The official don't buy this amp if you play at home list...

[veemagic]

I am surprised no one has recommended my favorite! Talk about oozing tone. She will play just as quiet as a whisper, and I am pretty sure its not on Johns list. Right John?

[PowerTube]

these days, that IS achievable, which is great. By the sounds of things, you are headed down the right path with the JVM. The master volume works great, so it can be quiet, or loud as hell.

That's what I'm hoping for, and by all accounts I've heard, the JVM does make it possible right out of the box.

I just bought a Marshall 1960A cab online, and as long as there's nothing wrong with it, I'll be almost ready to buy a head.

[rstites]

The thing many here don't realize is that even for live gigging a cranked tube power amp is still too loud. So the reality is you can't turn it up for home use and you can't turn it up for live gigs.

That pretty well summarizes it. We left the days of cranking 100 W Marshalls at gigs behind in the 80s.

With modern PA's being ubiquitous/inexpensive, I've gone very low wattage on amps. For bluesy things, I frequently play a cranked up classic Fender Champ (6 W of tubes!) or a home built 6 W amp. So long as I have decent monitors, it's perfect. For rock, I typically play an old Mesa Studio 22+ or it's big brother, the Mesa 50 caliber. The 50 cal is a head with a matched 2x12 cab, so pretty good for classic metal.

Interestingly, I haven't dragged a 100 W head and cab out of the house in years now, but I keep them around and occasionally play them at home. I can afford them and enjoy them, so what's it to anyone else if I play a SLO 100 at whisper volume for an evening at home? I don't need them, but then I don't need a sports car for transportation either, but I enjoy it and can afford it, so why not?

[PowerTube]

Interestingly, I haven't dragged a 100 W head and cab out of the house in years now, but I keep them around and occasionally play them at home. I can afford them and enjoy them, so what's it to anyone else if I play a SLO 100 at whisper volume for an evening at home? I don't need them, but then I don't need a sports car for transportation either, but I enjoy it and can afford it, so why not?

Very well said. I like the TONE of a 100-watt Marshall with a 4x12 and that's the entire point here. My Vetta will certainly do the "cranked at whisper quiet" thing, but it won't give me that organic type of sound I'm going for.

[PowerTube]

I am surprised no one has recommended my favorite! Talk about oozing tone. She will play just as quiet as a whisper, and I am pretty sure its not on Johns list. Right John?

I wasn't going to mention mine because I didn't want to come across as arrogant or anything, because not everyone here is quite up to the level of warranting such an amp.

[jgcable]

That pretty well summarizes it. We left the days of cranking 100 W Marshalls at gigs behind in the 80s.

With modern PA's being ubiquitous/inexpensive, I've gone very low wattage on amps. For bluesy things, I frequently play a cranked up classic Fender Champ (6 W of tubes!) or a home built 6 W amp. So long as I have decent monitors, it's perfect. For rock, I typically play an old Mesa Studio 22+ or it's big brother, the Mesa 50 caliber. The 50 cal is a head with a matched 2x12 cab, so pretty good for classic metal.

Interestingly, I haven't dragged a 100 W head and cab out of the house in years now, but I keep them around and occasionally play them at home. I can afford them and enjoy them, so what's it to anyone else if I play a SLO 100 at whisper volume for an evening at home? I don't need them, but then I don't need a sports car for transportation either, but I enjoy it and can afford it, so why not?

I agree with all you are saying but you are missing the point of this thread and my points... this thread was started because of a complaint that the Splawn 100w Quickrod 1/2 stack didn't sound good at home levels. My response was no 100w high gain half stack is going to sound "good" at home. They are designed to be played live with a live band.. as loud as possible. I really don't care what anybody plays at home. My point is.. you can't complain that your 200mph Ferrari doesn't run that good when you are driving it at 15 mph around town.

[PowerTube]

....this thread was started because of a complaint that the Splawn 100w Quickrod 1/2 stack didn't sound good at home levels.

Um, no..... My complaint was that the Quick Rod didn't sound good to me. At any volume. Period. My JCM 800 sounded great to me. So did my X100B. They were both 100 watts and I played them both at very quiet home levels.

And in addition to not liking the sound of the Quick Rod, I also pointed out that I didn't like the stiffness, the extreme midrange, the weird footswitch, the crappy and defective clean channel, the insane volume spike, and the stupid way of doing the effects loop master volume in order to fix a problem that didn't have to exist in the first place.

[jgcable]

Um, no..... My complaint was that the Quick Rod didn't sound good to me. At any volume. Period. My JCM 800 sounded great to me. So did my X100B. They were both 100 watts and I played them both at very quiet home levels.

And in addition to not liking the sound of the Quick Rod, I also pointed out that I didn't like the stiffness, the extreme midrange, the weird footswitch, the crappy and defective clean channel, the insane volume spike, and the stupid way of doing the effects loop master volume in order to fix a problem that didn't have to exist in the first place.

I have 2 buddies who have the exact amp you have. One in white. One in black. I have heard them live several times now.
You must have gotten a defective amp because my ears heard a stellar clean channel with tons of headroom. Extremely clear, they both sound very organic. I played through one of them for 2 songs live. It was liquid, it was forgiving. It was everything you want in a high gain Soldano SLO type tone. The effects loop is outstanding. Takes processors or pedals very well. It didn't sound stiff or feel stiff when I played through it. I do agree that the footswitch is REALLY weird. What were they thinking?
Could it have been the Splawn cab? One of my buddies uses an old JCM800 cab loaded with V30's. The other uses a stock Peavey 5150 cab loaded with Sheffields. Both sounded outstanding but I like the Marshall better.
What I liked best about them is the focused midrange live. Both amps are VERY easy to hear live. That's REALLY important when you are playing live with a band... especially if there is another guitar player in the band.

[Larz]

I have 2 buddies who have the exact amp you have. One in white. One in black. I have heard them live several times now.
You must have gotten a defective amp because my ears heard a stellar clean channel with tons of headroom. Extremely clear, they both sound very organic. I played through one of them for 2 songs live. It was liquid, it was forgiving. It was everything you want in a high gain Soldano SLO type tone. The effects loop is outstanding. Takes processors or pedals very well. It didn't sound stiff or feel stiff when I played through it. I do agree that the footswitch is REALLY weird. What were they thinking?
Could it have been the Splawn cab? One of my buddies uses an old JCM800 cab loaded with V30's. The other uses a stock Peavey 5150 cab loaded with Sheffields. Both sounded outstanding but I like the Marshall better.
What I liked best about them is the focused midrange live. Both amps are VERY easy to hear live. That's REALLY important when you are playing live with a band... especially if there is another guitar player in the band.

Obviously two different people can hear the same thing two different ways, but could those differences be attributed to some extent to the speaker break-in period between theirs being played live and loud many times and his brand new one?

[Chad]

Speaker break-in......there's another topic. I'm not convinced there is such a thing. Or if it is valid, I've read some sources say it happens within the first few seconds a speaker is used.

[Larz]

I certainly couldn't speak on it, but I have read articles about the theory or concept of it. I remember reading about it on the Celestion website too when I bought a Celestion blue speaker once.

[PowerTube]

I'm not a big believer in speaker break-in. I can accept that speakers might indeed loosen up a bit or whatnot over time, but as far as it changing the basic tonality, I seriously doubt it.

Just for the record, I totally believe that I can get the Splawn sound about 99% on a decent Marshall. It would be a combination of upping the mids and smoothing it out, basically, just getting a really ballsy midrange sound, then cutting the gain down to about "Jimmy Page" territory. I can see why everyone says that the Splawns really cut through the mix in a live situation.

But this also reminds me...... I read all over the place that the EQ on the Splawn should be set with your ears and not your eyes. That's all fine and good, but it also turns me off that the EQ voicings are so "unique" to everything else I've ever played. Being different is perfectly fine, but I just didn't like the sound no matter what I did.

[PowerTube]

I played through one of them for 2 songs live. It was liquid, it was forgiving.

That was the experience I was hoping for, but mine was neither liquid nor forgiving.

[jgcable]

I'm not a big believer in speaker break-in. I can accept that speakers might indeed loosen up a bit or whatnot over time, but as far as it changing the basic tonality, I seriously doubt it.

Just for the record, I totally believe that I can get the Splawn sound about 99% on a decent Marshall. It would be a combination of upping the mids and smoothing it out, basically, just getting a really ballsy midrange sound, then cutting the gain down to about "Jimmy Page" territory. I can see why everyone says that the Splawns really cut through the mix in a live situation.

But this also reminds me...... I read all over the place that the EQ on the Splawn should be set with your ears and not your eyes. That's all fine and good, but it also turns me off that the EQ voicings are so "unique" to everything else I've ever played. Being different is perfectly fine, but I just didn't like the sound no matter what I did.

And that's probably why you aren't a fan of Mesa Boogie. You simply can't set the EQ on a Boogie with your eyes. Its not intuitive.. its not normal. That's what I dislike about it. Marshall.. is so much easier. Just setting everything at 12'oclock is good enough to get a REALLY nice sound.
Like I said.. I originally thought the JVM was overrated but after I heard a few of them.. I was wrong. That's a great sounding Marshall amp. Its like the Mesa Boogie Mark V of Marshalls.

[jgcable]

For the record.. the Soldano was also not intuitive. I don't know what the Quickrod amps were set at that I heard or played through but I do know that both guys that own them have no problem spending lots of time dialing an amp in. I don't mind it either. I just don't like how "reactive" the Rectifier EQ is. The Peavey Triple X I have is like that too. Its not like a Marshall. Turn one knob too much and the sound goes out the window. Boogies have an "active" EQ which means the more you have the bass up for instance... it limits how much treble you have. On a Rectifier the most active control is the midrange. Next is bass. The treble and presence controls aren't very reactive when you are using the bass or midrange on more than the 11 O'clock setting. Its kind of weird.