Splawn amps "unforgiving"... what does that mean?

cvogue

cvogue

Yes, that's Oolong. :)
I've been looking into Splawn amps lately, a guest guitarist who played with my old band had one and it sounded great! I like that they can get different Marshally tones but the tone sounds "richer" to my ears if that makes sense, not so buzzy...

The Street Rod model is intriguing me, might be just the ticket (40 watt combo).

I've read that Splawn amps are "unforgiving" though. So what the heck does that mean? Not a lot of sustain? Not a lot of compression? Not a lot of gain? (Find that hard to believe).

Also, how do they sound clean?

Anybody got one/played one? Lemme know!
 
I played a quick rod a few times. My friend Karl has one. It was a two channel amp. The cleans were similar to a typical JCM marshall clean. Kind of flat compared to something like a fender, but useable. I never had a problem with the marshall clean sound, so the flavor didn't bug me. The QR seemed to have a lot of clean headroom, which was nice compared to a some single channel marshall amps. The gain channel was glorious. It had three modes. Mode one was a crunch like a cranked plexi. Mode two was a JCM800 flavored amp, but with more gain than I recalled on the originals. Mode three was a boosted JCM800 sound...and I MEAN boosted. Enough gain for just about anything anyone would ever play. You could dial in insane amounts of gain and the amp stayed tight sounding if you wanted to have teh metulz. No mush. Kind of noisy at high gain when not played, but not any different from any other tube amp. I liked the amp quite a lot. It is a great rock amp if you like marshall sounds on the heavier side of things. It can also do metal nicely. Like any amp, you can dial back the dirt. I could see this amp being useful for anywhere you want a marshall sound.

I have zero idea what unforgiving means in amp review speak. It sounded fantastic to my ears. The amp has more gain that anyone could use. With all that gain comes insane sustain and compression. So, yeah, I don't know what people are talking about when they say unforgiving. It's just an amp. Maybe my taste in music and skill level didn't push it to find unforgiving. :shrug:

My only issues with it were the shared tone stack on the gain channel, and the lack of a mid control on the clean. I found it a little finicky to dial in a sound with the EQ that I liked in all three modes on the gain channel. I guess this makes it exactly like my other marshall amps. lol. I could get some great sounds, but I always wanted to make some small adjustments after changing modes. The missing clean mid knob might have been a nice thing to have, but I don't really know how it would impact things, as it wasn't there. I wonder if having it would let me get a little better clean sound.
 
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They probably mean that with that much gain and compression you hear everything....

every

thing

Rivets of your jeans scraping against the flat black trem cover type everything.

Of course if you don't dail that much in you should be okay.
 
I own a Quickrod and it is indeed glorious.
Tilsta's comments are pretty accurate.
I'm not sure what year his friends amp is but imo the newer models have a fantastic clean channel. Mine is a 2016 model which I ordered "fully loaded". Which means it had a "mid" switch which basically changes the mid voicing to be closer to the Nitro model. Which is a more metal type sound.
The old/new switch changes between a different type of "aggression" for lack of a better word. Apparently pre-2006 Scott voiced the amp somehow slightly differently which made the amp a bit more aggressive sounding. I personally like the "old" setting on the amp and that's where I set it.
And thirdly and most importantly there is the Drop B+ switch which gives the amp more "sag" by dropping the plate voltage into a spot like where a Marshall lives. With the switch disengaged the plate voltage is up around 490V with it engaged its around 420V. It makes the amp a bit squishier...in a good way. IMO you want this option.
When people say the amp is unforgiving Knox in Box is pretty accurate. Not sure about the rivets of you're jeans but....lol!!!
It's a very tight and responsive amp and therefore all of the nuances come out....both good and bad. If you're picking technique is sloppy you're gonna know about it really fast.
Customer service is spectacular and build quality is second to none. They are usually a couple/few months behind so be prepared for that when you order. I waited about 8-10 weeks for delivery.
I had never considered the 3 gears sharing the same tone stack as an issue like tilsta stated but now that I think about it, it wouldn't be a bad idea to be able to have that kind of versatility.
There is a Splawn forum but it's barely alive nowadays. There's about a half dozen of us that visit but there's a ton of great reading available if you are so inclined to search.
Feel free to hit me up with any questions you have....I'll do my best to answer for you.

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I could never own a Splawn. I am sure they are great sounding amps, but after years of Darial's shit on HC, all I could think of is that hilarious picture of him playing live with his. I would crack up every time I looked at the logo.
 
Chad said:
I could never own a Splawn. I am sure they are great sounding amps, but after years of Darial's shit on HC, all I could think of is that hilarious picture of him playing live with his. I would crack up every time I looked at the logo.
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It's definitely the first thing I think of every time I see one.
 
I just finished with rehearsal with the kids band. I played the Splawn. It's definitely an amazing machine. It's the high gain amp Marshall should have made but couldn't.
It's too bad one person on HC ruined them for a few of you. If it's a Marshall roar you're looking for, you're missing out.
 
gtrjunior said:
I just finished with rehearsal with the kids band. I played the Splawn. It's definitely an amazing machine. It's the high gain amp Marshall should have made but couldn't.
It's too bad one person on HC ruined them for a few of you. If it's a Marshall roar you're looking for, you're missing out.
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Well I'm definitely not looking for a Marshall roar so it's ok Darial ruined it for me. I'm more of a Fender clean or Vox chime. I had a DSL 50 once. Way too much gain for me, but I did find a spot that worked for me. I don't think I ever had the gain past 3 on it.
 
Fortunately the general band viewing public knows nothing about Dariel/SplawnDarts! Doesn't bother me.

Thanks for all the info guys. Anybody know how the Street Rod compares to the Quick Rod? I *am* looking for Marshall roar but I'd also like a clean that's ideally nice sounding but I'd take usable as well. Not looking for pristine Fender clean.

What are the "Small Block" speakers they use in the combos? Is that a Splawn spawn of some kind or (I've seen rumors that they're made by Eminence for Splawn). Anybody know what impedence they are?

Edit - never mind the speaker question, found the answer on their website... Small Block is based on the greenback, handles 55 watts and is 16 ohm... works well for me!
 
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I have the small block speakers in my cab. Like most speakers they need a little break in time. But killer speakers. Scott will also put in a cream back for a small up charge. I'm sure he would put whatever you want in as well.
I'm not sure how the street rod compares to a Quickrod but my amp has killer cleans. There are several YouTube clips on the cleans if you do a search.

Edit....iirc you can get the Small Blocks in 8ohms as well if you're so inclined. My 2x12 has 16 ohm but I wired them to put out 8.
 
People who say amps are unforgiving probably can't play and just aren't used to hearing how sloppy they are.

Some amps have a more immediate attack or less sag but if you need an amp to forgive your lack of skills the only thing you really need is practice.
 
sleewell said:
People who say amps are unforgiving probably can't play and just aren't used to hearing how sloppy they are.

Some amps have a more immediate attack or less sag but if you need an amp to forgive your lack of skills the only thing you really need is practice.
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As a Splawn owner I'd say it's a little of both. Sloppy technique is definitely a piece of the puzzle but the amp itself picks up every nuance that it hears. And let's face it, none of us are Paul Gilbert here so....
I don't think it's fair to say that just because somebody thinks an amp is unforgiving means they can't play....I'll agree that it means that their technique could probably use some improvement.
I'd suggest playing a Splawn first before jumping to a broad conclusion like that.
 
How usable are the different gears for playing a live gig volume wise? Aka, can you just use the splawn footswitch for the different amounts of gain and solo boost needed for a bar gig?

This question is regarding the streetrod.
 
Iirc the streetrod uses a 3 button footswitch.
It toggles between clean/dirty, solo boost, and OD 1/2.
Mine has a fourth switch which enables you to switch between two of the 3 gears. It uses TRS cable thus it can't allow for 3 way switching.
So on the street rod you would need to manually turn the gear knob on the amp to switch gears.
Not sure I understand what you mean by volume wise-these, amps are flippin' LOUD. Scott installs a loop volume master so you can crank up the amp to get "the tone" and use the loop volume to bring it down to a reasonable volume. Essentially a built in volume box.
The OD 1/2 is basically just a small gain bump and he calls OD 1 a rhythm voicing and OD 2 a lead voicing. I usually use Gear 2 OD 1 and just solo boost that. Gear 1 (Plexi voicing) is a bit brighter than the the other 2 gears but sounds equally good to me...just slightly different.
I have heard that there is a mod Scott can do to make any of his amps usable with the 4 button switch so you can switch gears from the floor...it's probably worth an email to ask.
 
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