Well I just had a chance to open up the QR when the family went to church. Here are my now, eyes-wide-open thoughts. Note, I played it in full-power with my Suhr Modern (DSH+, DSV).
1. Surprisingly good clean channel. Excellent actually. Tons of head-room, sounds great with the obligatory chorus and delay. Simple.
2. I completely understand what everyone means about Splawns being unforgiving amps. It's not that it doesn't have enough gain, although I can understand that being the knee-jerk reaction. It's the saturation. That comes from the power-amp and if you don't open it up, you may feel like it's not juicy enough.
3. It's chunky and roars like a Marshall. Punchy and articulate.
4. If you like using the volume knob on your guitar to clean things up, this amp works great in that regard.
5. Not sure how to use the loop volume yet. I had my Nova Repeater in the loop and it seems I have to have the loop volume dimed to hear my delay. Probably need to read the manuals.
6. I used an MXR Wylde OD and that solved the issue with saturation.
7. The StreetRod I played last week seemed to have more distinct differences in tone when going through the gears than the QR. Need to play the QR in half-power if it becomes more like the SR.
8. Have no idea what OD1 and OD2 on the pedal actually do. I hear bit more gain with OD2.
Anyway, I'm just scratching the surface with it. Does it sound like I'd hoped? Yes. But I was surprised by the "unforgiving" aspect even though I'd read all about it and played a StreetRod recently. I figure if I can hang with this amp for a while it'll actually help my technique. More to come.
Dave