of his circuit boards, a Marshall Dagnall Power transformer, Mercury Magnetics Output transformer and it's been a ripping amp for over 19 years with no issues since the rebuild. My Marshall started having intermittent issues around 1995 that multiple techs could not diagnose, that's why I had Scott rebuild it as I was frustrated to pay a tech saying they fixed the problems only for it to resurface again.

I have never found it to be picky about speakers or OD's, I've used everything from EQ's, Maxon OD808, Boss SD-1's, Seymour Ducan 805 all worked well with this amp.

I did buy an early Quickrod around 2004 and while I liked it, I just preferred my Splawn modded Marshall, so I sold the Quickrod.
 
John 14:6 said:
I owned a 2007 Quickrod and a 2008 Competition. I did like the tone, but they were both super stiff for sure and they were also pretty fussy about dirty power and the amp could get very noisy, thin and gutless depending on the outlet you plugged them into. I would show up somewhere to play live and it was always a crapshoot if would have decent tone. This is with lugging around a power conditioner and voltage regulator. To be fair, some other amps I have owned could be fussy about dirty power line noise. Thankfully once I got my Friedman Small Box head, I no longer needed stuff like noise suppressors, attenuators, power conditioners and voltage regulators and sold them all. The Friedman always sounds great and never lets me down.
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I owned a few older QR’s. One of the worst gigs I ever played was with that damn amp. Terrible power at this dive we were at and the tone was really bad. Of course I drank too much to compensate and played like absolute crap.

The amps are stiff for sure and if your chops aren’t up to snuff, that amp will call your bluff really quick.
 
harddriver said:
I have never understood the Splawn bashing and weird mids thing. I would venture to guess if people didn't know it was a Splawn in clips they would never identify "WIERD MIDS".

Scott rebuilt/modded my 1979 2203 that was having issues in 2003, he used one of his circuit boards, a Marshall Dagnall Power transformer, Mercury Magnetics Output transformer and it's been a ripping amp for over 19 years with no issues since the rebuild. My Marshall started having intermittent issues around 1995 that multiple techs could not diagnose, that's why I had Scott rebuild it as I was frustrated to pay a tech saying they fixed the problems only for it to resurface again.

I have never found it to be picky about speakers or OD's, I've used everything from EQ's, Maxon OD808, Boss SD-1's, Seymour Ducan 805 all worked well with this amp.

I did buy an early Quickrod around 2004 and while I liked it, I just preferred my Splawn modded Marshall, so I sold the Quickrod.
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I identified the weird mids in person with 2 differrent quick rods I owned. With a Splawn 4x12 even.
 
With the Old/New voicing switch and Mid Cut/Boost switch, you can boost or cut the mids in 2 noticeably different ranges across the EQ. Old/New seems to effect lower mids and Mid/Cut seems effect upper mids. I found these options allow the amp to play nicely with a much wider variety of speakers. What may be described as ‘weird’ mids while shredding alone at bedroom volume are the same frequencies that make the guitar sound big and strong at stage volume up against kick drums, a snare, cymbals, and a bass rig.
 
PDC said:
With the Old/New voicing switch and Mid Cut/Boost switch, you can boost or cut the mids in 2 noticeably different ranges across the EQ. Old/New seems to effect lower mids and Mid/Cut seems effect upper mids. I found these options allow the amp to play nicely with a much wider variety of speakers. What may be described as ‘weird’ mids while shredding alone at bedroom volume are the same frequencies that make the guitar sound big and strong at stage volume up against kick drums, a snare, cymbals, and a bass rig.
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This. It seems the older Splawns were stiffer, more aggressive.

Maybe it was 2012+ Splawns, Scott added a bit more saturation & shifted the mids back a bit.

I had a 2014 Pro Stock 100w with B+ & it had a nice blend of tightness & saturation. A little too tight for me, but it had crazy punch. Something about it eventually didn’t do it for me.

I went the Friedman route. Had several. …Sold then.

Picked up a 2015 Fully Loaded Comp, which is 50w & always in B+. I was worried it would be stiff; but it’s perfect for my tastes. Not too stiff & not too saggy or compressed. Old/New & Mid Cut make substantial differences in the feel & tone. I think Mid Cut fixed a lot of the “weird mids” issues.
 
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The mids in the older QR I tried were different than any 800 I'd played, but I didn't think they were too bad/weird...it was a decent amp although like others said, a bit stiff....played a Nitro at a GC and hated it..very sterile, flat etc. QR for me if I were to go Splawn.
 
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I had a 2018 Quickrod, sounded good (though it actually sounded better with mismatched powertubes, funny enough), was easy to play I felt.

But I also felt that it didn’t give me much more than a DSL did. I feel the same way about the Friedman small box. Good amp, but not significantly better than a DSL, certainly not in a mix.

Now, I have none of those things!
 
harddriver said:
I have never understood the Splawn bashing and weird mids thing. I would venture to guess if people didn't know it was a Splawn in clips they would never identify "WIERD MIDS".

Scott rebuilt/modded my 1979 2203 that was having issues in 2003, he used one of his circuit boards, a Marshall Dagnall Power transformer, Mercury Magnetics Output transformer and it's been a ripping amp for over 19 years with no issues since the rebuild. My Marshall started having intermittent issues around 1995 that multiple techs could not diagnose, that's why I had Scott rebuild it as I was frustrated to pay a tech saying they fixed the problems only for it to resurface again.

I have never found it to be picky about speakers or OD's, I've used everything from EQ's, Maxon OD808, Boss SD-1's, Seymour Ducan 805 all worked well with this amp.

I did buy an early Quickrod around 2004 and while I liked it, I just preferred my Splawn modded Marshall, so I sold the Quickrod.
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The Splawn "weird mids" thing is mainly from the QuickRod line. I've played all eras of the QR and agree the earliest versions sound more aggressive for sure. Scott himself admits to that but also addressed the issues of the over stiffness of the amp, in which, most Marshall players still bitch about since it doesn't have anywhere near a true Marshall feel.

Not many Splawn users/fans have played a Nitro unfortunately, since everyone is attracted to the feature set and versatility of the QR. The early versions do have the similar weird mid thing. I describe it more as a fixed mid thing. There is virtually no adjustment in the mids you can do. It's like its on cusp of cocked wah tone at all times with a high frequency shelf when you turn up. There is no control of the actual low-mid or high-mid frequencies. Its an on all the time type of thing.

This also leads me back to why I wanna do the Nolly mid potentiometer mod that addresses this problem and post my findings on it. I just need to find a damn Nitro to do such experiment on LOL

Also, I would agree Splawns are not picky with speakers but most CERTAINLY with boosts. Especially mid heavy boosts that would add on to mid heavy voicing of the QR and Nitro.
 
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Racerxrated said:
The mids in the older QR I tried were different than any 800 I'd played, but I didn't think they were too bad/weird...it was a decent amp although like others said, a bit stiff....played a Nitro at a GC and hated it..very sterile, flat etc. QR for me if I were to go Splawn.
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I know we all hear things differently and that's what makes the world interesting but I also keep hearing Splawns described as stiff but I hear Wizards and VHT as stiff without much sag to them meanwhile everyone wants to tighten up their Marshall low end flub inherent to most Marshalls. I just don't hear the wierd mids.... you either like an amp and it's designed gain structure or you don't...that goes for Bogner, Friedman, Mesa Boogie.

I would imagine the low B+ gives the Splawns more sag to the tone and feel pretty much similar to variacing a Marshall plexi/superlead.

The one modded Marshall that I have heard that really retains a type of plexi like sag to tone is Redplated's Ground Zero amps but most of the sag is related to B+ plate voltage and the an adjustable negative feedback circuit. The Spawns NFB is fixed on most older models and it is not super saggy I agree, I play it along side my 68 and 72 Marshall and it can do a nice gainy plexi IMHO.
 
Three different Splawns compared, clean, OD-1, OD-2, OD-3. Not my vid......cool comparison video
 
harddriver said:
Three different Splawns compared, clean, OD-1, OD-2, OD-3. Not my vid......cool comparison video
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Yup, thats exactly how I remembered the early 06 QR. So badass. I can't believe the similarities with the '18 model sound.
 
Fusionbear said:
Huge Splawn tone lover here.

My 2020 Competition is awesome IMO:

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What speakers were those and how low do you set the loop volume? I usually turn my “down” to 12:00. Where do you set your loop volume in relation to your master volume?

2015 FL Comp here: I love it.

For folks curious, Mid Cut makes a substantial difference in the room.

Old/New isn’t subtle either. I didn’t hear it or feel it at first, so I questioned it, but now I hear it & feel the difference this switch makes.

IMO, these options should just be standard issue on the amps.
 
Junk Yard Dog said:
What speakers were those and how low do you set the loop volume? I usually turn my “down” to 12:00. Where do you set your loop volume in relation to your master volume?

2015 FL Comp here: I love it.

For folks curious, Mid Cut makes a substantial difference in the room.

Old/New isn’t subtle either. I didn’t hear it or feel it at first, so I questioned it, but now I hear it & feel the difference this switch makes.

IMO, these options should just be standard issue on the amps.
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M75 Scumbacks 65 watt coils, 16 ohm in a Scumback naked 4x12

Loop volume is max 95% of the time.

Master volume to the gig...

I'm blessed in that I live in an area where loud is encouraged. My garage is a play room as well...
We have karaoke too...

I love having the option for mid -cut and old/new...
 
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