D
DredFryer
New member
Nice, that sounds great, I've always wanted to try one of those amps
Here's what the new Splawn Quickrods are sounding like...Video by The Guitar Nerd
M
motorboy1
Well-known member
The new old mode is like a sat switch to my ears. Thicker slightly more gain. The mid cut makes the amp sound much like a Friedman smoother less upper mids. The drop b+ is somewhat a variac.
ChuggNorris
Well-known member
headlessdeadguy
Well-known member
Fuck. If I’d only known. Using 9-42’s tuned a half step down and drop D with a 2mm pick hasn’t worked yet. I need to dig in a little harder. Thank you for your tutelage oh great one.
ChuggNorris
Well-known member
Definitely small strings & a terrible combination. You need to come up string size & come down a bit on the pick size for all that noise.
Must be like playing a slinky with pickups attached. A thick pick doesn't make you a thick picker either. Probably adding unwanted clumsiness to the tone in fact.
311splawndude
Well-known member
@headlessdeadguy - I had a similar issue
This was 1/2 power, not too loud, JJ pre, .11s, Jazz III, .....
....and is weak compared to how it sounds now (100w, loud, Chinese square getters from @just42dave, loop volume tho, everything else the same).
This was 1/2 power, not too loud, JJ pre, .11s, Jazz III, .....
....and is weak compared to how it sounds now (100w, loud, Chinese square getters from @just42dave, loop volume tho, everything else the same).
headlessdeadguy
Well-known member
I misread your first post. My above post is what I used to achieve your awesome tone. I appreciate you taking this old dog to school. I’ll try and do better. That 2mm thumb pick was a bitch.
DanTravis62
Moderator
wait a second, do you actually use 9-42s in drop d with a 2mm thumbpick hacksaw, or are you joking?
How the hell can you keep it in tune?
I have problems with 10-48s on lp scale guitars, even in standard
headlessdeadguy
Well-known member
I’m just rattling shit heads cage. Back in the early days of death metal a lot of guys(including myself) used that combination ( no thumb pick of course) tho. I still have a few guitars with 9-42’s on them but long since evolved from the 2 mm. Down to 1.1 now.wait a second, do you actually use 9-42s in drop d with a 2mm thumbpick hacksaw, or are you joking?
How the hell can you keep it in tune?
I have problems with 10-48s on lp scale guitars, even in standard
DanTravis62
Moderator
Okay that makes a lot more sense if you were joking but still
That's absolutely crazy to me to use strings that small, especially playing downtuned death metal - how in god's name can you dig in when you riff without it going out of tune?
Which begs the question, was everyone just a bitchpicker? and that was just how it was?
Because at least in my little circle coming up, the biggest faux paus imaginable was using tiny strings and picking really lightly because it makes it exponentially more difficult to get good metal tones - like, this is why lead guys use so much more gain and compression, because that's when you actually HAVE to pick more lightly
ChuggNorris
Well-known member
The only thing you're rattling is ya slinky ass strings. Then sucking up to Dan because he is a moderator over it.
The only shithead here is your thumb.
Goodluck getting "enough gain" bruh
headlessdeadguy
Well-known member
Crazy as it sounds, I would break strings occasionally but I never really considered it like I was being easy on the stings. The fact that a lot of us were using SS amps with plenty of gain on tap could have had something to do with it.
Some notable players that used 9-42's for at least part of their careers:
Angus Young
Scott Ian
Randy Rhoades
Brian May
EVH
Tony Iommi played 9-42's in C# !!!!! He has a pretty heavy hand. lol
DanTravis62
Moderator
Funnily enough, those are guys who are obviously hugely popular and have made great music, but I don't like any of their tones
J
just42dave
Well-known member
Hell yea dude
H
harddriver
Well-known member
So you got the lack of gain issue figured out then?????? It was a preamp tube issue?
PDC
Well-known member
I've owned 4 Splawns over the years: a 100 Watt QR and a 100 Watt Nitro both built before the Mid/Cut and Old/New options and then a 50 Watt Nitro and a 50 Watt QR each with the Mid/Cut and Old/New options. I loved all 4 amps. Each its own animal. I sold the older 100 watt versions to get the 50 watt Fully Loaded variants. I sold the Fully Loaded Nitro only because I could get SO close to Nitro Territory with the QR in 3rd Gear, 'New' voicing with the Mids 'Cut.' It was close enough that it almost made the Nitro a bit redundant. I still kind of miss having the Fully Loaded Nitro just because it was a really cool amp.
I know there is alot of mild to moderate Splawn 'hate' out there - especially regarding the 'weird' mids. But that just isn't my experience at all. Especially with the Old/New voicing option and Mid/Cut option - the fully loaded models seem to play nicer with a wider variety of speakers and cabinets. And I absolutely love how tight and articulate the Splawn holds together - even under relatively high gain.
If I have any complaint it would be that the amp does not clean up as nicely with the volume knob of the guitar as some other amps do. The QR will clean up to a usable extent, but some amps just sound so 'pretty' even with a lot of gain - with the volume knob on the guitar dialed back. The best example I can think of is Bray amps. In David Bray's demo vids, he really does a nice job of demonstrating how even with Atomic Punk levels of gain through the amp, just a simple roll back of the volume knob on the guitar gives an incredible 'chimey' clean tone. To be fair, QRs and Nitros have a dedicated clean channel that is perfectly serviceable - especially with a splash of reverb and chorus.
I know there is alot of mild to moderate Splawn 'hate' out there - especially regarding the 'weird' mids. But that just isn't my experience at all. Especially with the Old/New voicing option and Mid/Cut option - the fully loaded models seem to play nicer with a wider variety of speakers and cabinets. And I absolutely love how tight and articulate the Splawn holds together - even under relatively high gain.
If I have any complaint it would be that the amp does not clean up as nicely with the volume knob of the guitar as some other amps do. The QR will clean up to a usable extent, but some amps just sound so 'pretty' even with a lot of gain - with the volume knob on the guitar dialed back. The best example I can think of is Bray amps. In David Bray's demo vids, he really does a nice job of demonstrating how even with Atomic Punk levels of gain through the amp, just a simple roll back of the volume knob on the guitar gives an incredible 'chimey' clean tone. To be fair, QRs and Nitros have a dedicated clean channel that is perfectly serviceable - especially with a splash of reverb and chorus.
311splawndude
Well-known member
Great review PDC. I knew you'd have the answers.
That was my old tone from several years ago. Thanks again for the tubes.
That was my old tone from several years ago. It is much better now. Biggest change was going back to full power and running these Chinese square getter pres. I had always been such a big fan of the JJs and hated Chinese so that is the big change.
H
harddriver
Well-known member
So the new preamp tubes fixed the loss of gain you felt the amp was suffering from with the old preamp tubes? If so that's great..........
311splawndude
Well-known member
I believe that is the case my friend. I actually liked the smoothed out darker gain of the JJ's but the amp has come to life in a new way. Honestly, I've been playing my new Dual Rectifier so much, the Splawn has not got a lot of time yet - but will put more time into it in the coming weeks. I was always just so opposed to buying Chinese, I never gave these square getters a chance before. Never cared for the Tung Sol, Ruby, EHX, etc. Thanks for asking.So the new preamp tubes fixed the loss of gain you felt the amp was suffering from with the old preamp tubes? If so that's great..........