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Post by akadave on Nov 30, 2011 13:12:10 GMT -5
So I had an authorized Splawn dealer send me a new Street Rod. It arrived in good state except one of the trannys looks like it pulled away a little from the chassis. It only bent the tabs on the tranny a little but and nothing looks dented or broken. I attribute that due to the mass of the tranny and relative thin sheet metal tabs and this amp traveled from NYC to Anchorage Alaska!
I set the amp up, including adding the castors. I fired her up and plugged my Les Paul 57 RI Goldtop in and started checking it out.
It definitely has the gain but it seems ice-picky to me. I have even turned the presence and treble all the way down. Im just wondering if the bias was thrown off during transport or maybe the speaker needs to be broken in or even having the amp on castors is contributing to the issue. In any event I think its more shrill than the samples I have heard on the web....any suggestions? Also, I can do my own bias...so anyone have the layout diagram for the bias pots and good values to set the amp at?
Thanks
Dave
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Post by Ayton(e) on Nov 30, 2011 13:26:36 GMT -5
Is your Solo control zeroed? At low volume it interacts with the tone even while not in use; set it to 9 or 10 o'clock to warm things up.
Next try raising the Master Volume to 9 o'clockish, compensate with the loop volume to keep your ears on your head.
Lastly, yeah, don't judge a speaker fresh out of the box! Depending on the doping, Eminence can take an age to break in.
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Post by sasquatch on Nov 30, 2011 15:26:20 GMT -5
+1... also turn up you bass and mids. Running the mids at around 11 o'clock or so will allow you to dial up more bass without it getting too boomy or muddy. This might help balance out the high end.
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Post by akadave on Nov 30, 2011 15:41:20 GMT -5
Good suggestions! I will give it a try tonight. I usually try to run the tone stack flat( 12 oclock) for initial testing so that isnt an issue. I did turn the loop volume off in the back so it didnt interact. It seems that it is used a lot with the SR.
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Post by akadave on Dec 1, 2011 12:25:31 GMT -5
I tried the suggestions with little effect. Turning the master up past 8 helps alot. Im going to assume the speaker needs some time. Im going to dig one of my other speaker cabs out of storage and try it with the amp.
I cant imagine that the amp is damaged at this point.
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Post by bigjilm on Dec 2, 2011 23:17:43 GMT -5
My SR was brighter a few gigs ago than it is now - the speaker is starting to break in. I'm curious about how you feel about it after that Small Block breaks in some. Keep us posted!
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Post by akadave on Dec 3, 2011 23:25:35 GMT -5
I pulled out a Mesa single 12 ported cab that I had laying around. It has a Celestion Vintage 30 in it. This cab is darker sounding so I was able to get a decent tone out of it...but here is what is weird
I noticed that all the ice-picky-ness stopped with the mid control completely off. For some reason, adding mid seems to add more treble than mid or at the very least very high end mids making the sound unusable. I have tried all the other tricks with the solo knob and the loop volume and it seems to make it fizzy. Im wondering if the something in the tone stack changed during the bumpy ride from NYC to Alaska. Bias? Bad pre-tube?
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Post by Weegie on Dec 6, 2011 21:05:47 GMT -5
Any progress on figuring out what's wrong?
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Post by akadave on Dec 7, 2011 19:50:01 GMT -5
Any progress on figuring out what's wrong? Spoke to Scott and he said that a cap may have been jostled loose in the shipping. Im going to wrap up the chassis and send it to him for testing. Im sure it will be fixed right up |
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Post by Ayton(e) on Dec 7, 2011 23:07:14 GMT -5
Just some expectation management: the mid control does seem to operate a lot higher freqs in Splawns than other amps. It does seem like a treble control at times. That aside, a lot more happens when zeroing the mid control on an amp than turning the mids down. The mid pot is last in the tone stack before ground, with bass and treble sitting on top of it; turning the mid knob off grounds them out, too, so you're getting rid of almost everything. Makes it hard to figure out what's going on here. It could be from anywhere, or it could be that you just don't like the Splawn tone in person. My Competition is a lot more present and aggressive than you can tell from recordings. I think not everybody's ready for that. But of course it may have been royally beasted by FedEx.  Can you give us a recording? |
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Post by akadave on Dec 8, 2011 13:12:41 GMT -5
Just some expectation management: the mid control does seem to operate a lot higher freqs in Splawns than other amps. It does seem like a treble control at times. That aside, a lot more happens when zeroing the mid control on an amp than turning the mids down. The mid pot is last in the tone stack before ground, with bass and treble sitting on top of it; turning the mid knob off grounds them out, too, so you're getting rid of almost everything. Makes it hard to figure out what's going on here. It could be from anywhere, or it could be that you just don't like the Splawn tone in person. My Competition is a lot more present and aggressive than you can tell from recordings. I think not everybody's ready for that. But of course it may have been royally beasted by FedEx. Can you give us a recording? I still think that something is going on though. When the mids are turned up with treb at 12 and bass at 12 it seems to add a harsh "solid state" buzzy treble. Not aggressive just odd sounding. When the mids are down lower or off all the way, the treble pot seems to have more effect as well as bass. It smooths out the treble. It still has aggressive bite and tone but I would like to have more mids for the single note runs up the board. I will try to get a recording. |
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Post by akadave on Dec 12, 2011 14:35:41 GMT -5
Aytone, you might be right. The speaker in the cab that I tested with had a brand new unbroken-in Celestion V30 and now Im hearing the small block smoothing considerably with less cone cry and harshness. The mids are still picky but less so. I can get a good tone at more than bedroom volume which is not too much of an issue. The smallblock was farting out a bit with the lows but less so now.
I will say this, for a combo, this sucker is tight and thumpy, unlike any single 12 combo I have ever heard or owned.
Loves my '61 RI SG and 57RI Goldtop...not so much the LP Traditional, still a little thin and weak.
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Post by akadave on Jan 7, 2012 18:03:23 GMT -5
OK...its official..this thing is amazing!
The Small block has broken in considerably and I have tried the amp with other cabs. Its just what I was looking for! I hate flubby, mushy grainy sounding amps and this thing is the polar opposite!
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gadzz
Member
Vote Obama OUT!!
Posts: 164
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Post by gadzz on Jan 7, 2012 18:20:53 GMT -5
Hi, glad everything is well with your Street Rod! Mine should be shipping in the next week or two. Did you ship this back for repair? If so what was the fix? Enjoy!!
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Post by akadave on Jan 7, 2012 22:50:15 GMT -5
Hi, glad everything is well with your Street Rod! Mine should be shipping in the next week or two. Did you ship this back for repair? If so what was the fix? Enjoy!! Well, I didnt have to send it in. It was a combination of things I think. I was testing it with two brand new speakers that have since broken in some which improved the highs and mids considerably. I think I had a gassy output tube as well that self corrected. I also have put new pre-tubes in it (JJs) which are different but the old ones sound good too. The new ones are clearer and tighter even in the highs without being brittle sounding. I also have some new output tubes but I dont think I will need them immediately.Its a great amp, you will like it a lot! |
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