Splawn Quickrod vs Ceriatone King Kong

[PDC]

I’ve got a pair of Splawn 50 heads - a QR and a Nitro - both with the new(er) Old/New voicing switches and Mid/Cut switch. I came from a 100 watt QR and Nitro that were both built before the voicing options were available. I loved all 4 amps and every one of them had a slightly different feel and sound. The 50 watters - which do run in Drop B+ by default - are definitely more forgiving than the 100 watt versions. While they don’t offer quite the same headroom, 50 watts is PLENTY loud for my current needs. I will say 2 things: 1) the Old/New and Mid/Cut switches really mitigate the speaker ‘pickiness‘ that earlier versions were known for. You can get the amp to play nice with a wider variety of speakers and cabs with those switching options, and 2) the Nitro is a bit ‘redundant’ with a fully loaded QR. I find that in 3rd gear with the mids cut in ‘new’ voicing, the QR gets deep into Nitro territory. Any time I get the chance to play through a different amp, I find that I keep coming back these fully loaded 50 watt Splawns. They are forgiving enough to be very comfortable for leads - but still retain that string separation and articulation that make an amp sound BIG. I find that I am using less and less gain on either amp and stepping on a one-knob Spark Mini for leads. The mini adds literally zero tonal coloration and just provides that touch extra ‘give’ that makes the amp feel fantastic for leads. It also firms up the low end on the Nitro - which can be a little ‘woofy’ from one guitar to the next.

 

[Junk Yard Dog]

I’ve got a pair of Splawn 50 heads - a QR and a Nitro - both with the new(er) Old/New voicing switches and Mid/Cut switch. I came from a 100 watt QR and Nitro that were both built before the voicing options were available. I loved all 4 amps and every one of them had a slightly different feel and sound. The 50 watters - which do run in Drop B+ by default - are definitely more forgiving than the 100 watt versions. While they don’t offer quite the same headroom, 50 watts is PLENTY loud for my current needs. I will say 2 things: 1) the Old/New and Mid/Cut switches really mitigate the speaker ‘pickiness‘ that earlier versions were known for. You can get the amp to play nice with a wider variety of speakers and cabs with those switching options, and 2) the Nitro is a bit ‘redundant’ with a fully loaded QR. I find that in 3rd gear with the mids cut in ‘new’ voicing, the QR gets deep into Nitro territory. Any time I get the chance to play through a different amp, I find that I keep coming back these fully loaded 50 watt Splawns. They are forgiving enough to be very comfortable for leads - but still retain that string separation and articulation that make an amp sound BIG. I find that I am using less and less gain on either amp and stepping on a one-knob Spark Mini for leads. The mini adds literally zero tonal coloration and just provides that touch extra ‘give’ that makes the amp feel fantastic for leads. It also firms up the low end on the Nitro - which can be a little ‘woofy’ from one guitar to the next.

This is a pretty good endorsement of the Splawn. You detailed how the newer versions with the options fix the things I didn't like about my 2014 Pro Stock, which I still loved overall. I also use a mini and big Spark and wondered how I could get the Splawn to be slightly more 'forgiving' in leads.

That said, I do hear mostly great things about the Ceriatone Yeti/Chupa and the feel of those being a bit closer to Friedmans, which were my main amps for the last 3 years.

Thanks for chiming in.

 

[endless]

seems to me from my correspondence with Nik and the NA Ceriatone salesman (guitarampsusa) the Ceriatones do not represent a good amp choice for extreme metal. A custom amp that sounds similar to Marshall would seem like a great idea, but the guys making them and selling them don't necessarily know what I want and there's no return policy.

Splawn also uses good parts, but the Nitro is useless for me and the QR I tried (at home) had nice thump, but was a little tame... maybe it needed chinese tubes or something else.

Based upon what I've sampled thus far, I think i would go with the Rivera Knucklehead Tre for an EL-34 amp: high gain with enough of the Marshall nasty/gnarly midrange/high sound intact.

 

[endofall]

seems to me from my correspondence with Nik and the NA Ceriatone salesman (guitarampsusa) the Ceriatones do not represent a good amp choice for extreme metal. A custom amp that sounds similar to Marshall would seem like a great idea, but the guys making them and selling them don't necessarily know what I want and there's no return policy.

Splawn also uses good parts, but the Nitro is useless for me and the QR I tried (at home) had nice thump, but was a little tame... maybe it needed chinese tubes or something else.

Based upon what I've sampled thus far, I think i would go with the Rivera Knucklehead Tre for an EL-34 amp: high gain with enough of the Marshall nasty/gnarly midrange/high sound intact.

Nik and Ceriatone said they do not have a amp good for modern metal? That seems really strange. The Gargoyle is based off a Fortin Meshuggah, and the leviathan is based off a Friedman butterslax. Both those amps will do modern metal with absolutely no problem. My Yeti will do metal just fine and with a boost like 808 it will do super tight modern metal sounds. I would not have any fear of using Ceriatone for modern metal.