Splawn versatility

[cvogue]

OK, I swear I saw a posting on here somewhere on here asking about the versatility of Splawns but now I can't find it to respond, may have been somewhere else. Anyway, the thread said something about everybody doing Van Halen style sounds in Splawn clips (and Splawns do that *really* well) but what other tones can you get out of them?

So I thought I'd add my .02, and start a thread on the versatility of Splawns!

First the clean channel, it's quite good. Fender style? Not really... better than Marshall clean, yes, at least to my ears. Add a bit of reverb and delay and you've got a really nice mellow clean. Can actually get a pretty jazzy sound out of it and we do some funky stuff as well and with the coils split on my guitar it works great for that.

On the "filthy" side (thanks Schmasty!) there are SO many distortion options on these amps it's almost too much.

Gear 1 - they say that's the Plexi sound and you can definitely get the Plexi sound out of it but to my ears you can get a really good dimed Vox sound out of it too on OD1 with the gain backed off a bit. OD2 gives you more "oomph", getting into early VH territory. AC/DC tones abound on gear 1 with the gain a bit lower (noonish) and the amp cranked.

Gear 2 - supposed to be a JCM800 sound. OD1 is probably my least fave sound on my amp, it's bassy, if you're into that all good but to me OD2 adds more edge and voila you're in a more modern sounding distortion. I used to use gear 2 OD2 in a band I played in that did a lot of 90's/2000's stuff, worked great.

Gear 3 - More gain and more edge than Gear 2. When I first got the amp I used this a lot... too much for my current band but I use it occasionaly for certain songs. I may try backing the gain down and see what that sounds like, LOADS of gain on gear 3. They say it's a hot rodded JCM800 sound but I swear it actually has a more classic sound but with more gain.

The best part is that there really are no bad sounds in this amp. Even gear 2 OD1 It's funny I replaced a Blackstar HT-40 with the Street Rod and the Blackstar sounds fantastic at lower volumes but when you turn it up it gets harsh. Good amp though, but the Splawn sounds great at all volumes, pretty amazing.

I play in a classic rock cover band, focusing on the danceable stuff, but we do everthing from VH and Zeppelin to Men at Work and I have to produce a wide variety of sounds and the Street Rod absolutely delivers!

What say you?!

 

[kmanick]

Hmmm I could've sworn I responded to that post but I can't find it either.
I currently play in a classic hard rock cover band doing (at the moment) mostly 70's and 80's stuff. we do have some newer songs sprinkled in but for now we're focusing on the earlier stuff. We cover Aerosmith, Led Zep, ZZ Top, Cream, Atlanta Rhythm section , Pink Floyd, Thin Lizzy, Bad Company, The Cars , Rainbow, Badfinger, Pat Travers, Van Halen, Foreigner, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Allman Brothers to name a few.
With an MRX 10 band EQ in the loop and the wide assortment of OD's/dirt boxes in the Fractal FX8 I run in 4CM , my SuperSport handles all of these bands with ease. Now granted these bands are all (for the most part) bands that used Marshalls so it's not a huge stretch. I find with the
right pedals and guitar I can handle a lot of this stuff. I tend to rotate between a Les Paul Traditional (that has a Rio Grande BBQ in the bridge ) that I use for my "slide" songs and the stuff that needs a Les Paul, my MIJ Charvel Socal that I converted to H/S/S and My Jackson SL1 that's got a Holydiver in the bridge and a Dimarzio Heavy blues II in the neck. It's amazing how my amp reacts differently to single coils and Humbuckers. Much more so than my JVM did. For the majority of this stuff I live on Gear 1 OD 1, I do like OD2 with my single coil pickups , it fattens them up. I think I use Gear 2 for 1 or 2 songs and thats it.
I love the clean on my head but we really haven't picked any songs to cover yet where I need it. We do cover "Don't do me like that" by Tom Petty and I am on Clean for that one but I think that's it right now.

 

[cvogue]

Funny I used to use the MXR 10 band in the loop but since I had the Street Rod retubed I really don't need it any more.

I mainly use my PRS CE-24 (original from 97 not reissue) and I had a push/pull pot installed to split the pickups. Using a Dragon 2 bass and a Duncan 59/Custom hybrid in the bridge.

With that one guitar and a few pedals (well one is a multi effect to be fair!) I can get a ton of tones out of the rig. I actually don't use effects that much, special purpose things for particular songs. I do leave my Wampler Ethereal on a lot of the time for reverb and a touch of ambient delay.

 

[311splawndude]

cvogue - that was probably someone responding to one of my clips

I think it was actually something to the degree that I'm not using my Splawn in a way that showcases its core tone. VH style.

I can't disagree with that.

I like my Splawn for what it gives me and yes, if you listen to all the various Splawn clips out there - you can hear the versatility

But maybe you guys are thinking of something on TGP - where I don't really prowl?

I agree with your assessments in your OP cvogue!

 

[cvogue]

cvogue - that was probably someone responding to one of my clips

I think it was actually something to the degree that I'm not using my Splawn in a way that showcases its core tone. VH style.

I can't disagree with that.

I like my Splawn for what it gives me and yes, if you listen to all the various Splawn clips out there - you can hear the versatility

But maybe you guys are thinking of something on TGP - where I don't really prowl?

I agree with your assessments in your OP cvogue!

I swear it was on here, I saw it pop up in my email and was going to respond to it... and then it was gone!

Never really hung out on TGP... and sadly our old stomping ground is pretty quiet.

 

[cvogue]

Hmmm I could've sworn I responded to that post but I can't find it either.
I currently play in a classic hard rock cover band doing (at the moment) mostly 70's and 80's stuff. we do have some newer songs sprinkled in but for now we're focusing on the earlier stuff. We cover Aerosmith, Led Zep, ZZ Top, Cream, Atlanta Rhythm section , Pink Floyd, Thin Lizzy, Bad Company, The Cars , Rainbow, Badfinger, Pat Travers, Van Halen, Foreigner, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Allman Brothers to name a few.
With an MRX 10 band EQ in the loop and the wide assortment of OD's/dirt boxes in the Fractal FX8 I run in 4CM , my SuperSport handles all of these bands with ease. Now granted these bands are all (for the most part) bands that used Marshalls so it's not a huge stretch. I find with the
right pedals and guitar I can handle a lot of this stuff. I tend to rotate between a Les Paul Traditional (that has a Rio Grande BBQ in the bridge ) that I use for my "slide" songs and the stuff that needs a Les Paul, my MIJ Charvel Socal that I converted to H/S/S and My Jackson SL1 that's got a Holydiver in the bridge and a Dimarzio Heavy blues II in the neck. It's amazing how my amp reacts differently to single coils and Humbuckers. Much more so than my JVM did. For the majority of this stuff I live on Gear 1 OD 1, I do like OD2 with my single coil pickups , it fattens them up. I think I use Gear 2 for 1 or 2 songs and thats it.
I love the clean on my head but we really haven't picked any songs to cover yet where I need it. We do cover "Don't do me like that" by Tom Petty and I am on Clean for that one but I think that's it right now.

Man that's a great set of bands to cover! Yeah they probably all used Marshalls but hey, everyone did back then.