I dig the Atomica stuff, always want to love Splawn but it’s way too dark for me. I keep thinking it’s me that’s missing something, but the STL model had the same issues and I can’t really name any decent sounding albums that used a QR either. For all the grief Friedman gets for sounding too dark/bloated, Splawn is in another league of that.
I'm not having any problems to make it sound aggressive although I don't like the effect of the bright switch. It adds a little bit saturation in the treble region, but to me it sounds a little bit... strange. Hard to describe. I prefer to leave it off. But even with the bright switch off the Atomica can sound very aggressive with the drive almost maxed out, depth at 0 and treble at 6 or higher. With an SD-1 drive block in front it slays.
You might want to try adjusting the bright capacitor value with the bright switch on.
For sure - many ways to skin that cat in Fractal land.
Really digging your playing! Very tasty, great touch and harmonics. Well done!
I find this to be true about Splawns, too, but I just crank the treble to 7-8 (or even 9 on the Nitro) to get the tone I want. I can’t say they compare to the Friedmans when it comes to trying to be “dark”. To me, the BE is dark because of a bloated low end; the Quickrod has a dark treble region but has a relatively tight bass response.
Being alive during the entire Modded Marshall era I kind of feel like they
were all trying to be darker with more low-end/bass than Marshall(s). Just
variations on a theme of being more or less "dark." While also pushing for
more preamp/cascading gain stages.
Bogners. Friedmans. Splawns. Cornfords. Camerons. Even that run of
Boogies that went from the Stiletto, to the Electra Dyne, to the Royal
Atlantic, to the Badlander.... are all British-inspired tweaks on that theme.
To my ears.
I still think Marshalls were already the Goldilocks "perfect medium." Sometimes
it takes moving away from that to realize how great it was in the first place.
Great having options, too.
It's legitimate...
Yknow, I've never understood the urge to make guitar amps dark.Being alive during the entire Modded Marshall era I kind of feel like they
were all trying to be darker with more low-end/bass than Marshall(s). Just
variations on a theme of being more or less "dark." While also pushing for
more preamp/cascading gain stages.
Bogners. Friedmans. Splawns. Cornfords. Camerons. Even that run of
Boogies that went from the Stiletto, to the Electra Dyne, to the Royal
Atlantic, to the Badlander.... are all British-inspired tweaks on that theme.
To my ears.
I still think Marshalls were already the Goldilocks "perfect medium." Sometimes
it takes moving away from that to realize how great it was in the first place.
Great having options, too.
I believe it was done to 'fix' china era celestions + sm57 and two decades of guitarists crying FIZZ in unison, both of these eras are over.
Being alive during the entire Modded Marshall era I kind of feel like they
were all trying to be darker with more low-end/bass than Marshall(s). Just
variations on a theme of being more or less "dark." While also pushing for
more preamp/cascading gain stages.
Bogners. Friedmans. Splawns. Cornfords. Camerons. Even that run of
Boogies that went from the Stiletto, to the Electra Dyne, to the Royal
Atlantic, to the Badlander.... are all British-inspired tweaks on that theme.
To my ears.
I still think Marshalls were already the Goldilocks "perfect medium." Sometimes
it takes moving away from that to realize how great it was in the first place.
Great having options, too.
I've never understood why e.g Mesa insists on so god damn much bass on tap either.
