Played a Splawn for the first time

Chase42147

Chase42147

Member
So yesterday I was at this guy's house, he was buying a Mark V head from me, and he had a lot of cool stuff. Uber Ultra with KT-88's, Revv Generator 120, 90s resissue Rectifier, Engl Fireball, Mezzabarba M Zero Overdrive, etc. He also had a Splawn Competition 50, which I got to play. I had never seen a Splawn in the wild before, much less played one. That may be my new favorite amp. So much gain on tap, but still had great clarity. Such a raunchy sound too. I've been wanting a hot rodded Marshall for awhile, and I think it would scratch that itch. I'm kinda curious though, is it closer to a JCM800 or a Plexi?
 
Chase42147 said:
So yesterday I was at this guy's house, he was buying a Mark V head from me, and he had a lot of cool stuff. Uber Ultra with KT-88's, Revv Generator 120, 90s resissue Rectifier, Engl Fireball, Mezzabarba M Zero Overdrive, etc. He also had a Splawn Competition 50, which I got to play. I had never seen a Splawn in the wild before, much less played one. That may be my new favorite amp. So much gain on tap, but still had great clarity. Such a raunchy sound too. I've been wanting a hot rodded Marshall for awhile, and I think it would scratch that itch. I'm kinda curious though, is it closer to a JCM800 or a Plexi?
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It is closer to a JCM 800, although it can do the low gain Plexi/JMP crunch thing just fine.
 
Chase42147 said:
So yesterday I was at this guy's house, he was buying a Mark V head from me, and he had a lot of cool stuff. Uber Ultra with KT-88's, Revv Generator 120, 90s resissue Rectifier, Engl Fireball, Mezzabarba M Zero Overdrive, etc. He also had a Splawn Competition 50, which I got to play. I had never seen a Splawn in the wild before, much less played one. That may be my new favorite amp. So much gain on tap, but still had great clarity. Such a raunchy sound too. I've been wanting a hot rodded Marshall for awhile, and I think it would scratch that itch. I'm kinda curious though, is it closer to a JCM800 or a Plexi?
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I will take a stab at this but I've never seen a Competition either, let alone played one. But I do have a Quick Rod and I had it on half power for many years and never used the clean channel. I'd say it is much closer to an 800 than a Plexi. I'd say I can't really get that Plexi 'hair' out of mine but I also don't really go after those tones. The newer models have all the new tweaking features.

@napalmdeath has had a few Comps I believe over the years - maybe he will see this.
 
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311boogieman said:
I will take a stab at this but I've never seen a Competition either, let alone played one. But I do have a Quick Rod and I had it on half power from many years and never used the clean channel. I'd say it is much closer to an 800 than a Plexi. I'd say I can't really get that Plexi 'hair' out of mine but I also don't really go after those tones. The newer models have all the new tweaking features.

@napalmdeath has had a few Comps I believe over the years - maybe he will see this.
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I love the Competition - Another one of my favorite amps.
It has a hint of Plexi flavor in 1st gear, 2nd is definitely more 800, and 3rd gear I never used, (I didn't need all that gain and used a boost for my personal taste anyway).

1st gear gets you great AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, even some Zeppelin, up to hair metal boosted. 2nd gear, is great for thrash metal. I really dig the voicing between the 2 - it's like 2 amps in one.

The Competition is the one to get, if you don't care about cleans. I think it sounds better than the Quick Rod, not having that extra channel, and less going on. I've been looking for one in the mini headshell for awhile, actually.
 
I was going to say @napalmdeath , you've also had/played several Ceriatones correct? Which one of those has the better Plexi sound AND do any of them do the QR thing with "Gears" ie. higher gain/voicing switch?
 
311boogieman said:
I was going to say @napalmdeath , you've also had/played several Ceriatones correct? Which one of those has the better Plexi sound AND do any of them do the QR thing with "Gears" ie. higher gain/voicing switch?
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I had the Yeti 100. It's more Plexi using those modes/switches, but it's also a modified Jose style mod for higher gain. It's a great amp as well.
I really only used it for high gain, and boosted. Again, great 80's thrash, and more 800 at that point. I was lucky to find one with an upgraded buffered loop, but with their standard loop, I'd go with the Splawn.

Another option in the same price-range is a used Friedman Runt 50, (cheaper, actually). It's an 800 style amp that is more raw and aggressive/less polished than the other Friedmans. You can throw a Hot Mod in it, and get all the gain you could ask for. Sounds great just boosted as well. And, exceptional build quality. Lots of options out there.
 
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been gigging the 50 watt SuperSport for the last 4 years. Bought it new from Scott fully loaded.
Gear one can do a lot with a boost, as can Gear 2. In gear 1 mine cleans up really well, if I could go back and do it again I would've ordered the 50 Competition in the small head shell, I very rarely use the clean on mine, although through a chorus/compressor it sounds pretty sweet with single coils
but I'rather have 3rd gear LOL!!!
 
Thanks for all the responses guys, some good info in here! I don't mind single channel amps, as long as I have one amp I can play nice cleans with, the rest I only care about the high gain channel. I did find 3rd gear to be a bit much for my tastes, but he did seem to have his amps dialed with a lot more gain in general than I use
 
Yeah...I never used 3rd Gear. 1st or 2nd for me with a boost. 3rd on some years was over the top, not so much gain but just lets so much bass/resonance through. That might be okay with some cabs/speakers, but I had a Splawn 4x12 with governors and eminence speakers have a bit more low end to them.
 
crwnedblasphemy said:
Yeah...I never used 3rd Gear. 1st or 2nd for me with a boost. 3rd on some years was over the top, not so much gain but just lets so much bass/resonance through. That might be okay with some cabs/speakers, but I had a Splawn 4x12 with governors and eminence speakers have a bit more low end to them.
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That's a great point. I don't use Gear 3 either. I think you described it well. Just a tad more gain but mostly the 'over the top' thing can be a bit much. I probably use my Splawn in ways it was not intended so therefore - it may not be best for my style. It is certainly VERY unforgiving. Probably opposite of a Freidman from everything I've heard. Lately, I've been playing it (along with my Dual Rec) with no boost. That is a big change for me as I've always been boost on. Because I go for more modern ish tones I am in Gear 2 with the Bass low (10am) and Treble on 0 (7am) and Gain probably at 2 or 3pm.

My new Chinese square getters from @just42dave I think is allowing me to play it without a boost. I'm using a Splawn 212 cab with Small Blocks (55w Greenback type speaker).
 
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I had a Splawn Competition back around 2005'ish and eventually sold it to crwnedblasphemy and he loved it as well. This was back before they had all the bells and whistles and was great even back then.

People on the HC forums heard one of my clips and thought it nailed the brown sound. Splawn amps are awesome and I have a soft spot for the Competition. Great amp and I probably need to get another one eventually.
 
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