Played a Splawn for the first time

romanianreaper said:
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.
Click to expand...
Wow, I didn't realize they've been around for that long!

It seems like they can get a really wide variety of tones, which is super impressive for a single channel amp. Ive heard people say its the modded Marshall, perfected
 
Fusionbear said:
I had a fully loaded Mini-Comp. It is a killer amp, but I missed having a clean channel. I have a Streetrod combo that ticks all the boxes alongside my Quickrod and Splawn 4x12
Click to expand...
Could see that. I play 'dirty clean' with the Gain knob between 10-12:00 and roll my guitar volume down.

The only challenge I have is this...

Gear 2 substantially kicks up the bass in OLD mode. So I can't get quite the dirty clean I want without some tubbiness in that situation, just my ears and experience. That is solved by switching to the NEW mode on Gear 2. Gear 1, OLD, I can get the dirty clean I need.

I never play clean channels, so if there's others like me, the Comp may suit pretty well. When I gig, I use my dirty clean method and it stays clean enough for openings like Enter Sandman and the like.

I almost want a Fully loaded mini Super Comp, a single channel Nitro with the Comps gears, and a Resonance knob on the back. There's one out there in the wild and the owner loves it and he's had several iterations of Nitro and QR's over the years.
 
Big Splawn fan / owner here. SO nice to hear a bit of Splawn love on the boards! I agree with everything everyone has posted - pair this amp with a more neutral speaker and the mids are a non-issue. 1st Gear OD1/OD2 is like a cranked up, pissed off Plexi. 2nd Gear OD1/OD2 is everything I think the Friedman JEL (Hot-Rodded JCM Tone) is trying to be. 1st and 2nd Gears take boost pedals like a champ. I never use 3rd Gear on my QR and sold my Nitro - not because I didn't like it - but because my playing style and the sounds I chase in my head aren't as extreme as the Nitro (basically 3rd Gear on a QR) tends to be.
 
I wish I remembered what speakers he had in his cab. He had so many 4x12s with different speakers (or combinations of different ones) that I lost track. But I think it was Eminence and something else...
 
Chase42147 said:
Wow, I didn't realize they've been around for that long!

It seems like they can get a really wide variety of tones, which is super impressive for a single channel amp. Ive heard people say its the modded Marshall, perfected
Click to expand...
Oh yeah man and now they have options they didnt have before. It is like Scott listened to folks and adjusted. I didnt even have the half power switch and could still do bedroom levels back then. Can't even imagine what they sound like now.
 
PDC said:
Big Splawn fan / owner here. SO nice to hear a bit of Splawn love on the boards! I agree with everything everyone has posted - pair this amp with a more neutral speaker and the mids are a non-issue. 1st Gear OD1/OD2 is like a cranked up, pissed off Plexi. 2nd Gear OD1/OD2 is everything I think the Friedman JEL (Hot-Rodded JCM Tone) is trying to be. 1st and 2nd Gears take boost pedals like a champ. I never use 3rd Gear on my QR and sold my Nitro - not because I didn't like it - but because my playing style and the sounds I chase in my head aren't as extreme as the Nitro (basically 3rd Gear on a QR) tends to be.
Click to expand...
What speakers do you use with yours?
 
  • Like
Reactions: PDC
romanianreaper said:
What speakers do you use with yours?
Click to expand...
I've used a wide variety. I think the amp sound best with either Creamback M65 or Scumback M75. But I have also gotten nice tones using the older Marshall branded V-30s (Marshall G12 Vintage). I've posted this in other threads, but I absolutely believe that having the Old/New Voicing Switch and the Mid/Cut switch does allow the amp to achieve a great sound with a wider variety of speakers.
 
I really enjoyed my 2018 Quickrod. It was fully loaded and sounded awesome through Greenbacks. For the prices you can get them for used, they are a no-brainer.

I've since moved on, but I liked it enough that when I had the chance to get it back at a good price I did it again.

All the tone of the "big names" without the pretentious vibe brought on by the customers.
 
PDC said:
I've used a wide variety. I think the amp sound best with either Creamback M65 or Scumback M75. But I have also gotten nice tones using the older Marshall branded V-30s (Marshall G12 Vintage). I've posted this in other threads, but I absolutely believe that having the Old/New Voicing Switch and the Mid/Cut switch does allow the amp to achieve a great sound with a wider variety of speakers.
Click to expand...
Agreed. I wasn't a fan of the smallblocks at all in my Splawn 4x12. I swapped them for all governors. Governors with the older Splawns sounded damn good to my ear. Private Jacks too. I had 2 QR(2006) that I put old brown base Tesla EL34s in her and the band I was in we opened for Lynch Mob and I had nothing but tone compliments after we played. Something about those Heyboer Trannies in the old ones were a way different feel/cut than the 2012 I had with the Classic Tone ones. That one felt smoothed out and a little polite. I have always been intrigued about the NEW/OLD switch cuz I'm not sure how that's achieved because those transformers were the difference in the new and old versions.
 
  • Like
Reactions: PDC
Also, unlike today were you can have Ox Boxes and these great load boxes with IRs, back then I played my splawns also in and Apartment besides rehearsal space. I had tricks. would run a Rocktron Xpression or Lexicon Rack unit through the loop and tame it, or I also had a Weber Mass 100 attenuator. My second 2006 QR I bought I think on here from someone, I had them direct ship it to Jens Kruse in LA and he did the power scaling mod on it before sending it to me. That worked great as well.
 
romanianreaper said:
Oh yeah man and now they have options they didnt have before. It is like Scott listened to folks and adjusted. I didnt even have the half power switch and could still do bedroom levels back then. Can't even imagine what they sound like now.
Click to expand...
I bought a 2005 Quick Rod back when the 3 gears was a mod he was doing, and wasn't a standard feature yet, (so he added it). No loop master back then. It was god-awful loud. One of the loudest amps I've ever owned. It was an absolute no for home use, and I sold it for that reason. Vintage pics..

100_0461.jpg
 
napalmdeath said:
I bought a 2005 Quick Rod back when the 3 gears was a mod he was doing, and wasn't a standard feature yet, (so he added it). No loop master back then. It was god-awful loud. One of the loudest amps I've ever owned. It was an absolute no for home use, and I sold it for that reason. Vintage pics..

View attachment 406115
Click to expand...
Yeah it was...this is also why I never bought a Roccaforte amp. They were GOD LOUD as well.
 
crwnedblasphemy said:
I had 2 QR(2006) that I put old brown base Tesla EL34s in
Click to expand...
This ^^^ Those Heyboer Transformers really were magic with that circuit, and I accumulated a small stash of those 'golden era' Brown Base Dual Halo Getter Teslas over the years. Hard to find a better sounding EL34 tube. Used to get those sitting on the rack an any decent sized Guitar Center in the late 80s/early 90s re-labeled by Groove Tubes as 'EL34-B' and they are sensational.
 
PDC said:
This ^^^ Those Heyboer Transformers really were magic with that circuit, and I accumulated a small stash of those 'golden era' Brown Base Dual Halo Getter Teslas over the years. Hard to find a better sounding EL34 tube. Used to get those sitting on the rack an any decent sized Guitar Center in the late 80s/early 90s re-labeled by Groove Tubes as 'EL34-B' and they are sensational.
Click to expand...
Yup...I actually ran my QR with only 2 in the middle slots(Scott said that was fine). They were spendy...I think I paid $150 for the pair at the time. It was still plenty loud.
 
  • Like
Reactions: PDC
I like a combo of Scumback M75's and H75's in an X pattern in my Splawn 4x12 with my Quickrod. Just amazing tone!. In my Streetrod 1x12 Combo, the Scumback J75 has beat out all the other speakers I have tried..
 
crwnedblasphemy said:
Also, unlike today were you can have Ox Boxes and these great load boxes with IRs, back then I played my splawns also in and Apartment besides rehearsal space. I had tricks. would run a Rocktron Xpression or Lexicon Rack unit through the loop and tame it, or I also had a Weber Mass 100 attenuator. My second 2006 QR I bought I think on here from someone, I had them direct ship it to Jens Kruse in LA and he did the power scaling mod on it before sending it to me. That worked great as well.
Click to expand...
You bought my 2005 or 2006 white headshell Competition back in the day. I didnt want white but "white piping" got mixed up with "white tolex" when I ordered, lol. Was such an amazing amp. I might need to get another someday.
 
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.
Click to expand...
I like 3rd gear with the gain real low. I was able to tone match it pretty closely to my 78 JMP that way. Close enough that I sold off the Marshall.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top