What would you choose?

Which would you keep, and why

  • Mesa Boogie Singel Rec 50 watt Head Series 2

    Votes: 1 3.2%

  • Mesa Boogie Dual Rec Roadster Head

    Votes: 9 29.0%

  • Splawn Quickrod 100 watt EL34, fully loaded with B+ switch

    Votes: 17 54.8%

  • Splawn Quickrod 22 watt 6V6, fully loaded with B+ switch

    Votes: 1 3.2%

  • Splawn Nitro KT88, fully loaded with B+ switch

    Votes: 3 9.7%
  • Total voters
    31
War_in_D

War_in_D

Well-known member
I've always heard the saying "Beware the one gun man." Meaning, that if a person only has one gun and uses it all the time, they know that gun inside and out. It's more an extension of them, and are probably very good with it. In keeping with that theme, if I were to only keep one of these amps to play from here on out. Which if these amps would you pick as a starting platform to build a good all around tone machine?

I'm mainly a child of the 80's, but my musical tastes run from Classic Rock, to Hard Rock/Metal, Hair Metal, Grunge and just about everything in between and around those genres with songs that can go from clean/chorus to high gain (think something along the lines of You Can't Kill Rock and Roll by Ozzy). I'm not really into the heavily downtuned type stuff, but play a lot of stuff in Eb (half step down) and Drop D.
 
In my opinion if you want that 80s sound, get the stuff that made the 80s sound. First off, I'd get a Splawn. Second, I'd get the El34. It is going to capture that feel and tone. I owned a Splawn Competition back around 2006 and loved it. I've heard they are way better now.

I never gelled with Mesa stuff personally and owned a Dual and Single Rec at one point. Great amps but not what I like, which is that Marshall crunch.
 
Are you gonna gig ? If so I'd get the Quickrod 100 watt. Mainly in the house I'd go for the Super Sport with EL34s but they do sound good with 6V6s . Do they offer the Quickrod now with 6V6s ? The Splawns sound really good cranked up a bit no surprise there , I play mine at fairly loud bedroom volumes . FWIW I haven't played the Mesa`s
 
if you like 80s stuff most, I'd go for the EL34 quickrod.

If you like the grunge stuff more, I'd probably go for the roadster, but i would make damn sure it hasn't had any problems with the silent channel switching. Those amps are notoriously failure prone.

I also became a "single gun" guy as well, so I can relate a bit.
 
No gigging, but possibly the occasional garage band thing. The midsized QR is available in a 22 watt version with 6V6's. A little bit different flavor than the 100 watter, but still sounds pretty killer to me. I have a couple aces in the hole too, a Kemper and a Bogner 101B. The Bogner is staying for sure, and the Kemper is really fun to mess with and honesty probably what I would take if I were playing at a friend's house.
 
Are you in the market or are you asking what you should keep out of your own collection cause those are 2 different questions imho.

I've owned a quick rod and Nitro but not the fully loaded versions from what I've heard you can get them close to each other.

I would love a Nitro with KT88. I'm also wanting to add a dual rec next but I need another amp like a whole in the head
 
ClintN667 said:
Are you in the market or are you asking what you should keep out of your own collection cause those are 2 different questions imho.

I've owned a quick rod and Nitro but not the fully loaded versions from what I've heard you can get them close to each other.

I would love a Nitro with KT88. I'm also wanting to add a dual rec next but I need another amp like a whole in the head
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These are amps I currently have.
 
I'm a bit partial as I own a fully loaded Quickrod.
 

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ClintN667 said:
What's the reason you want to part with them? I would keep a Mesa and a splawn.
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Sorry for the long read for such a simple question. But lets just say, it's not a simple answer.. "Sherman, set the wayback machine to... 1985". LOL

When I was just a scrappy young teen, I didn't have a lot of gear but I had a lot of time. One guitar, one amp. That was it, and I was perfectly happy. Well, as happy as a 16 year old could be with one guitar, one amp and a whole lotta ambition. Played for hours a day, whenever I could. It was my life. During that time, I was really active in the local music scene here in my area. Played with several groups of friends, just doing the garage band thing and having fun with it. Never really wanted to take it any more serious than that. Even though, I had been told by many others that I probably could have. That part, I don't know. I've never considered myself to be much of a player, but looking back now I tend to think "what if I had taken that different path?". Anyway, I digress.

Then "life" happened, and somewhere around the mid-late 90's I quite playing altogether. Sold everything, and didn't pick up a guitar for a long time. Then fast forward to the early-mid 2000's and I had started dabbling in playing again. By that time, I had better means and with those means.. the ability to buy gear. I started buying all those guitars and amps of my youth that I could never have, and I became one of those guys that thought that more was better. I think it was at this point, that I went wrong. My mindset had changed from "do the best with what you have and let your playing do the talking." to "look at all these cool guitars and amps I've got!" It became more about what I had, than what I could do with it. It's still somewhat like that today, although I don't have near the collection that I used to have and I can honestly say that I'm at a place where I'm happy (and thankful) with what I have. I'm not really looking to add anything, and I don't need to get rid of anything and I do actually play everything that I own. But, part of me feels that if I simplify my life with regard to music gear, I'd be happier and possibly play more. I spend more time deciding what gear I want to play, than playing and that is just starting to feel wrong to me.
 
War_in_D said:
Sorry for the long read for such a simple question. But lets just say, it's not a simple answer.. "Sherman, set the wayback machine to... 1985". LOL

When I was just a scrappy young teen, I didn't have a lot of gear but I had a lot of time. One guitar, one amp. That was it, and I was perfectly happy. Well, as happy as a 16 year old could be with one guitar, one amp and a whole lotta ambition. Played for hours a day, whenever I could. It was my life. During that time, I was really active in the local music scene here in my area. Played with several groups of friends, just doing the garage band thing and having fun with it. Never really wanted to take it any more serious than that. Even though, I had been told by many others that I probably could have. That part, I don't know. I've never considered myself to be much of a player, but looking back now I tend to think "what if I had taken that different path?". Anyway, I digress.

Then "life" happened, and somewhere around the mid-late 90's I quite playing altogether. Sold everything, and didn't pick up a guitar for a long time. Then fast forward to the early-mid 2000's and I had started dabbling in playing again. By that time, I had better means and with those means.. the ability to buy gear. I started buying all those guitars and amps of my youth that I could never have, and I became one of those guys that thought that more was better. I think it was at this point, that I went wrong. My mindset had changed from "do the best with what you have and let your playing do the talking." to "look at all these cool guitars and amps I've got!" It became more about what I had, than what I could do with it. It's still somewhat like that today, although I don't have near the collection that I used to have and I can honestly say that I'm at a place where I'm happy (and thankful) with what I have. I'm not really looking to add anything, and I don't need to get rid of anything and I do actually play everything that I own. But, part of me feels that if I simplify my life with regard to music gear, I'd be happier and possibly play more. I spend more time deciding what gear I want to play, than playing and that is just starting to feel wrong to me.
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I can totally relate. I have narrowed it down for my amps. They all have to be unique, be something that I play every other week. No overlap in sounds
 
The Nitro KT88 but I’m a big KT88 fan and more of a Mark series than Recto series fan. All those amps are great but there is just something special about the crushing power of KT88s.

That said, I think I personally prefer the Quickrod to the Nitro. Go figure
 
I had a similar road , gigged heavily in early 80's walked away completely and didn't touch a guitar again until 2000
then I had a good job and the means to basically go nuts on gear (which I did)
the Splawn Super sport El-34 I have is fully loaded (even still has the 2 speaker outs and the solo boost), and it
covers almost everything I like to do well. I would love to also have a Roadster head with a 2X12 Recto cab to cover
all of the 7 string stuff I like to do.
 
Devin said:
I'd choose the Roadster personally
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Yeah, might be hard to let the Roadster go. I've been toying with getting rid of the single rec for a while now, and that one will probably go on the chopping block soon. The two Splawn QR's (22w and 100w) will stay, mainly because I bought them new and resale is horrible. I'm not ready to take a bath on them yet. That being said, they are great amps so keeping them doesn't hurt my feelings. The Nitro, still up in the air on that one. I really need to run it head to head with the QR and see if there is enough of a tonal and gain difference for me to warrant keeping it.
 
Oh man, I would love to have a Roadster. Here is where my head is at though. That's a lot of tubes to maintain :LOL:

If you don't have a good ABY pedal get one. Then ABY your Roadster/Single Rec and Nitro/Quick Rod. Along with other amps/combinations. Let your ears make the decision.

I had always head it is easier to make a QR sound like a Nitro vs the other way around (tubes being equal) but I don't know first hand if there is any truth to that.
 
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