Modded my quikrod today

M

morgansbluff

Member
I came up with a mod(technically my amp tech did based on what I wanted to achieve)to make the 3 gears more similar. I don't know about you guys but foot switching between gear 1 and 2 wasn't working. I can get either channel to sound great on their own but not with a shared EQ. The amp now goes stock gear 1 to a less bassy brighter gear 2. Picture gear 1 but with more body and gain. Now 1 2 and 3 are tonally similar. Our music is too versatile for me to leave on one gear. I prefer the sound of the quikrod without boosts plus it's less tap dancing since I'm also the singer. I can post clips next week but I'm not sure if it'll be noticable on a recording as I've never heard a bad clip of this amp. In the room it's amazing.
I've considered other amps that have more features but the tone of the Splawn is unreal. Such clarity and the gain detail is perfect IMO.
 
morgansbluff said:
I came up with a mod(technically my amp tech did based on what I wanted to achieve)to make the 3 gears more similar. I don't know about you guys but foot switching between gear 1 and 2 wasn't working. I can get either channel to sound great on their own but not with a shared EQ. The amp now goes stock gear 1 to a less bassy brighter gear 2. Picture gear 1 but with more body and gain. Now 1 2 and 3 are tonally similar. Our music is too versatile for me to leave on one gear. I prefer the sound of the quikrod without boosts plus it's less tap dancing since I'm also the singer. I can post clips next week but I'm not sure if it'll be noticable on a recording as I've never heard a bad clip of this amp. In the room it's amazing.
I've considered other amps that have more features but the tone of the Splawn is unreal. Such clarity and the gain detail is perfect IMO.
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Sounds like an awesome mod. I love Gear 1 to death and I never set the gain above 11 o'clock. If I want more attack and gain I push it with my hand-built Rockbox Boiling Point "swirl one" on the clean boost setting. I'm not too fond of Gear 2 as I think it's too bassy and muddy compared to Gear 1. I love Gear 3 too, but only use it when I want a Sykes/Aldrich style of sound. Gear 3 used with my original Koko Boost "mid boost side" gives a sound that would make both Sykes and Aldrich switch to the Quick Rod in a heartbeat.

If I could mod my Quick Rod, I would mod Gear 2 to sound like a hybrid between Gear 1 and Gear 3. A chunkier, meatier and more raw and open Gear 1.
 
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Cool stuff guys

I'm ALWAYS in Gear 2 OD2 with a boost. Actually just got an SD1. Like that best. My Koko OG pedal is just too over the top. Maybe I should mess with the settings again before selling it. :dunno:
 
311splawndude said:
Cool stuff guys

I'm ALWAYS in Gear 2 OD2 with a boost. Actually just got an SD1. Like that best. My Koko OG pedal is just too over the top. Maybe I should mess with the settings again before selling it. :dunno:
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The Koko Boost sounds the best when used on low settings. The settings i found sounding the best is:
Left side "clean boost" 9:30 o'clock
Right side "mid boost" 8:30 - 9:00 o'clock
Frequency switch set to the left.

On the SD1 I'm using it differently than most as I hate the way the amp is pushed setting the volume on max and gain at minimum. I set the volume where it doesn't alter the volume and I set the gain at approximately 8:00-08:30. To me that sounds the best, tightening up the sound without flattening it too much.

To many people up the settings which squish the sound, making it over the top. The same goes for the gain settings on the amp. Less is more coming to the overdriven sound. Up the gain will make it sound thinner and less defined. This is really notable double- or quadruple tracking. Using a lower gain setting will make the tracked guitars sound HUGE and razor-sharp defined.
 
MrFlexx said:
The Koko Boost sounds the best when used on low settings. The settings i found sounding the best is:
Left side "clean boost" 9:30 o'clock
Right side "mid boost" 8:30 - 9:00 o'clock
Frequency switch set to the left.

On the SD1 I'm using it differently than most as I hate the way the amp is pushed setting the volume on max and gain at minimum. I set the volume where it doesn't alter the volume and I set the gain at approximately 8:00-08:30. To me that sounds the best, tightening up the sound without flattening it too much.

To many people up the settings which squish the sound, making it over the top. The same goes for the gain settings on the amp. Less is more coming to the overdriven sound. Up the gain will make it sound thinner and less defined. This is really notable double- or quadruple tracking. Using a lower gain setting will make the tracked guitars sound HUGE and razor-sharp defined.
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Those are low settings and thanks for the advice. I will try that.
 
I couldn't agree with mrflexx anymore. I used the boss SD1 into the front end of a plexi and ran the pedal exactly how you just said. I thought it sounded so much better than pushing the amp over the top. I've reduced gain quite a bit over the years I noticed I go for more clarity now. I have the gain on the splawn at about 10:30. I'm still messing around with the mod I just had done but it seems like I may have completely eliminated my pedal board. He installed a tiny variable resistor inside and I'm moving the values around to see where I want to land. Switching between gear one and two and the 2ODs really might be all I need. OD2 on either channel seems to thicken everything up which is amazing for single note work.
 
Techdeth said:
Definitely. To me ii find myself doing a reverse boost almost with overdrives
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As do I. I want the boost and overdrive pedals to only add a tad of what's already there, altering the dna of the sound as minimal as possible.
 
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MrFlexx said:
Please let me know how it goes 😊
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I tried it with your settings and I still don't jive with this pedal. Not sure what it is. Just too "Too" much. I prefer my SD1 and Bad Monkey for clean boosting. Thanks again though for explaining it to me. I'm a bit of newb still :D
 
I can understand this pedal ain't for everyone. I only use it when I want that John Sykes/Doug Aldrich sound. And that sound is a bit too much for some players. I do like it on solos too on Gear1 with the gain set on about 9:30 on the Splawn.
 
I can see it being good for that. We play different stuff. For Whitesnake type leads and 'sear' I can see that pedal pushing an amp where you want it. I'm more of Gear 2 - Gain = 2pm Drop tuned chugga noodling :LOL:

At least with my amp, Gear 1 - Gain = 9:30 would sound dead.
 
When I play "chugga" stuff i set the gain at 11 o'clock and use either Gear 1 or Gear 3 depending on the song. My amp most definitely doesn't sound dead on 9:30. On my amp its the perfect crunch, Malcolm Young rhythm sound. With the gain set on 11 o'clock on Gear 3 with the Koko Boost Mid boost, it's the perfect sound for Killswitch Engaged and Five Fingers Death Punch 👊 🤘
 
MrFlexx said:
When I play "chugga" stuff i set the gain at 11 o'clock and use either Gear 1 or Gear 3 depending on the song. My amp most definitely doesn't sound dead on 9:30. On my amp its the perfect crunch, Malcolm Young rhythm sound. With the gain set on 11 o'clock on Gear 3 with the Koko Boost Mid boost, it's the perfect sound for Killswitch Engaged and Five Fingers Death Punch 👊 🤘
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OK. That's good to know. I've read that Splawns can vary quite a bit. Mine is older but with 4 pre's. 08 I think. Not a super big fan of Gear 3 but I should try it some more now that I have an EQ in the loop. I think that was my missing element.

Unlike you ...I love Gear 2. I can get most of what I want 70's - to modern ish by adjusting other things. Granted, I'm still a newb :LOL:
 
311splawndude said:
OK. That's good to know. I've read that Splawns can vary quite a bit. Mine is older but with 4 pre's. 08 I think. Not a super big fan of Gear 3 but I should try it some more now that I have an EQ in the loop. I think that was my missing element.

Unlike you ...I love Gear 2. I can get most of what I want 70's - to modern ish by adjusting other things. Granted, I'm still a newb :LOL:
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Mine is a 2014. I'm on Gear 1 like 75% of the time, 5% on Gear 2 and the rest on Gear 3. I don't remember the names of the tubes in it, but I can ask my amp tech. He put in some that sounds amazing. It's not that I don't like Gear 2. It's that I use the amp like 90% of the time recording and to me its a bit to dark sounding. I know I can EQ it out in a heartbeat, but I don't have to change nothing switching between Gear 1 and Gear 3. I can leave the EQ and gain as it is switching between them and just kick in OD2 and/or a pedal to add more of what's already there.
 
I gig my Supersport in a Classic rock cover band, all 70's , 80's rock
I basically live in gear 1 with the gain at about10:0-11:00 and Use a Love pedal boost in my FX8. I stumbled upon something really interesting at a rehearsal a while ago. I forgot my foot switch so I was stuck in gear 2 all night (no clean either), we do a couple of songs where I need to be clean edge of break up and I found that if I turn my loop master up I could roll the volume down on my guitar and get a really nice thick warm clean out of it, much better than the actual clean channel. It sounded great with My Les Paul. I don't mind gear 2 if I'm using a bright mid heavy guitar, I find it smooths it out a bit.
 
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kmanick said:
I gig my Supersport in a Classic rock cover band, all 70's , 80's rock
I basically live in gear 1 with the gain at about10:0-11:00 and Use a Love pedal boost in my FB8. I stumbled upon something really interesting at a rehearsal a while ago. I forgot my foot switch so I was stuck in gear 2 all night (no clean either), we do a couple of songs where I need to be clean edge of break up and I found that if I turn my loop master up I could roll the volume down on my guitar and get a really nice thick warm clean out of it, much better than the actual clean channel. It sounded great with My Les Paul. I don't mind gear 2 if I'm using a bright mid heavy guitar, I find it smooths it out a bit.
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Yeah, Splawn clean up really well on all three gears. They are one of the few that really shines coming to this. Fun that you're using the Love pedal for boost. It was the only boost I did use when I owned my AxeFXII and AxeFXIII. I do love the Fractal stuff, but I sold both as I was programming more than I actually played the guitar. That's the nerd in me caving in the fun programming. So sadly I had to let them go to keep sane 🫣
 
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