NAD! First time using the Splawn at band practice

cvogue

cvogue

Yes, that's Oolong. :)
So some of you have been following my adventure buying my new Splawn Street Rod. I didn't get much of a chance to play it over the weekend at home. I definitely didn't have a chance to open it up, well took care of that tonight, first time at band practice!

Here's the amp:
splawn-jpg.32896



So I got there and hooked it up and we started with a Judas Priest song. The drummer said the worst thing he could have... "It doesn't sound any different" Oof, drummers... :facepalm: My other amp is a Blackstar HT-40 and I have the Blackstar extension cab with a Greenback in it that I use with both the HT-40 and the Street Rod.

So it did sound different, much better, none of the rasp or harshness that comes with the Blackstar (the HT-40 is a fine amp but it's not all tube and not a $1500+ amp). What I did notice was that it was getting a bit lost in the mix. I realized that it was on half power, at home full power was way too much, but with the band I found I needed full power. Flipped the switch and wow! Instant ballz and oomph!

I'll have to take some time to dial it in but I was very pleased, the other guitarist who has a JCM800 was quite jealous I think. Heh heh!

I also usually run an MXR 10 band EQ in the loop with the HT-40, didn't use it much tonight... but I may use it to tame some of the bass, the Street Rod is a bassy amp. Like I said, there's a learning curve here with the Splawn but it's gonna be a fun ride!

There's been some flack from folks regarding the Splawn loops, wasn't an issue for me, effects in the loop sounded great!

For the Splawn heads out there when playing the OD channel I was mostly in 3rd gear on OD1 and kicked in OD2 and the solo boost for leads. I used first gear for a Petty song that needs some cleaner/breaking up tone. First gear worked well for that.

I'm stoked! Gonna be fun!
 
See....full power...I told you!!!! Just make sure you're setting the impedance selector correctly.
I was using the same eq in the loop at first but soon found out it isn't necessary with this amp. Remember what I said....dial the eq with you're ears...not you're eyes. You don't need the eq pedal to remove the bass....use the bass knob.
You're gonna find that the Splawn cuts through a mix better than any amp you've owned.
And fwiw, I have a drummer friend that doesn't know shit either, although he would say he does. Maybe I'll give him some credit when he can FINALLY nail the intro to Zep's Rock n Roll. Until then....
 
gtrjunior said:
See....full power...I told you!!!! Just make sure you're setting the impedance selector correctly.
I was using the same eq in the loop at first but soon found out it isn't necessary with this amp. Remember what I said....dial the eq with you're ears...not you're eyes. You don't need the eq pedal to remove the bass....use the bass knob.
You're gonna find that the Splawn cuts through a mix better than any amp you've owned.
And fwiw, I have a drummer friend that doesn't know shit either, although he would say he does. Maybe I'll give him some credit when he can FINALLY nail the intro to Zep's Rock n Roll. Until then....
Click to expand...

Yeah, current drummer nails the RnR intro... drummer in the last band never got it right. I didn't mind, it was close enough but others in that band would get on his case, too much so IMO.

Interesting how when you're competing with drums how the sound dynamic changes. I had the SR dialed in at home, it was freakin' loud even on half power but sounded great. Full power was too much at home... In a band setting full power is where it's at for sure!

Will have a longer practice on Saturday, will dial it in more.

Oh, one other thing I noticed, the SR feeds back sooooo nicely, exactly as I'd like it, doesn't get squealy, other band members liked that too.
 
gtrjunior said:
See....full power...I told you!!!! Just make sure you're setting the impedance selector correctly.
I was using the same eq in the loop at first but soon found out it isn't necessary with this amp. Remember what I said....dial the eq with you're ears...not you're eyes. You don't need the eq pedal to remove the bass....use the bass knob.
You're gonna find that the Splawn cuts through a mix better than any amp you've owned.
And fwiw, I have a drummer friend that doesn't know shit either, although he would say he does. Maybe I'll give him some credit when he can FINALLY nail the intro to Zep's Rock n Roll. Until then....
Click to expand...

Ahh... be aware that the Street Rod doesn't need the impedance selector halved when switching from full to half power... I think the 100 watt amps do need this done though. I found an updated SR manual here:

http://www.splawnguitars.com/streetrod_owners_manual.pdf

Here's one of the FAQ items from the website:

7. What does the half power switch do?
The half power switch on the 100 watt amps disconnects the the two outside power tubes. You will need to set your ohm selector on the amp to half of what you speaker cab ohm load is.
On the 50 or 40 watt amps its a Pentode/Triode switch, you do not have to change the ohm load when using this function.
 
Hey Splawners, just curious what you have your treble control set to?

Rumor has it that setting it to zero actually makes the amp brighter. Gonna try this tomorrow at practice.

As gtrjunior said, adjust with your ears not your eyes!
 
mockup-4d7c5c31-500x625.jpg


cvogue said:
So some of you have been following my adventure buying my new Splawn Street Rod. I didn't get much of a chance to play it over the weekend at home. I definitely didn't have a chance to open it up, well took care of that tonight, first time at band practice!

Here's the amp:
splawn-jpg.32896



So I got there and hooked it up and we started with a Judas Priest song. The drummer said the worst thing he could have... "It doesn't sound any different" Oof, drummers... :facepalm: My other amp is a Blackstar HT-40 and I have the Blackstar extension cab with a Greenback in it that I use with both the HT-40 and the Street Rod.

So it did sound different, much better, none of the rasp or harshness that comes with the Blackstar (the HT-40 is a fine amp but it's not all tube and not a $1500+ amp). What I did notice was that it was getting a bit lost in the mix. I realized that it was on half power, at home full power was way too much, but with the band I found I needed full power. Flipped the switch and wow! Instant ballz and oomph!

I'll have to take some time to dial it in but I was very pleased, the other guitarist who has a JCM800 was quite jealous I think. Heh heh!

I also usually run an MXR 10 band EQ in the loop with the HT-40, didn't use it much tonight... but I may use it to tame some of the bass, the Street Rod is a bassy amp. Like I said, there's a learning curve here with the Splawn but it's gonna be a fun ride!

There's been some flack from folks regarding the Splawn loops, wasn't an issue for me, effects in the loop sounded great!

For the Splawn heads out there when playing the OD channel I was mostly in 3rd gear on OD1 and kicked in OD2 and the solo boost for leads. I used first gear for a Petty song that needs some cleaner/breaking up tone. First gear worked well for that.

I'm stoked! Gonna be fun!
Click to expand...
 
So I tried the "treble control turned off" on the OD channel and... no mojo there for me. Just did what I'd expect it to do, cut back on the treble (but not that much really). Seems that at one point Scott had something going on when you did that on his amps.

Oh, I also emailed him and found out from the man himself that for a Street Rod when setting the impedence you need to take into account all speakers in play, internal as well as external. Just FYI. :cool:
 
cvogue said:
The drummer said the worst thing he could have... "It doesn't sound any different"
Click to expand...

One of my band-playing friends said "90% of [your audience] wouldn't notice if you bass player didn't show up for the gig." Sad, but true. We do gear for ourselves, not the music.
 
cvogue said:
So I tried the "treble control turned off" on the OD channel and... no mojo there for me. Just did what I'd expect it to do, cut back on the treble (but not that much really). Seems that at one point Scott had something going on when you did that on his amps.

Oh, I also emailed him and found out from the man himself that for a Street Rod when setting the impedence you need to take into account all speakers in play, internal as well as external. Just FYI. :cool:
Click to expand...
When I first got mine, I had read about the treble control at zero thing too. I tried it and had it set that way for a while but ultimately liked it better with the control up.
I mentioned to you about the amp "opening up" with the treble above noon. That's something I had read also. I feel like it does make an audible difference. But it's minor. Seems like the presence control does a better job with the treble responsibilities. Like I said before, I'm always adjusting here and there. Right now I've got the treble at about 10-11 o'clock. Presence around 2:embarrassed:0
Bass: 10:embarrassed:0
Mid: 11-1:embarrassed:0
 
ermghoti said:
One of my band-playing friends said "90% of [your audience] wouldn't notice if you bass player didn't show up for the gig." Sad, but true. We do gear for ourselves, not the music.
Click to expand...
I've recently seen 2 bands on separate occasions without a bass player. And I really didn't notice, but in both bands cases the bass lines really just follow the guitar lines for the most part.

When I saw Amaranthe open for Within Temptation, the bass player had a big problem with his rig during the first song. His techs worked on it the whole set without him playing, and finally fixed the problem for him to play the last song of the set. Not much of a difference.

And when I saw Delain open for Nightwish roughly a year ago, the bass player wasn't even there at that show. Just the two guitarists, keyboard player, and drummer. Maybe he was still recovering from being shot in the balls by a t-shirt gun some fan had smuggled in to a show a few months earlier? I think @PunkKitty or somebody here started a thread about that... :grin:
 
So what do you Splawn players have your OD channel volume set to? I've seen some Youtube vids where it almost looks like it's barely on!

Played at half power at practice last night, again gotta watch the volume, but as I've stated before (and as gtrjunior keeps beating me over the head with, rightly so!) full power is where it's at.

But, using the loop volume control to turn down saps tone to some extent... so what effect would opening up the loop control (less attenuation obviously) and turning down the channel control?

Just wondering, thanks for any insight. Practice again on Saturday so I'll get to experiment again. :cool:
 
cvogue said:
So what do you Splawn players have your OD channel volume set to? I've seen some Youtube vids where it almost looks like it's barely on!

Played at half power at practice last night, again gotta watch the volume, but as I've stated before (and as gtrjunior keeps beating me over the head with, rightly so!) full power is where it's at.

But, using the loop volume control to turn down saps tone to some extent... so what effect would opening up the loop control (less attenuation obviously) and turning down the channel control?

Just wondering, thanks for any insight. Practice again on Saturday so I'll get to experiment again. :cool:
Click to expand...

Quoting myself... I'm such an egomaianc! :grin:

It's getting better all the time... a few adjustments:

1. Cut the OD channel volume back to 9:embarrassed:0. Of course this makes the solo boost REALLY effective, it's also about 9-9:30 and sounds great.

2. Got the gain about 1:embarrassed:0, maybe more... will play with the gain more but this was a quick test and sounded good

3. Redid the EQ completely... started with all controls at zero and ended up with treble and presence pretty high, 2:embarrassed:0 ish, bass low, 8:embarrassed:0 and mids cut a bit, about 10:embarrassed:0.

4. Adjusted the loop volume up a little bit and hit a chord... yeah!

Other guitarist said "Remember that tone!!!" it was awesome. All gear 1, used OD2 for solos along with the boost. Man it sounded great.

Other guitarist also had a great idea, he'd like to hear some reverb since Splawns don't have any built in. I dialed in some spring reverb (just because I'm used to that from other amps) after everyone left and it sounded good, subtle but made a difference, will help give a bit more edge too, I was used to reverb with my Blackstar, but now I have all the tone of the Splawn without the rasp/harshness of the HT-40. Again it 's not a bad amp at all, quite good actually but it's still a $600 hybrid versus a $1900 all tube hand wired. :cool:beavis0
 
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