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Post by briman on May 29, 2016 16:03:38 GMT -5
You will love your small blocks guaranteed.- Put them in a ququality cab and it won't get any better than that with a QR!
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Post by powertube on Jun 21, 2016 20:12:58 GMT -5
Two years ago, I bought a Quick Rod directly from Scott and wound up selling it at a huge loss to Guitar Center a little over a month later. Why? Read on.... This will draw some flames and that's okay. Here it is (was): My story: I had been looking for an amp. I wanted tubes, high gain, and definition. The Quick Rod meets all of that criteria, right? But after a few weeks with it, I knew it was going to be history and soon. The Good:Like everyone says, it's built like a tank and the workmanship is as good as it gets. I had ZERO issues with the build quality. Very easy on the eyes, as the pic above demonstrates. The Bad: (and remember, this is only my opinion and I posted basically this rant on the Jackson/Charvel forum) "Midrange, midrange, MIDRANGE: There's nothing wrong with mids, but are you kidding me?!?!?! This thing was like taking a Marshall, turning the Bass and Treble down to zero and the Midrange on 10, then adding a mid boost. As someone said in another thread, that tone gets annoying after a while and you can't dial it out. Yes, it's a very smooth midrange, but WAY too much of it.
Stiffness: This amp had the Drop B+ option, and it was still way too stiff for my taste. As I discussed in another thread, I didn't find it "unforgiving" because I'm a very precise type of player. I just found it STIFF as all get out. No warmth and not a lot of character. I softened it up with a boost in front, but it still felt very clinical. I get the impression that what they're going for is a super, hyper clarity. Well, it has that in truckloads but it achieves it at the cost of feel and warmth, in my opinion. It's very precise but in a clinical sort of way. I can get mega clarity out of a Marshall with a GE-7 EQ, but not at the expense of warmth and responsiveness.
Clean channel: What clean channel?? This was a 2014 model with the supposed "improved" clean channel. If that's the case, then I don't even want to hear what the older ones sounded like. This clean channel was about on par with the JCM 800 I sold a few years ago, meaning that it sucks donkey balls. And..... I couldn't use the effects loop with the clean channel, because when I did, the overdrive channel bled over into it so I was getting this weird effect of "cold clean" with overdrive combined. So I e-mailed them and they sent me a replacement effects loop board. I replaced it and the original problem went away, but then it got this weird "fizz" sound in the cleans. So in short, no usable clean channel.
Effects Loop Master Volume/Volume Spike: As someone said elsewhere, the volume is either "full blast or off." I think this is ridiculous. It reminds me of the old Peavey solid-state stuff from the 80's; one second it's barely audible, but then you bump the volume knob the width of a mosquito's ass hair and BAM! The windows are shaking. And before anyone says it, yes, I can tame the volume of ANY amp for bedroom levels, regardless of wattage. But my complaint isn't the volume output, it's the overly sensitive volume knobs(s). So instead of addressing this problem, they add the Effects Loop Master Volume. Does it work? Yes. But it also means that you now have to balance out the volume of your effects in this mix if you're running any.
Weirdness: Honestly, I just think this amp is weird. The footswitch is weird, the EQ is weird, and the "gears" thing is a bit out there. You can only access Overdrive 2 with the footswitch, not on the amp. And speaking of the gears, I didn't think that the difference between them was all that earth-shattering. I also think that the footswitch is very non-intuitive. Here's a radical idea: How about having three buttons, where one is labeled "Channel 1," the next is labeled "Channel 2," and the third is labeled..... wait for it...... TADA!..... "Channel 3!" Imagine that."Anyway, that was my rant. To address the OP, I did hit the front with an OD pedal and that helped loosen it up quite a lot. But at the end of the day, I just didn't like this amp. I've since bought a Marshall JVM410H, which I like, and a Carvin X100B Reissue, which I LOVE. So anyway, that was my experience.
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Post by TheFight on Jun 21, 2016 21:01:18 GMT -5
Yeah that's great buddy, thanks! Your amp looked nice... but to be honest I don't care about your rant that you posted on a different site. To me it just sounds like your using a Splawn like a Marshall and it's not working for you. I have a 2014 Quickrod and the cleans are amazing, no idea what's going on with yours... Splawn eq is not like a regular eq, but then again it's not like a regular amp.. Yes the mids are a bit much, try turning the mids all the way up and see what you think about that.
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Post by splawndude on Jun 21, 2016 23:24:43 GMT -5
I'm sure someone else picked up that amp and is happy as hell.
Not all amps fit all people.
Good thing we are all different or life would be pretty boring.
Not sure why you felt compelled to post your disappointment with your Splawn here.
What are are you running with these days Powertube and what do you like most about it?
Thanks,
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Post by gtrjunior on Jun 22, 2016 4:24:30 GMT -5
Thanks for the input, powertube. I acutually did a bunch of tube swap in the preamp and that really softened the amp up. As far as the clean channel, you may have just needed a tube capable of less gain. A 12ay or au7 type may have helped. The biggest thing that changed the feel of the amp for me was getting a pair of the small block speakers. And lastly, someone here a while back was talking about setting you eq using your "ears and not your eyes"....that was the best advice. Often we set the eq where we "think" it should be instead of where it sounds the best. Once I did that I could dial in almost any tone I wanted.
Is it a stiffer amp....yup. It's not for everyone and I'm still learning how to get the most from it. But like the other guys said, we are all different and so are our tastes in amps.
Thanks for sharing your story!
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Post by powertube on Jun 22, 2016 12:50:04 GMT -5
Thanks, guys. I'm currently running the Carvin X100B with a Boss GT-100, using the 4-cable method. To my ears, it's pure bliss. I still have the JVM and don't plan to part with it anytime soon, but it doesn't get as much playing time these days.
If I were looking right now for an amp to be used purely for rhythm, the Quick Rod would be high on my list. But I do a lot of lead/shred stuff and the stiffness just didn't work for me. Believe me, I would mind a bit to have the gorgeous thing still sitting around but the sound is everything to me.
If the clean channel had been nice on the Splawn and if it didn't have the ridiculous volume taper, I did enjoy the tone with a Metal Muff hitting the front. It cut the stiffness noticeably and warmed it up. The effects loop never did behave, even after being sent a replacement circuit board to solder in. It went from one issue to another one. That's also why the JVM isn't getting played seriously these days, because I don't think its loop is so great. The Carvin has a killer loop.
So in general, I'm not knocking the Quick Rod; I'm just saying that it wasn't for me.
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Post by powertube on Jun 22, 2016 12:51:56 GMT -5
I'm sure someone else picked up that amp and is happy as hell. Yeah, I thought that same thing. Someone probably walked in and was totally blown away and I hope they're happy with it. They probably are, because unlike myself, they would have had a chance to actually try it before buying.
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Post by briman on Jun 22, 2016 20:26:13 GMT -5
I sold my 2007 Competition because it was too stiff and middy. I then bought a JVM and soon sold that. I now own a 2015 QR and its the best amp i have ever heard. Very forgiving but tight and the clean chanel is amazing. JVM is not in the same league. I don't understand how you can say you "like" a JVM but hate a newer QR. You must have had a really defective QR .......maybe fed ex dropped it off the truck lol My cousin has the same Carvin and it's for sale and he's ordering a QR after trying mine. Everyone has different tastes I know. Just telling my story and my cousins.
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Post by briman on Jun 22, 2016 20:32:32 GMT -5
Please don't interoperate my prev post as me being bitter because you didn't like your Splawn. I am not. I actually feel bad for you because you spent alot of money and weren't happy. These are all opinions on a Splawn forum so you will obviously encounter more positive Splawn opinions.
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PDC
Junior Member
Posts: 85
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Post by PDC on Jun 28, 2016 16:22:44 GMT -5
I recently started a new thread after receiving my fully loaded 50 watt QR. I totally love the new QR. Such a different animal than my 100 watt, which I always felt sounded a little stiff and a little mid-heavy - not unlike the fellow who posted about his white half stack. My 100 is also a Drop B+ (one of the first!) but it doesn't seem to have the 'sag' or 'feel' that so many have noticed with the lower plate voltage amps. (Now the 50 watt ... talk about FEEL!) Anyway, I am getting ready for a VH Tribute set this weekend with a couple of buds at a local waterin' hole and decided to run through the set with the 100 watter, since I have been using the new Purple Monster exclusively since it arrived. The Hundy sounded SO tight and mid-rangey that I almost decided then and there to offer her up for sale. But not quite yet...
I decided to set all the tone controls and high noon and just re-acquaint myself with this amp. In the past, I could barely move the treble and presence knobs off dead zero without having the amp sound almost ice-picky. But today I discovered that by zeroing out the mids, all that 'ice-pickiness went away.' The amp was a little 'dead' with the mids zeroed out, so I nudged the mid knob up incrementally until the amp had some ballz and I found that it sounded really dynamite somewhere around 9:00 - 10:00. Definitely less than 'high noon' where I had always habitually set the mids before. Then I started playing with the treble and presence and got a sweet glassy top end with both knobs straight up and down at 'high noon.' Keep in mind, I used to literally ZERO the treble and presence knobs because the tone was just too bright.
Point is, the tone stack on my particular QR is extremely 'interactive' - boosting or cutting the mids has a tremendous effect on the treble and presence. By backing my mids down considerably, I was able to really work with the treble and presence to make this amp come alive!
Then I started nudging the volume and solo boost up to a normal 'stage' level and found that I could dial quite a bit of 'gain' out of the amp and still have a great lead tone with NO pedal in front of the amp - even in 1st Gear Plexi Mode! Once the power stage starts to work those EL34s, I could get enough compression from the power stage that I just didn't need all that front end gain.
I have completely fallen in love with my 100 watt all over again, but now I have no idea which amp to use Saturday!!!
(I'll probably use the Purple 50 since the venue is pretty small, but I ain't sellin' my Hundy any time soon!)
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Post by gtrjunior on Jun 28, 2016 17:31:37 GMT -5
Nice to hear!!! I'd recommend a NOS tube or 2 ( V2 and the PI). For me it really changes the feel of the amp. I have a Telefunken in V2 and an Ei in the PI. And the small block speakers are incredible too. Once I installed them I was completely blown away. Now, all that said the QR is definitely a tighter amp than my JCM 800. But now that I've been playing it for a couple of months I'm really getting used to it. I haven't tried putting it in half power mode yet but I may do that soon.
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Post by TheFight on Jun 28, 2016 23:37:10 GMT -5
I'm not really a fan of the 50 watt function, even though it does loosen up the amp a bit. I think I just love the head room of a 100 watts, 50s a bit too compressed for my taste. Every one their own
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PDC
Junior Member
Posts: 85
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Post by PDC on Jun 29, 2016 6:23:29 GMT -5
I'm not really a fan of the 50 watt function, even though it does loosen up the amp a bit. I think I just love the head room of a 100 watts, 50s a bit too compressed for my taste. Every one their own I tend to agree. It's a nice option, but I think the fact that the transformers in the 100 watt version are not the same as the 50 means that it isn't quite the same as playing thru a dedicated 50 watt amp.
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Post by TheFight on Jun 29, 2016 13:43:54 GMT -5
I'm not really a fan of the 50 watt function, even though it does loosen up the amp a bit. I think I just love the head room of a 100 watts, 50s a bit too compressed for my taste. Every one their own I tend to agree. It's a nice option, but I think the fact that the transformers in the 100 watt version are not the same as the 50 means that it isn't quite the same as playing thru a dedicated 50 watt amp. Actually I never knew that there was such a thing as a 50 watt transformer, but that kinda makes some sense. Wow now I know
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Post by gtrjunior on Jun 29, 2016 14:46:31 GMT -5
Back when they made the first 100W amps there was no 100w transformer so they put 2 50 watters in.
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