Fryette Deliverance 120 ii or Splawn Quickrod 100 Watt

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ldd-0178

ldd-0178

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I'm really wanting either the deliverance or a quickrod and can't decided between the two, so I wanted to hear anybody's opinion on either of the two and why you went with one or the other.

I mostly just do recordings but I have a love for tube amps as they're just much more of a joy to play for me. I normally like brighter amps with lots of high mids that really cut through as I mostly do recordings these days. I also want my amps to be tight (no flub in the low end) and take boost pedals well. I love that Marshall growl and really do mostly pop punk, emo, post-hardcore, alternative, grunge style music. Every now and then I do metal and like to detune the guitars but mostly I do a lot of 7th and 9th chords with lots of palm mutes. I love super crunchy palm mutes and lots of note clarity.

I currently have a Deliverance 120 ii but have another 30 days to return it and it sounds incredible, however it seems to be a little too warm and woody for my personal preference but it sounds so good that it doesn't bother me. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing out on anything with the Splawn as I've never played one and don't have a chance to.
 
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From your description of what tone you like, QR over the Deliverance all day.
 
ldd-0178 said:
Have you played both? What's your reason for the Deliverance?
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The low end for most splawn amps has a "depth" or "sub" bass frequency that isnt tight and doesn't track as quickly as the low mids do.

For some people this isn't a problem at all, but it drives me insane.

The deliverance is just way more complex and sweet sounding in the midrange in my opinion, and while the low mids aren't quite as tight as the QR, the low lows are actually TIGHTER

Ymmv
 
Deliverance is a really hard amp to beat all around. I've got the first gen 60w version, that's been my favorite amp to record with for well over 10 years now. The ease of dialing in exactly what I want & always having it sound good never cease to impress me.

I like the splawn quickrod a lot, they're great amps. I live relatively close to his shop and used to play one every time I stopped by. There was never a time I didn't come dangerously close to putting down a deposit on one. Honestly, there's a good chance I'll buy one next year, more for live use than recording.
 
I have the deliverance 120 series 1. Amazing amp. But not really sounding like your description.

It as almost a nice tight hard crunchy low end, with somewhat scooped or hollow mids, with a squishy top end. Not Marshall bright. It’s a different type of bright.

One of the best amps I’ve owned. But also unique, so I can see some people not enjoying it.
 
Eazy-ESP said:
I have the deliverance 120 series 1. Amazing amp. But not really sounding like your description.

It as almost a nice tight hard crunchy low end, with somewhat scooped or hollow mids, with a squishy top end. Not Marshall bright. It’s a different type of bright.

One of the best amps I’ve owned. But also unique, so I can see some people not enjoying it.
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Agreed, well said
 
The Splawn’s I never liked. The Quick Rods (of all era’s) are kinda weird and contradicting in that they sound tight, but always feel to me like there’s a lag or slow response, the mids (especially upper mids) kinda quack to me rather than growl. It’s like they’re very present and peaky but smooth with weird notches and they sound bright, kinda brittle yet somehow muffled at the same time. The Deliverance I think is a much better amp, but to me at least doesn’t really match the descriptions you mentioned

If the budget is under $2k I’d look into a reissue Marshall JCM800, Friedman JEL20 (I didn’t keep it, but sounded better than I expected), maybe the new Orange OR30 (I have one coming in 2 days that I can return if I don’t like it). Otherwise, I’d say a vintage JMP2203/4, Naylor or maybe Soldano SLO
 
DanTravis62 said:
The low end for most splawn amps has a "depth" or "sub" bass frequency that isnt tight and doesn't track as quickly as the low mids do.

For some people this isn't a problem at all, but it drives me insane.

The deliverance is just way more complex and sweet sounding in the midrange in my opinion, and while the low mids aren't quite as tight as the QR, the low lows are actually TIGHTER

Ymmv
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The Splawn’s are weird in that way. They somehow sound tight, but seems like there’s a lag in response and somehow bright yet in a way muffled at the same time
 
braintheory said:
The Splawn’s I never liked. The Quick Rods (of all era’s) are kinda weird and contradicting in that they sound tight, but always feel to me like there’s a lag or slow response, the mids (especially upper mids) kinda quack to me rather than growl. It’s like they’re very present and peaky but smooth with weird notches and they sound bright, kinda brittle yet somehow muffled at the same time. The Deliverance I think is a much better amp, but to me at least doesn’t really match the descriptions you mentioned

If the budget is under $2k I’d look into a reissue Marshall JCM800, Friedman JEL20 (I didn’t keep it, but sounded better than I expected), maybe the new Orange OR30 (I have one coming in 2 days that I can return if I don’t like it). Otherwise, I’d say a vintage JMP2203/4, Naylor or maybe Soldano SLO
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Just looked into the OR30 this thing looks promising. I used to have a Rockerverb I liked a lot but Orange seems to get kinda fuzzy when getting into high gain stuff which I'm not super big on. Also, didn't know you could snag a reissue 800 for less than 2k.

I heard that the JCM2000 on the green crunch channel boosted sound amazing and those things are cheap, any experience with that?
 
I have only played the SigX so can't compare 'side by side' like some of these other guys. I can get a variety of tones out of my QR which I like. Also Scott Splawn is super easy to deal with.

I really like this clip. This is the other guitarist in Bushido Code along with Bad.Seed (Kyle Bull) - who also has killer clips of his Splawn.

 
It sounds like you enjoy the D120; I'd keep it and start a fund for your next purchase be it a Splawn or another Marshall type amp. The QR is a big contrast to the Deliverance; you can cover a ton of ground with both.
 
ldd-0178 said:
Just looked into the OR30 this thing looks promising. I used to have a Rockerverb I liked a lot but Orange seems to get kinda fuzzy when getting into high gain stuff which I'm not super big on. Also, didn't know you could snag a reissue 800 for less than 2k.

I heard that the JCM2000 on the green crunch channel boosted sound amazing and those things are cheap, any experience with that?
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I agree, Orange’s aren’t my favorite amps, but I liked some of the clips I heard of the OR30, so I wanted to try it, but I likely won’t keep it, but will see… I think you can get a reissue 800 for under $2k, but I don’t follow the market for that anymore. Other guys here would know better for that

JCM2000’s (DSL’s) can be good amps for the money, but if you can afford a JCM800 it sounds a lot better or even a ‘90’s Sovtek MIG100H. It’s sorta like a Russian made JCM800 with 6l6’s instead of EL34’s and sounds fatter, but not as bright or grindy in the upper mids, but for the money a very hard amp to rival that I at least think wipes the floor with a JCM2000 DSL or Splawn, but that’s maybe more apples vs orange their
 
Turn back gain I a bit if you need more bite. What speakers are you using?
 
The QR that I had was only usable for me on gear 1 using OD1 and OD2 with a SD1 or Koko boost. Gears 2 and 3 were too muffled and bloated, but I could see how they might work for someone else.

The Deliverance Synergy module sounded much better for my uses. Never had an actual Deliverance though.
 
Kelly said:
Turn back gain I a bit if you need more bite. What speakers are you using?
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I am using torpedo two notes George Lynch Marshall cab with greenbacks, my cab in the room is a Bogner with V30s and Greenbacks. The amps sounds amazing but I find it competing with the bass in the mix, I've been eqing it with low and high cuts and booting upper mids etc... but it just sits back a little more than I normally prefer.
 
I have a Sig:X (not quite the same as Deliverance, but similar apparently) and have had a bunch of different Splawns.

It's important to know what YEAR Splawn you are getting, unless you're talking strictly about new ones - and this applies to the advice given in this very thread. Anyone who played a 2007-2012 QR might comment on how dull the highs are, or honky the mids are, but those may as well be completely different amps to a modern QR, or an earlier QR.

One thing I will say, personally, I don't think any Splawn takes a boost particularly well. They have a very specific sound, which I love at times, but the effects of anything in front and the EQ controls on the amp have a more limited range than you might be used to. That signature Splawn sound of whatever circuit version you have is always there, adding a boost is like a slight coloring - so if you don't love the core sound, you aren't going to be happy. I say this in contrast so some other amps I've had (Orange Thunderverb comes to mind) which can sound almost like a completely different amp depending on which boost I use, because the amp is just really transparent. Every amp retains its core tone to some degree, I'm just saying Splawns keep it more than others, likely because they are so mids-forward that most boost pedals which have some kind of mid-frequency bump (like SD1's or Tubescreamer variants), and you can't really dial a Splawn to be "scooped" compared to other amps.

The newer Splawns have the brightness similar to the 2006-earlier ones, but have a very deep sub-bass thing going on that also can't really be dialed out. It's hard to hear on a recording, but you can definitely hear it in the room. If you can stomach the subpar playing, I did a comparison of 3 different years of Splawns in this video and you can hear what I'm talking about with nice monitors or headphones:


So my opinion is that I'm not sure a Splawn is going to be right for what you describe. The Deliverance *should* be a better fit, but if that's not making you happy, what else have you looked at? I don't want to sound like a broken record on this but what you are describing sounds like you should look at a real JCM800 with a couple of boosts, or something like an ENGL Savage (mk1, I haven't played the mk2). Both can be as tight as you can imagine and have tons of upper mid brightness and cut, while remaining "airy" and transparent. The ENGL of course has a lot more gain and switching options, and a slightly different voice (but seriously, it can do a heck of a JCM800 impression in Crunch mode with the Contour switch on).
 
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