Had a bit of an amp shootout today.

[LucSulla]

I finally got everything back in one room, all plugged up, and had a chance to play everything back-to-back. I was a little surprised by my takeaways. I just ran straight in with nothing in any of the loops for all of these. 

The Vintage Modern and the Splawn Super Sport sound very similar to one another in their gain structure and respond very similarly. Speakers are a bit different - NeoCreams for the SS, and a Greenback/Fane M65 mix for the VIntage Modern. They are close enough to the same family though. The Vm is a little louder overall, but man that SS thumps for its size. 

I hate that Mesa cab for everything except for a Mesa or this Friedman. I don't know why, but the JEL 20 just sound great through it, and in general, that amp sounds great. It's more open than the Splawn, more mids in there giving it a lot of body. It does that through every cab I have, but that Mesa RectoVert 2x12 really seems to make it go. 

The Bogner Shiva has the least gain on tap out of any of these. I get a little worried when an amp won't "get there" for my preferred lead tone without a boost, but this amp has me rethinking that. The other three above all pretty much will dial in my preference for basic lead tone without any help from anything, but damn, the Bogner is fun to just riff on. I plugged it in last of the bunch, thought, "man, I really wish this had more gain; I feel naked," and then proceeded to play it longer than any of the rest of them. In a lot of ways, it's the most no-bullshit, let's-play-some-AC/DC out of the bunch to me.  

Surprisingly, the Splawn Quickrod was my least favorite of the bunch. Maybe it's the cab I had it on? That's an older Marshall cab with British V30s in it, and everything sounds good through it. I lean a little more toward the 1960AX now since I put the Fanes in there (those are fantastic speakers btw), but I've trusted that 1960AV for years now to just always sound great. Suffice to say, I don't think it's the cab. It has more gain than the Bogner, but sort of the bedrock, overall tone just doesn't strike me in the same way. This isn't to say it's a bad amp - far from it. In some ways, it's reminds me of a JCM 800 more than anything I've played besides a JCM 800. And I guess overall, I've found I don't care as much for 800s as the 1959/87 SL amps when it comes to feel now that I've gotten to play through a few. I like the little bit of "squish" that they have vs. the 800s. 
 

 

 

Edited August 15, 2024 by LucSulla

[specialk]

All nice amps. Thanks for sharing your opinions/feelings on them. Which weighs the least? 

[LucSulla]

12 minutes ago, specialk said:

All nice amps. Thanks for sharing your opinions/feelings on them. Which weighs the least? 

The JEL-20. The Splawn SS is the lightest when you consider needing a speaker too, though the JEL-20 and that Avatar 1x12 with the NeoCreamback in it may weight about the same as the SS combo. 

I'll tell you what what surprise you - how much that damn VM weighs. Steve Dawson did not skimp on the transformers when he designed that thing. 

[Jakeboy]

So are you sorting out what you are releasing to the wild? Or just determining your preferences….

[LucSulla]

1 minute ago, Jakeboy said:

So are you sorting out what you are releasing to the wild? Or just determining your preferences….

I think there may be some releasing that comes. 

[Jakeboy]

TMI.lol

[tbonesullivan]

When I see this I really wish I had gotten more Heads and Cabs, and less 100 Watt 2x12 combos.

This also reminds me that I really need to get back to breaking in those Avatar Fane M65s I have.

Edited August 16, 2024 by tbonesullivan

[LucSulla]

38 minutes ago, tbonesullivan said:

When I see this I really wish I had gotten more Heads and Cabs, and less 100 Watt 2x12 combos.

This also reminds me that I really need to get back to breaking in those Avatar Fane M65s I have.

Those M65s are really my thing big time. 

[tbonesullivan]

12 hours ago, LucSulla said:

Those M65s are really my thing big time. 

I am so tempted to buy some more, just to have. Not sure what the hell I would put them in though. Maybe one of those vertical forte 2x12s...

[LucSulla]

Upon further review, the Quickrod is also still rad. It must have been something about either the pickups in the guitar I was playing yesterday or maybe a psychoacoustic thing from playing other amps that have a different EQ curve - kinda like when you scoop mids and then reset them back to normal. Your ear is always initially more into the cut mids, Fletcher-Munson and related stuff, but your brain knows that actually won't sound all that good.