Help me out, guys: Marshall JVM410H/210H vs. EVH 5150 III vs. Splawn Quick Rod

[PowerTube]

No question... I have heard an owned all of these amps. The Splawn Quickrod is head and shoulders better sounding than the other amps. The cleans are great and the amp is totally forgiving. Its incredible.

Don't you also own a Vetta, or did at one time? I still have mine and I've grown to really not like it much anymore.

[lefty]

I own a Splawn but neither of the other two. I'd say the EVH and Marshall are way more
flexible for getting a variety of sounds, and def. more gain heavy. Splawns don't have
all that much gain and tend to sound better the more you turn them up. To me, the
Splawn just has that certain something, and since I'm more of an old school kind of
player, it suits me perfectly. Def. try a Splawn before you buy it, but you'll have no
trouble selling a Splawn if it doesn't work out for ya...

[PowerTube]

I own a Splawn but neither of the other two. I'd say the EVH and Marshall are way more
flexible for getting a variety of sounds, and def. more gain heavy. Splawns don't have
all that much gain and tend to sound better the more you turn them up. To me, the
Splawn just has that certain something, and since I'm more of an old school kind of
player, it suits me perfectly. Def. try a Splawn before you buy it, but you'll have no
trouble selling a Splawn if it doesn't work out for ya...

I keep hearing that, but in every video I've seen, they seem really high-gain.

This is frustrating. I REALLY want to plug into a Quick Rod and a JVM.

[jgcable]

I own a Splawn but neither of the other two. I'd say the EVH and Marshall are way more
flexible for getting a variety of sounds, and def. more gain heavy. Splawns don't have
all that much gain and tend to sound better the more you turn them up. To me, the
Splawn just has that certain something, and since I'm more of an old school kind of
player, it suits me perfectly. Def. try a Splawn before you buy it, but you'll have no
trouble selling a Splawn if it doesn't work out for ya...

I haven't owned a Vetta since 2007 I believe. I have been playing out of a Mesa Single Recto half stack live for about 3 years now almost every week. Its outstanding.

[jgcable]

I own a Splawn but neither of the other two. I'd say the EVH and Marshall are way more
flexible for getting a variety of sounds, and def. more gain heavy. Splawns don't have
all that much gain and tend to sound better the more you turn them up. To me, the
Splawn just has that certain something, and since I'm more of an old school kind of
player, it suits me perfectly. Def. try a Splawn before you buy it, but you'll have no
trouble selling a Splawn if it doesn't work out for ya...

Not the Quickrod. It has massive amounts of gain. Even in 1st gear it has enough gear to do old school metal. Also... my buddy was playing molten lava heavy metal with his Quickrod live on full power with the master volume on 3. It was the best live guitar tone I have ever heard so far. It was lacking nothing. Perfect high gain metal and classic metal tone. Perfect.

[PowerTube]

Not the Quickrod. It has massive amounts of gain. Even in 1st gear it has enough gear to do old school metal. Also... my buddy was playing molten lava heavy metal with his Quickrod live on full power with the master volume on 3. It was the best live guitar tone I have ever heard so far. It was lacking nothing. Perfect high gain metal and classic metal tone. Perfect.

That's the impression I get from watching the videos. What's your opinion of the "unforgiving" thing?

[PowerTube]

This is the best video demo I've seen on the Quick Rod so far, and it sounds like pure cream. Be sure to watch the later parts where he shows off the high gain.

[jgcable]

That's the impression I get from watching the videos. What's your opinion of the "unforgiving" thing?

I played through it live at the show for one song. It was amazing. It is not unforgiving. A Plexi is unforgiving. The Quickrod had gobs and gobs of gain, it was VERY forgiving and had an outstanding clean channel. Like I said earlier.. its the best metal amp I have ever heard live. The songs the band was playing ranged everywhere from AC/DC Livewire to Breaking the Law to Any Way you Want it by Journey to Detroit Rock City to The Black Crowes to Alice in Chains and Metallica and a ton of Van Halen. The band played at least 3 VH songs. It nailed every one of them.

[PowerTube]

I played through it live at the show for one song. It was amazing. It is not unforgiving. A Plexi is unforgiving. The Quickrod had gobs and gobs of gain, it was VERY forgiving and had an outstanding clean channel. Like I said earlier.. its the best metal amp I have ever heard live. The songs the band was playing ranged everywhere from AC/DC Livewire to Breaking the Law to Any Way you Want it by Journey to Detroit Rock City to The Black Crowes to Alice in Chains and Metallica and a ton of Van Halen. The band played at least 3 VH songs. It nailed every one of them.

Thanks. I've been very impressed by the videos I've seen so far, but I have about as much chance of hooking up with Sandra Bullock as I do of being able to plug into a Splawn. I badly want to try one. For that matter, I badly want to try a JVM that's not a combo.

[bucketbrian45]

Just bite the bullet and buy the Splawn lol.

[PowerTube]

Okay, here's some additional info. I've been reading on other forums that Splawn added additional gain to the Quick Rod (and possibly others) sometime around 2010-2011, because they got the complaint about not having full saturation or whatnot. The one in the video i posted above definitely seems to have enough.

That's probably where the whole "Splawns don't have enough gain" thing comes from.

[Chad]

I've never played a Quick Rod, but it isn't real clear what the footswitch does. If I understand correctly, the OD1/OD2 switch adds an additional gain stage when switched to OD2 mode? And that is ONLY accessible with the footswitch plugged in (no way to do it on the amp itself)?

[lefty]

I keep hearing that, but in every video I've seen, they seem really high-gain.

This is frustrating. I REALLY want to plug into a Quick Rod and a JVM.

Could be the player's using a pedal up front?
Splawns take pedals very well...

[lefty]

Okay, here's some additional info. I've been reading on other forums that Splawn added additional gain to the Quick Rod (and possibly others) sometime around 2010-2011, because they got the complaint about not having full saturation or whatnot. The one in the video i posted above definitely seems to have enough.

That's probably where the whole "Splawns don't have enough gain" thing comes from.

This explains a lot, then. My Competition's a late 2008 model. Arrived a
week before Xmas!

[lefty]

I played through it live at the show for one song. It was amazing. It is not unforgiving. A Plexi is unforgiving. The Quickrod had gobs and gobs of gain, it was VERY forgiving and had an outstanding clean channel. Like I said earlier.. its the best metal amp I have ever heard live. The songs the band was playing ranged everywhere from AC/DC Livewire to Breaking the Law to Any Way you Want it by Journey to Detroit Rock City to The Black Crowes to Alice in Chains and Metallica and a ton of Van Halen. The band played at least 3 VH songs. It nailed every one of them.

I know you're a Mesa Single Rec guy. How do you compare the
Splawn QR to the Mesa?