Which Splawn for me?

[VicariousVIRUS]

I play a lot of Tool style music. Math rock oriented drone music.

I'm searching for an amp with a stupid amount of midrange, I've never had an amp that had enough for me. I want gnarly bite, mid crunch. A fairly large amount of treble and a tight bass response. I've already got a mesa 4x12 cabinet.

I'm selling a marshall JVM 410h to fund money for a splawn that may be right for me.

If I had to narrow down a base tone to a tool song. It would definitely be "The grudge" off of Lateralus, or "Jambi" 10,000 days. -TOOL.

Thanks for all the help, I hope my search can come to a stalling point with a new amp.

[greglecompte]

for those songs id say the nitro

[VicariousVIRUS]

Thanks man, I think that's what I was looking for. Will the Nitro get A LOT of punch when the mids are maxed, bass at 4, treble at 9 and gain around 4?? I'm really looking to Nail those sounds. Also, does anyone know if the Super Comp is the SAME EXACT circuit as the Nitro?? but without the clean. I only need a one channel amp, and if I can save 300$ then hell yeah. I'm an EL34 user btw. How are the KT88's as far as in comparison to EL34s?

[bubbastain]

Supercomp is a Nitro without the clean. It's also available in a 50 watt version. My Nitro had Winged C El34s and I loved it. Many Nitro owners seem to love the 88s in the Nitro. Haven't tried them. I was 100% satisfied with the 34s. The tone controls on the Splawns are a bit different than other amps. You'll have to adjust the controls with your ears and not your eyes. When your done you might be surprised with what you end up with. Not exactly sure the Nitro has the crazy midrange your looking for though.

[DonaldDemon]

Any Splawn has plenty of mid range snarl, one of the best on any amp made. I use my Pro Mod for TOOL riffage and it does well, but probably more of the Opiate/Undertow tones, which was mostly a Super Lead. The newer stuff is Rivera, Marshall, and Diezel. It’s basically impossible to get one amp to sound like that.

Oh, and you’re not going to be doing the Splawn justice by using the Mesa cab. They just don’t work well together. To get the most out of a Splawn you need the right cab loaded with the right speakers.

[greglecompte]

the nitro has tons of mids and lost of low mid punch that i feel in my stomach from across the room i hake 88s in mine and i love it

[VicariousVIRUS]

We'll I love the old superbass tone. But I'm not completely looking to get into that category. He played a 1976 Marshall superbass- on all of the albums. That is his main amp, most people confuse it for a superlead or a jmp/ plexi. But anyways. Why wouldn't the Mesa cabinet do it justice? I've never played a cabinet that sounded better to my ears. I'm also saving for a Diezel VH4. I'm looking to have a stereo setup. Adam just blended the bogner XTC, Rivera knuckle head tre, peavey, ect, with his Diezel VH4 and Superbass on the new record.

[VicariousVIRUS]

Also, their is absolutely NO DIFFERENCE between the Super Comp and the Nitro, except for the fact that the SC doesn't have a clean channel? I use only one channel anyways, so that's totally fine. But the circuitry is the same and all?

[DonaldDemon]

Oct 21, 2010 13:09:53 GMT -5 VicariousVIRUS said:

We'll I love the old superbass tone. But I'm not completely looking to get into that category. He played a 1976 Marshall superbass- on all of the albums. That is his main amp, most people confuse it for a superlead or a jmp/ plexi. But anyways. Why wouldn't the Mesa cabinet do it justice? I've never played a cabinet that sounded better to my ears. I'm also saving for a Diezel VH4. I'm looking to have a stereo setup. Adam just blended the bogner XTC, Rivera knuckle head tre, peavey, ect, with his Diezel VH4 and Superbass on the new record.

The Mesa cab is the Recto cab? Search the threads here, they just don't jive well with Splawns. I played through one and it didn't sound good at all. In fact I have that problem with Mesa cabs in general, they sound perfect with Mesa heads and not so good with other amps. Apparently I am not the only one that has come to this conclusion either.

Man a VH4 and a Splawn amp would be SICK. You're right about the Superbass, I had it wrong.

[MetalHeart]

Oct 21, 2010 13:11:12 GMT -5 VicariousVIRUS said:

Also, their is absolutely NO DIFFERENCE between the Super Comp and the Nitro, except for the fact that the SC doesn't have a clean channel? I use only one channel anyways, so that's totally fine. But the circuitry is the same and all?

Yep,SuperComp is a Nitro without clean channel.
I have a 100watt Super Comp and right now only use in half power w/ KT88s.
And its a beast ;D

[VicariousVIRUS]

Donald- It's all good brother! And yeah that's my dream at the moment. Super C. and VH4!!!!!
And really? Every amp I've EVER played has always sounded the best through the
pre 2003 mesa cabinet I own. 4x12. Anything after 03 was made in china.........=[

Metal- could you possibly learn a couple tool riffs and post a video, that would be ever so helpful. If not that's totally cool.

[bubbastain]

Also, The Supercomp has a 3 button footswitch. OD1/OD2, Solo Boost and a Mode switch. Metalheart should be able to explain the mode button since he has one.

[VicariousVIRUS]

OD1/OD2??? I thought it was a one channel?

[bubbastain]

It is one channel. But it still has options. OD1/OD2. OD2 adds a little more gain/saturation. Then there is the Mode button. On my Competition, the mode button switches to a lower gain/more hot rodded plexi sound. I'm not sure how the Mode button changes the sound on the Supercomp, but it does. So you can use either mode with either OD. Then you have the solo boost button. The solo boost has it's own volume knob on the amp. So even though it's one channel, you can get a variety of tones from it.

[MetalHeart]

For me, the difference between the "mode" are.. ON(Nitro) OFF (QRod 2nd gear) a thick 800.
Which is pretty cool cause thats my favorite gear besides 1st gear on the Quick Rod