My Splawn Hell

[Ayton(e)]

Guys, you don't have to read this. Feel free to move along. I just have to get it out.

I've been on sort of a valve amp pilgrimage, looking for that tone in my head. Diezel, Soldano, Rivera, Koch, Laney, Hughes & Kettner, ENGL, Orange, Mesa, etc. All of them have something nice going for them, sounds I could use and be happy with, but not the sound. I started to think nobody made an amp that had the sound. Did I want "vintage?" Oh, you mean not enough gain and blubbery mids? No. Did I want "modern?" You mean like stop-on-a-dime chug chug chug fizzzzz? No.

I was reading opinions on some of the above brands when the Splawn name came up a couple of times. I was willing to follow any lead, try anything I hadn't heard of. And when I got to the Splawn site and ran the sound clips, I just knew. There it was. The chewy, excited, harmonically rich overdrive, with great big singing ooh-ee-ooh tone that seemed custom made for my wide, overdone vibrato. The guys in the clips did that too. It was our amp. An amp for people like us.

Being a home recording kind of guy, 50 watts would be ideal. Scott confirmed what I couldn't tell from the website: the Competition was the same as a QuickRod on half power, minus a clean channel. Just as I was running into the problem of build dates - 12 weeks?! - and that no dealers carried the Competition, one popped up on eBay. I'd been watching for weeks and never saw a Comp before, only the big brothers. It wasn't much below list, but it'd save me three months, and was "dead mint." Yes please. Sold.

Oh the excitement! I was literally dreaming of tone. And playing clips from Craig, BOZ, Shreder75 et al repeatedly, fantasizing about finally getting my hands on that tone. Using the tracking number the seller sent me, the Comp was scheduled to arrive last Friday. Then they moved it to Tuesday, swerving the holiday weekend. I waited in all day Tuesday like a kid on Christmas Eve. If a truck passed I ran to the window! Nothing. Called FedEx. They said that some businesses still didn't open the day after Memorial Day, so they hadn't even attempted a delivery. Now scheduled for Wednesday. Cheers. Wednesday morning: Fed Ex website, 9.00 am. "Delivery exception," it said, "delivery not attempted." Now scheduled for Thursday. Screw this. Got the address, drove to the depot, picked it up myself.

Got home, mad with excitement. It's finally here! I am going to play guitar until I fall unconscious! I wonder what these pickups will sound like through it, or those ones! I'll have to do some samples for my friends! YouTube videos! Demos! But of course, no. I cut open the box, pulled out the packing, and was greeted by the split open corner of the head box. I slid it out and there was broken glass on top. More damage to the tolex, nasty looking dings. The Splawn logo came out, snapped in half. A smashed Mullard. A couple of pre-amp tubes missing entirely. The tubes that were present were removed and packed separately inside, as I'd asked, but it didn't seem to be enough.

What a disappointment. This thing has been through the ringer. I can only think of how protracted the refund process becomes with problems like this, whether it's my seller waiting for the FedEx insurance, or me going through the Paypal buyer protection system. Weeks, it'll be. I was so pumped to join the Splawn family, and now I can't even switch it on.

Oh, and it was detailed in the listing as having all three gears, but only seems to have two? That was a nice surprise after the initial shock. Yeah.

Looks like it'll be a while before I can join the family. I don't know whether I was ripped off, or FedEx smashed my amp up. But I do know I'm unhappy.

[Hacksaw]

OH man.. Such a freaking sad story man.. So sorry to hear that. now to get it fixed or what, replaced?? such a drag.. that has got to be one of the most painful things to experience.. hang in there.. hope all works out for you asap.

[famousguy]

""Delivery exception," it said, "delivery not attempted.""

fedex did the same thing to me once. I went to the warehouse to pick it up (a guitar) and the body was cracked in half.

[Jammermatt]

Dude, I feel so bad for you... so bad. Being that it's used, probably not much Scott can do for you. Assuming the guts are still intact you can always take the route of ordering a new headbox and transplanting the whole deal. I know that doesn't ease the pain much.

As for the two gears - I'm puzzled. I thought all the Comps had 3. Keeping in mind that the gear switch knob on the front of the amp has two positions, but in each position you use the footpedal to switch between each option giving you three gears (complicated sounding until you finally get a chance to do it.) Gears 1 and 2 when switch is in up position, and Gears 2 and 3 when switch is in down position.

Well, keep us posted how it all turns out. Truly a sad deal, bro. I just love my amp, and to me it sounds better every day especially considering that I am getting better every day as a result of playing this demanding amp.

And I agree, Boz and DC and Shreders and Mixo's and all the others clips are great. Those guys got skillz. It will be some time before I have the nads to record mine = plus I don't have the gear to do so.

I just got finished practicing for the night - and 1st gear was just Panama in a box - and I'm a hack.

-Matt

[LooseCannon]

Sorry to hear that man, i've been waiting 11 weeks already for my comp and I hope it wont end up the same way. Did the guy ship it in the original shipping box? Cause I know scott ships them really well packaged, so it's strange it got beat up like that.

[Jammermatt]

Splawn packs them real well. Shouldn't be a problem for you.

[motorcop71]

You know, I wasn't going to say anything, but something needs to be done about these fed-ex pr*cks. When my new Splawns OS212 cab came to me from splawn, even thought it was packaged fine, there was a big dent in one corner of the cab. This happened during shipping. I immediately called Scott Splawn and you know what he said? I will start building you a new one right away and please use the dented one until your new one arrives. Now is that customer service or what? When my new cab came, it had been double boxed and padded like I have never seen. I happened to be home when it was delivered. Even though there were stickers all over the box that said "DO NOT TUMBLE" here was the fed-ex driver tumbling it onto my porch. I lost it. I said can you f*ckin' read or what? I don't know if he could read, but he couldn't speak english. The outer box was mangled and I had a feeling this cab would be mangled too. To my surprise, even with the trauma this package had obviously been through, because Splawn packaged it so well, it was fine. The moral of this story is Splawn=good Fed-ex=bad.

[TJ]

Sad story dude. Hang in there and things will work out.

[Dirrty Craig]

Thats sucks man,, but the good news is it sounds like its only cosmetics and some tubes. You still have a FANTASTIC amp there. Mine are all thrashed up and ripped tolex from gigging etc.. who cares? It will sound awesome and thats what matters most.

[Ayton(e)]

I've been trying to tell myself that, Craig, believe me! Anything to ease the pain.

Thanks guys for the sympathy. I didn't want to start out on the forum as a whiner, but this really crushed me. I'd been looking forward to it too much, I suppose.

Anyway, the FedEx plot thickens. Today we looked at the box the amp arrived in. It's a big GE Industrial Systems box. It still has the factory shipping labels on it from whatever it was originally used for, and both source and destination are local CT addresses, near where I live. The amp shipped from California. The NEW shipping labels, written by the guy who sent the amp, look like they've been cut off another box and stuck to this one.

If you are putting 2 and 2 together you are realizing that FedEx appears to have switched boxes, presumably after the first was badly damaged in whatever accident befell my amp. They've grabbed whatever was around that would fit - a locally shipped GE box - and transferred the contents, cut out the labels, stuck them on, covered up their error. This would also explain how two pre-amp tubes disappeared entirely, presumably lost in the transfer. And the weird "delivery exception" delays.

Hopefully this evidence will help in a claim against FedEx. I find it quite sinister that they just tried to cover things up when they must have known they'd caused some serious damage if the box had to be switched.

jammermatt said:

As for the two gears - I'm puzzled. I thought all the Comps had 3. Keeping in mind that the gear switch knob on the front of the amp has two positions, but in each position you use the footpedal to switch between each option giving you three gears (complicated sounding until you finally get a chance to do it.) Gears 1 and 2 when switch is in up position, and Gears 2 and 3 when switch is in down position.

It has no such gear knob. It is actually this Competition from the front page. Notice that it has seven knobs, whereas this one has eight. It's also without the half-power switch on the back. It must be an older model. So in addition to the FedEx abuse, it's got no third gear or half-power swtich, despite those being mentioned in the eBay listing. This gives me some ground to stand on with the Paypal Buyer Protection (under their rules for receiving a different version than was advertised) if that's how things have to go.

I've no idea what may have been damaged internally, either. Could be chasing little problems for years. No, I'm not keen to keep this. I will seek a full refund and start all over again.

[jimbax]

thats a nightmare story....sell it as a: "SPLAWN RELIC AMP" cool vintage relic'd vibe etc...best wishes man.

[BOZ]

Sorry to hear about your problems with the amp Ayton,i hope you get it sorted out ASAP,hang in there, its worth the hassle trust me!

i also tried lots of amps looking for `that` sound,well now i have it!! and when you get sorted you will as well!

good luck mate!

[TJ]

Yeah what Boz said. I can't tell you how many amps I've bought, played through, ran with different pedals, etc. etc. etc. trying to get that sound that I so longed after. Soon as I got my Splawn I said to myself "Well there it is. That's what I've been trying to get out of all kinds of gadgets paired up with this that and the other and I get it now from just plugging a cable from my guitar straight into the amp" They're such great amps and when you get yours running I'm sure you'll agree. Keep yo chin up!!

[Jammermatt]

I can understand what you say about "chasing around problems." If it had been me, even if it fired up fine I'd always be wondering, "hmmm, is this really working right considering all it's been through? It sounds fine, but you just never can tell."

I kinda wonder about the original tubes that came with mine. After changing out for a new set of power tubes after one burned out (Mullard EL34s just like originally came), the amp seems to sound better today than the day it arrived. Could be my ears, the cab warming up, not sure. But, there you go.

I know I'd be suspicious as hell in your case - probably best to try to return and get your money back - seems like you have two battles going on - one with FedEx and the other with the Seller.

[DonaldDemon]

Ohh dude that hurts me to hear that! I get so worried about things getting banged around by the delivery monkeys but I have yet to have a real problem like that. If it were me I would probably get a refund and start over as well. I wouldn't want to worry about what was going to fail next because of the hell the box has been through.

In fact, I would sue/file a claim with fed ex and in the meantime order a new Comp from joshsage or derekb. They have a much shorter wait time.

Don't give up man! You, like everybody else here has been through the same frustrating quest to find that tone. So many amps that have good points but none that are quite there with that perfect rock sound in your head. The Splawn is it baby! I knew it as soon as I brought it to practice......there it is.....THE ROCK.......ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.