Question about the Splawn Quick Rod amps

[billm408]

I have an early 3 pre model that's been my main amp since '06. I had my buddy's newer B+ QR and I honestly didn't care for it. The nature of my older one had a much more angry 'in your face' tone that my ears like hearing. The newer one, while cool, was softer and lacked the 'bite' of my amp

Agree- My 3 pre has an aggressiveness and bite that the newer 2012 doesn't have. It's my understanding that Scott made changes over the years based on user feedback. People asked for a better clean and he added the 4th preamp tube. People wanted a more forgiving amp with more saturation and you lose some of the spank. I like both for different reasons, but the '06 3 pre is still my #1 and the amp I gig with. But for home use, the active MV in the loop makes the 2012 a better choice.

 

[Shiny_Surface]

It's an awesome amp IMO, but you have to gel with his amps in general. They seem to have a love hate thing with a lot of people. I happen to really dig them, so I own a couple. If you end up vibing with them, Scott is a class act, and has been considered that way for a long time in this business.

I very much agree.

I've owned a few Splawns, one of them a QR but they were older models.

I think part of the weird mids thing was people not necessarily hating but mentioning the midrange was not to their liking and getting blasted for it. From '06 to '08 in particular from my memory the Splawn online presence was pretty intense and not very kind of anyone that didn't like them. Hence the "Splawn police" reputation that developed out of that.

Which caused a cycle of fanboy praise and negative opinion and pushing their buttons knowing they would get a rise out of them...

Scott is a great guy to deal with, always had exceptional support with any issues I had.

The QR's in particular have had some changes over the years so there there are sub-groups of fans for each phase in the tone/feature set.