Small Blocks and Big Blocks

[Silverwulf]

I know these are relatively new, but does anyone know the specs on these and how they differ from the models they're based off of (G12H30 and G12M)?

I know that Scott and crew basically had Eminence use those as starting points and tailor them to tweak the frequencies they didn't care for. Anyone have some insight?

[vanlaing5150]

I talked to Scott yesterday when I ordered a 2x12 with small blocks in it and I asked what the basic difference is, and he told me its just tailoring them to the splawn "sound" as far as cabinets and amps go. What I took from that was that these speakers are custom made for splawn cabs and are there to get the most out of the way they are built and the materials used...in others...good stuff. I dont know the specs and I just realized that none of what I have just said in any way shape or form ansered your question. I think its more just just using them as a starting point and know that they will be better...

[Silverwulf]

Well, my Splawn 4X12 with an X pattern of Big Blocks and Small Block 65's is here. Used it pretty extensively at practice and it sounds great so far. Naturally it's brand new so the speakers aren't broken in yet.

On Tuesday, I plan on giving it an A/B comparison with some other cabs we have at our practice spot (V30 loaded cab, X pattern of V30 and C90's, 75's, etc). I'll post a full review after the A/B on Tuesday.

[kruts]

silverwulf... I look forward to your review. I'm looking at getting a 2x12 loaded with I currently have a V30 bogner 4x12 and I want something more portable for gigging.

[DonaldDemon]

kruts said:

silverwulf... I look forward to your review. I'm looking at getting a 2x12 loaded with I currently have a V30 bogner 4x12 and I want something more portable for gigging.

That's what I use, a Bogner 4x12 w/ V30's. Is yours the straight or slanted? Mine is straight. How do you like it?

[metalheadmike]

awesome silverwulf...i'm really looking forward to that. if they're tailored to splawns i might have to ditch the original emi x-pattern sometime in the future!

[joshsage]

i got a cab w/ small block big block x pattern in right now and it rocks... I actually am enjoying it the most w/ a diezel vh4 currently. So far it has matched up with several amps very well! Excited about trying it with a couple more different amps!
Josh

[Silverwulf]

I'll type more in-depth tomorrow when it's not so late, but here's some basics from the first trial at practice tonight.

I used the Splawn Quickrod in conjunction with the Splawn 4X12 with an X pattern of Big Blocks and Small Block 65's. We play mostly metal, so I was dialing in sounds on the Quickrod to accommodate. After a trial and error run through of settings, we ended up using something akin to:

Treble - 10:30 to 11 o'clock
Mids - 2 o'clock
Bass - 11 o'clock
Presence - 10 o'clock
Gain - 10:30 to 11 o'clock

This was with the volume between 9-10 o'clock primarily using Gear 2/OD 2. We also enjoyed Gear 1/OD2, which - using the same settings (just flipping the switch) - produced a tone that was nearly identical to that found on albums like "Master of Puppets" by Metallica. Gear 2 thickened it up a little for a little more modern edge, so it got used mostly. When messing around with old thrash stuff, it went down to Gear 1 though. For our purposes, Gear 3 was pretty much pure rubbish. I'm sure it has it's uses, but we didn't care for the voicing and it seemed to focus more on gain than anything else. Not a gear that's practical for us...YMMV.

Now, to the cab...the cab sounded great overall. It remained tight and focused, though I have to say it emphasized the low end more than we imagined it would. Hence, the Bass setting backed off to around 11 o'clock. These speakers handle low end well, but if you don't watch yourself, they could start becoming "boomy" also. So, use the Bass knob in moderation. Clear highs that were smooth, not too brittle. It sounded pretty even throughout the midrange. Not scooped by any means, but it doesn't have the mid-spike found in V30's either. The speakers handle both volume and gain well, and I'm sure that trend will continue more so once they're broken in some more.

I wondered about the low end...whether it was speakers or the amp. So, we next lined up the Quickrod through a Mesa (Traditional Sized, Straight) 4X12 w/nicely broken in V30's. I've had that cab for 4+ years of regular use. Exact same settings. First off, the volume seemed to drop some on the amp, and the overall tone was a little darker. It didn't seem to project as well with the Quickrod. The mid-spike was easily apparent, and we didn't like how it reacted with the Quickrod. It also started to loose a little bit of clarity. It was about the equivalent of tossing a thin blanket over the cab and spiking the upper-mids, which did not work well alongside the Quickrod at all. However...the potential low end rumble also disappeared. After testing a lot, I can safely say that the Splawn cab packs quite a large low end in it. That's not a bad thing, you just have to proceed with caution.

While swapping around, we also tried a Mesa Stiletto Deuce (Series I w/Hollywood Mod) through the Splawn Cab. While it sounded great with the Quickrod...not so much with the Stiletto. The Stiletto immediately got brighter and a little thinner. The low end was tight and punchy, but it started thinning out the tone too much for us to like it. It sounded infinitely better with the Mesa 4X12, regardless of which modes we tried.

Initial thoughts? The Big Blocks and Small Block X pattern was definitely tailored to suit the Splawn amps to a tee. It remains tight, handles both power and gain well...remains smooth in the top end without becoming brittle, and gives you a relatively flat mid response that will allow you to dial in your mids on the Quickrod versus having a mid-spike (which we didn't have favorable) forced upon you. For anyone with a Splawn amp, I would highly recommend the combo in a cab.

We plan on demoing and A/B'ing the cab more later this week or next. I'll be bringing an old '94 Mesa Dual Recto out to try with the cab, and we'll also be comparing the cab along side a Mesa Roadking 4X12 (Oversized w/V30 and C90 combo).

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Hopefully I'm not talking Greek and some of this info will prove insightful to someone... ;D

[scoobrock]

Nice review SW - any chance you could record a quick clip with the amp running through your various cabs, with the amp settings staying constant? That would be a great way to get a feel for how these new speakers sound...

[shreder75]

metal with gear one, OD2, gain at 10 30? that's....interesting =)

[Silverwulf]

shreder75 said:

metal with gear one, OD2, gain at 10 30? that's....interesting =)

Yep...somewhere between 10:30 to 11:00 or so. Not metal as in nu-metal or fuzzed out mush. Classic thrash type metal. The tone was eerily similar to Metallica's "Master of Puppets" album. For more modern metal, we used virtually the same settings on Gear 2/OD 2...but the gain never got above 11:00 at the highest.

[Silverwulf]

scoobrock said:

Nice review SW - any chance you could record a quick clip with the amp running through your various cabs, with the amp settings staying constant? That would be a great way to get a feel for how these new speakers sound...

Sure...that's no prob at all. I'll have to take something with me to record some comparisons, even if it's just a webcam or digicam or something. I'll see what I can toss together for you guys.

I'm gonna talk to some buds to get some other cabs/heads for comparison. Soon, we'll hopefully also be A/B'ing the head/cab alongside a Mesa Mark IV, Mesa Roadster and Roadking, Mesa 4X12 (w/C90's), Bogner 4X12 (X pattern of 75's and V30's), Bogner XTC, etc.

[LooseCannon]

Hey silverwulf, did you try the emi governor and man o war x pattern?

[Silverwulf]

Well, we're closing in on almost a month of regular use, abuse and tweaking with the cab, so I figured I'd give an update considering my previous comments were just "first impressions". Here we go...

silverwulf said:

...the cab sounded great overall. It remained tight and focused, though I have to say it emphasized the low end more than we imagined it would. Hence, the Bass setting backed off to around 11 o'clock. These speakers handle low end well, but if you don't watch yourself, they could start becoming "boomy" also. So, use the Bass knob in moderation. Clear highs that were smooth, not too brittle. It sounded pretty even throughout the midrange. Not scooped by any means, but it doesn't have the mid-spike found in V30's either. The speakers handle both volume and gain well, and I'm sure that trend will continue more so once they're broken in some more.

After almost a month and hour upon hour of abuse, you can tell the speakers are breaking in a little more. Not to the point where they're hitting that comfort zone, but they don't sound like they came straight out of the box anymore. The low end is still prominent, but in a good way now. As we were grinding away on our opening track earlier this week, I had to do a double take to make sure I was still in Gear 1/OD2 because the low end pumping out was was pretty big. Not boomy, just big. It sounded really good, and on Gear 1, I now tend to keep the Bass at about 12 Noon. If I switch up to Gear 2, the Bass has to come down to about 10 o'clock.

The highs are still nice, and as the speakers are starting to break in a little, you can hear the response and breakup smoothing out some. The mids remain pretty flat, in that there's no huge scoop nor any big spike like with V30's.

silverwulf said:

So, we next lined up the Quickrod through a Mesa (Traditional Sized, Straight) 4X12 w/nicely broken in V30's. I've had that cab for 4+ years of regular use. Exact same settings. First off, the volume seemed to drop some on the amp, and the overall tone was a little darker. It didn't seem to project as well with the Quickrod. The mid-spike was easily apparent, and we didn't like how it reacted with the Quickrod. It also started to loose a little bit of clarity. It was about the equivalent of tossing a thin blanket over the cab and spiking the upper-mids, which did not work well alongside the Quickrod at all.

Put the QR back into the (V30) Mesa Cab again. Now that we're more familiar with the QR, it's quirks, etc...it was a completely different experience. No volume drop and no darker quality to the tone. We EQ'd a little differently for the cab and worked a little more with it this time and it made all the difference. It projected better in contrast to before, and the "apparent" mid-spike that was unpleasant on first try was replaced with the thickness that were used to hearing come from the cab.

In comparison to the BB/SB 65 Cab...they both have a massive low end. I think the Splawn has a bigger spread on the low end, where as the Mesa cab seems to have a more focused low end within a defined space. What I mean is the low end "thump" seems to stray with the Splawn cab where as the Mesa seems to project it forward. Both are exceptionally tight.

The midrange has a different quality to it on both cabs. They both sound good. The Splawn seems a little smoother where as the Mesa seems a little thicker. Both are very tight, punchy, and articulate...IF you EQ to accomodate. If you use your settings that sound good on one cab into the other, you'll likely be disappointed. You don't have to drastically alter the EQ, just a slight bump or cut here and there to make up for the tonal differences in the cabs.

silverwulf said:

...we'll also be comparing the cab along side a Mesa Roadking 4X12 (Oversized w/V30 and C90 combo)...

Finally did this comparison, and wow...what a disappointment. It was still tight, and it was punchy...but it was like the middle of the sound just dropped out plugging into this cab. The Splawn and other Mesa Cab pretty much crushed this one all around. I'm sure the half open back doesn't help, and we've not been impressed with those C90's so far. If you closed up the back it might help, but we weren't impressed enough to even test this one out for very long. Maybe we'll revisit it in the future.

So, long story short...with first impressions gone after a month of abuse, breaking in the Splawn cab a little and learning the quirks of the QR a little more...we think the BB/SM 65 cab is best suited to the QR, but that's a matter of taste. As above, it and the V30 (Traditional Sized, Straight) Mesa cab were both tight, punchy, articulate, handled gain well, and had very controlled bottom ends. Granted, this is after a lot of tweaking and learning the QR. On first glance, we didn't care as much for the Mesa cab. It just took some dial turning to accommodate the speaker difference. Why the Splawn cab vs the Mesa cab? There's just something unique in the voicing of it that fits well with the QR that we can't quite put our finger on. If I needed an overall cab to go with a lot of things, I may very well go with the Mesa cab. For the QR though, it's the Splawn. Opinions (and taste) may change as ime goes on and the Splawn cab breaks in a little more, but that's the revised opinion after a month of tweaking vs. fist impressions.

For some sound clips and/or video...maybe you guys can talk redneckgeetarist into bringing his digicam with him to our practice spot and we could do a video demo of the amps on various gears through the cabs for you guys.