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I know that this will probably shock some of you and I'm not exactly proud of it, but I ditched the Quick Rod on Saturday. And when I say "ditched," I mean that I sold it for a price that will have me kicking myself for some time to come and it will also reenforce something I've said for years: "NEVER BUY AN AMP YOU HAVEN'T PLUGGED INTO, YOU IDIOT."
As pissed as I am about the screw-job deal I took for it, I'm still happy to have it gone and out of my house, and the fact that I recouped "some" of the money I spent on it. I've learned over the years that I decide very quickly if I'm going to like a piece of gear or not in the long term. In this case it was a "not."
So without further ado, here are the reasons I got rid of it:
Midrange, midrange, MIDRANGE: There's nothing wrong with mids, but are you kidding me?!?!?! This thing was like taking a Marshall, turning the Bass and Treble down to zero and the Midrange on 10, then adding a mid boost. As someone said in another thread, that tone gets annoying after a while and you can't dial it out. Yes, it's a very smooth midrange, but WAY too much of it.
Stiffness: This amp had the Drop B+ option, and it was still way too stiff for my taste. As I discussed with jgcable in another thread, I didn't find it "unforgiving" because I'm a very precise type of player. I just found it STIFF as all get out. No warmth and not a lot of character. I softened it up with a boost in front, but it still felt very clinical. I get the impression that what they're going for is a super, hyper clarity. Well, it has that in truckloads but it achieves it at the cost of feel and warmth, in my opinion. It's very precise but in a clinical sort of way. I can get mega clarity out of a Marshall with a GE-7 EQ, but not at the expense of warmth and responsiveness.
Clean channel: What clean channel????? This was a 2014 model with the supposed "improved" clean channel. If that's the case, then I don't even want to hear what the older ones sounded like. This clean channel was about on par with the JCM 800 I sold a few years ago, meaning that it sucks donkey balls. And..... I couldn't use the effects loop with the clean channel, because when I did, the overdrive channel bled over into it so I was getting this weird effect of "cold clean" with overdrive combined. So I e-mailed them and they sent me a replacement effects loop board. I replaced it and the original problem went away, but then it got this weird "fizz" sound in the cleans. So in short, no useable clean channel.
Effects Loop Master Volume/Volume Spike: As someone said elsewhere, the volume is either "full blast or off." I think this is ridiculous. It reminds me of the old Peavey solid-state stuff from the 80's; one second it's barely audible, but then you bump the volume knob the width of a mosquito's ass hair and BAM! The windows are shaking. And before anyone says it, yes, I can tame the volume of ANY amp for bedroom levels, regardless of wattage. But my complaint isn't the volume output, it's the overly sensitive volume knobs(s). So instead of addressing this problem, they add the Effects Loop Master Volume. Does it work? Yes. But it also means that you now have to balance out the volume of your effects in this mix if you're running any.
Weirdness: Honestly, I just think this amp is weird. The footswitch is weird, the EQ is weird, and the "gears" thing is a bit out there. You can only access Overdrive 2 with the footswitch, not on the amp. And speaking of the gears, I didn't think that the difference between them was all that earth-shattering. I also think that the footswitch is very non-intuitive. Here's a radical idea: How about having three buttons, where one is labeled "Channel 1," the next is labeled "Channel 2," and the third is labeled..... wait for it...... TADA!..... "Channel 3!" Imagine that.
I don't mean to disrespect the amp in general; it's built like a tank and it was quite beautiful.
But SOUND is what I care about. And I've learned to be honest with myself very quickly. I won't try to force myself to love a piece of gear just because I'm "supposed" to, or because everyone else does, or because I paid a lot of money for it. It either works for me or it doesn't.
The final kicker was when I realized that my Vetta actually sounds better to me.
So, I'm back to looking at Marshalls and possibly an EVH. I would love to compare those two back to back if a JVM ever appears again at my local GC.
Excuse me while I talk to myself for a second. "NEVER BUY AN AMP YOU HAVEN'T PLUGGED INTO, YOU IDIOT."
As pissed as I am about the screw-job deal I took for it, I'm still happy to have it gone and out of my house, and the fact that I recouped "some" of the money I spent on it. I've learned over the years that I decide very quickly if I'm going to like a piece of gear or not in the long term. In this case it was a "not."
So without further ado, here are the reasons I got rid of it:
Midrange, midrange, MIDRANGE: There's nothing wrong with mids, but are you kidding me?!?!?! This thing was like taking a Marshall, turning the Bass and Treble down to zero and the Midrange on 10, then adding a mid boost. As someone said in another thread, that tone gets annoying after a while and you can't dial it out. Yes, it's a very smooth midrange, but WAY too much of it.
Stiffness: This amp had the Drop B+ option, and it was still way too stiff for my taste. As I discussed with jgcable in another thread, I didn't find it "unforgiving" because I'm a very precise type of player. I just found it STIFF as all get out. No warmth and not a lot of character. I softened it up with a boost in front, but it still felt very clinical. I get the impression that what they're going for is a super, hyper clarity. Well, it has that in truckloads but it achieves it at the cost of feel and warmth, in my opinion. It's very precise but in a clinical sort of way. I can get mega clarity out of a Marshall with a GE-7 EQ, but not at the expense of warmth and responsiveness.
Clean channel: What clean channel????? This was a 2014 model with the supposed "improved" clean channel. If that's the case, then I don't even want to hear what the older ones sounded like. This clean channel was about on par with the JCM 800 I sold a few years ago, meaning that it sucks donkey balls. And..... I couldn't use the effects loop with the clean channel, because when I did, the overdrive channel bled over into it so I was getting this weird effect of "cold clean" with overdrive combined. So I e-mailed them and they sent me a replacement effects loop board. I replaced it and the original problem went away, but then it got this weird "fizz" sound in the cleans. So in short, no useable clean channel.
Effects Loop Master Volume/Volume Spike: As someone said elsewhere, the volume is either "full blast or off." I think this is ridiculous. It reminds me of the old Peavey solid-state stuff from the 80's; one second it's barely audible, but then you bump the volume knob the width of a mosquito's ass hair and BAM! The windows are shaking. And before anyone says it, yes, I can tame the volume of ANY amp for bedroom levels, regardless of wattage. But my complaint isn't the volume output, it's the overly sensitive volume knobs(s). So instead of addressing this problem, they add the Effects Loop Master Volume. Does it work? Yes. But it also means that you now have to balance out the volume of your effects in this mix if you're running any.
Weirdness: Honestly, I just think this amp is weird. The footswitch is weird, the EQ is weird, and the "gears" thing is a bit out there. You can only access Overdrive 2 with the footswitch, not on the amp. And speaking of the gears, I didn't think that the difference between them was all that earth-shattering. I also think that the footswitch is very non-intuitive. Here's a radical idea: How about having three buttons, where one is labeled "Channel 1," the next is labeled "Channel 2," and the third is labeled..... wait for it...... TADA!..... "Channel 3!" Imagine that.
I don't mean to disrespect the amp in general; it's built like a tank and it was quite beautiful.
But SOUND is what I care about. And I've learned to be honest with myself very quickly. I won't try to force myself to love a piece of gear just because I'm "supposed" to, or because everyone else does, or because I paid a lot of money for it. It either works for me or it doesn't.
The final kicker was when I realized that my Vetta actually sounds better to me.
So, I'm back to looking at Marshalls and possibly an EVH. I would love to compare those two back to back if a JVM ever appears again at my local GC.
Excuse me while I talk to myself for a second. "NEVER BUY AN AMP YOU HAVEN'T PLUGGED INTO, YOU IDIOT."
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