Scott clarified/confirmed some of my comments in this video. Namely that the current Quickrod has all the improvements I mentioned: 1. Same improved clean channel (fantastic!). 2. Same improved master volume. 3. Same improved FX loop. 4. Same 4 button footswitch (it used to have 3 buttons). All those things make the new Quickrod a pretty compelling amp. Maybe think of the Quickrod as a killer modded Marshall type thing, and the Nitro as more of a Soldano SLO flavor.
This is a very excellent video! I've been a Mesa guy for 35+ years. I've been wanting a CAE OD100, 93 Rectifier, a Bray, a Freidman, and a Fender Clean channel. The Nitro can do them all in one amp, plus more. I love it!!! If I get an amp, the latest Nitro is the amp to get!!!!
I’ve had a Nitro for the past 10 years in the white plexi style. The bottom edge is huge but still able to get different tones whether a strat or LP. Great video!
I was really impressed with the amp which is why I wanted to do a video on it. I honestly ordered it on whim and by the time it was ready, I had no intention of keeping it, or even taking it out of the box. And thanks! Amp video feel really hard to me, like you can show some sounds, but it's hard to show what and amp is about with just sounds or moving dials. So I tried something a little different.
Adam, damn it! Fantastic man. Love the deep analysis of the entire thing and the playing of course! Demos are great, please keep doing this. Could you look at DiMeola? Trower? Robben Ford?
Thanks! You picked some pretty hard stuff. I've been messing with the Tower stuff for literally decades and can't seem to really get it under my hands.
@@AdamGotheridge I was thinking more about the tone and sound of the guys really. It's interesting to learn all this stuff Adam. Thanks for sharing and I like the message at the beginning of the video.
Great video! I've had my Nitro for nearly 17 years now and it's still my desert island amp. It's really picky about which cab/speakers you use but with the right combo, it's absolutely devastating. My splawn 4x12 with a pair of scumback H75's and a pair of celestion K100's is about the most perfect cab/speaker setup I've ever plugged the amp into. As someone who also owns a CaptorX, I would recommend checking out the Universal Audio OX stomp box and use the Captor as a load box and send a bypassed DI line level signal out of the captor into the OX stomp. The cabinet and speaker simulation in the OX is (in my opinion) far superior to even the best IR's loaded in the Captor. Fun fact: we were recording an EP with Rick Beato back in the early 2010's and his studio had piles of incredible amps but I brought the nitro just in case. We plugged into quite a few high gain amps including his QuickRod but after all the testing, he liked the Nitro the most for our sound. We blended my parts using the nitro with a 50/50 rhythm guitar player blend of a modded JCM800 and an old dual recto. FYI, the old rectos running into the old marshall greenback cabs is SOOOOOOOO much better of a sound than the harsh and crunchy sound you typically get from them going into mesa cabinets. That was Rick's trick to a great sounding Recto.
I've come to really love my nitro too. Yes, a little picky on speakers (g12h/v30 combo cab for me). Sounds really good at any volume to me, except the clean channel kind of needs to be about drummer volume to me. The other day plugged my super low output tele into it and I think it was the best guitar sound I've ever gotten. Super fun and inspiring. Captor/Ox - I had the ox for a while and returned it. At the time, I was micing everything and to me those cabs and mics just didn't sound at all like my stuff and it just put me off. Didn't mean it didn't sound good, I just wasn't enamored with it, and the size bugged me as well as the attenuator. The captor kind of just gets the job done for me, and it's small. Pretty much use that fury Madison cab or one of the Friedman ones. Mic'd sounds better, but the captor works too, for me. Cool story on the Beato recording. I didn't know he had a quickrod! I wonder how much different your old nitro sounds compared to my new one. I've never actually played a recto, but I do quite like my old like Randall Mts module (treadplate). I would probably dig a recto too. I did try one of those 3 channel mesa's recently at home and that sounded really good to me. Thanks for reaching out! 🙏 Sub'd your channel, watched a minute of the bluguitar video and that and you sound great! 😎
@@AdamGotheridge I believe the big draw for the little OX stomp unit is that they added some marshall and mesa V30 and greenback 4x12's for the modern music players. Kinda surprised the OX box never had those. Anyways, my amps all sound absolutely fantastic through the little box. I'm using my old THD hotplate as a loadbox. I run DI on stage these days with in ears and an FRFR behind me so lugging a tube head and captor is a chore vs something like my Fractal FM3 or the Iridium. Oh and yeah that bluguitar amp is absolutely incredible. I dismissed it for years thinking it was like a modeler or wouldn't sound very good or be very loud mainly due to it's size but I could not have been more wrong. It totally smokes my 50w Jubilee (and way louder). It can get every sound my Jubilee can get just better and with a better clean sound. It also creeps into the Nitro's territory with that really tight punchy percussive lower end but doesn't quite have the same complex lower midrange growl or huge "erase the bass player" low end the Nitro has. Being able to use it without a cab is nice as I can just send a DI signal from the recording out into an IR loader and not have to worry about a load box middle man or also I can still do that sending the DI cab sim signal to the house and just use the normal speaker cab output on the iridium to a real cabinet behind me on stage. Very flexible. The only glaring omission is a decible boost for solos. The 3rd footswitch on the unit should have been setup for a lead boost with a little knob on the side of the unit to control the output of the boost. That's really the only flaw I've found with it so far.
@@FastRedPonyCar Thanks for all the info, and I missed the part about the ox stomp too. Good info, and the blu thing sure sounds interesting too. And I hear you on the fractal too. Great info, and really appreciated! 🙏
Great demo and great playing!!! Love to hear some Winger!😃 Interestingly enough I’ve had some incredible tones from my Nitro with a single-coil Telecaster! 😬 Incredibly versatile amp!🔥
Thank so much! I haven't tried my tele with it... I bet that will work great too... I might finally like that dumb tele. 😎 Thanks for that tip! And agree, lots of versatility in this amp. 🙏
Also yes on Winger. I think they got a semi bad rap because Kip had that movie star good looks thing or something, but he's incredibly talented all around and a fantastic singer. Then throw in Reb Beech who's a monster, and Rod on drums who's really a complete monster (he's also plays this genre in a really unique way to me). Great, underrated band I think.
The whole demo is the dirt channel with the gain pretty low. But, if you ride the guitar volume on a fairly clean guitar (say the Strat), it works pretty well. The clean channel itself is really clean and I think sounds fantastic. Maybe not for everyone, but the sort of thump or quickness out of the power section translates to the clean too, like it sort of that fast and unforgiving thing, but I really like it a lot and it was a super pleasant surprise for me in this amp. Only gripe would be it's pretty big and heavy, but that's ok by me, just something to know. Thanks for the comment and subscribing. 🙏
I'm a bone-deep, Splawn fanatic (which is odd given I don't own one). The Quickrod tone to me is the quintessential 80's, percussive, defined uber-crunch tone. But, I never really dug the Nitro. Once you get to a certain point with gain, I think it just clouds up the tone, and you lose articulation. But, you crushed this demo. This was spectacular, and done very tastefully. I'm still a Quickrod guy, but this definitely put the Nitro in a different light. Scott Splawn owes you one, my friend. Well done.
I really like the nitro, and it's not like I would think I would even like that "type" of amp in the first place, but it has exceeded my expectations. I hardly ever play my old quick rod really because it's so loud. The nitro can sound great at a really low volume. I'm guessing if I had one of the new quickrods with all the new features, that would probably be my favorite, but for now, I super happy with this amp. Also, I might add that I have probably 20+ amps, but I play the nitro 95% of the time. And thanks for your very nice comment! 🙏
@@AdamGotheridge You're welcome! It was a lot of fun to watch. My guess is that with some tweaking, you could get those Quickrod tones out of it. So, it could be you got a lot more amp for the price. And, yes, the Quickrod is also known for being an excruciatingly loud amp. That "nuclear" power transformer that's probably closer to 150w, I'm sure is a huge part of the tone. It's also why I don't currently own one. but, I've talked with Scott at Splawn, and another user who say that the master volume on these are outstanding. He knew with the new series that people will need it to sound good at bedroom volumes, so apparently he spent quite a bit of time making sure those worked well. Anyway, looking forward to watching you back catalog of videos.👍
@@phillamoore157 Based on how the master works on the nitro, I'm really guessing the quickrod works the same way which is extremely compelling. My quickrod kind of always sounds like the quickrod, the nitro can sound like more different things (to me). I think the other things he's added to the quickrod over the years probably make it more malleable. That "thing" that quickrod does, like super punchy, you can't quite get the out of the nitro. I'll probably do another video down the line on these as I think the nitro kind of deserves it. Thanks again!
Great video! My only worry about getting the nitro would be the lack of an in between sound, like a traditional crunch. I love everything from pop punk and classic rock to metal. Thanks for the demo!
If you are interested in the splawn camp, a quick rod would be better for you. You can run the gain kind of low and then just smash the front end with something and it pretty much sounds like you turned the gain way up. Conversely, I found using a tc spark while lowering the level and reducing the bass pretty much gets the amp into more of crunch thing too, while still having quite a lot of saturated gain on the amp on tap. I use my nitro a lot more because it's a great sound at low levels, and my older quick rod really has to be loud as hell to get where it needs to go, but note the new ones shouldn't have that problem. I've said it before, but if I could do it all again, I'd get a recent quick rod and call it a day. 🙏
Much appreciated, but the praise goes to Scott. Every once in a while something hits me as worth sharing, and I found something else in this amp that I think is worth the effort to share. Thanks for watching, and glad you liked it! 🙏
@@returncode0000 I'm going to try to switch to a dunlop jazz 3 for a while and see how that goes. Love the give/feel and sound of a thinner pick for rhythm playing, but I think the coordination goes out the window for single note stuff. Probably just the uncoordinated me though.
@@AdamGotheridge I am currently using the Jim Dunlop FLOW JUMBO GRIP PICK 3.0MM. You might want to take a look at the Flow series, it is available in all sorts of variants and diameters. They also have variety packs. They really helped me improve the feel between my fingers and the strings and I was finally able to say goodbye to custom-made picks.
Thanks. They are quite different. I used the quickrod on the video "Sire L7 Guitar Compared to Gibson Les Paul Standard and Custom" with a lot of samples there if you want to check that out. Might be helpful?
Congrats, and me too! Sounds great to me with any guitar I throw at it, whatever level of gain, and whatever volume, and honestly doesn't need any pedals to enhance it. Good for you!
I’m very close to getting rid of my dual rec multi watt for a nitro now. It chugs like a mesa but has the bite of a Marshall and that’s just what I’m looking for
I never had a rec, but I'm super happy with this amp. If you leave the resonance and bass low, it kind of sits in a Marshall area without being thin. If you turn those up, it becomes a sort of bombastic something else. Like a killer King's X Dogman sound that is super fun to play, and it doesn't have to be loud to sound good either. Cab matters. Pretty woolly with say greenbacks, but comes alive with speakers that have more bite (v30, h30). I really like this amp if you couldn't tell.
Great video. How is it at bedroom volume? Can you still retain good tone? I’m a Diezel guy primarily because they all sound great at low volumes (in that the low volume tones are very similar to cranked) but I’m looking to get into a splawn or wizard
@@robertalsbury I know, it just dawned me the other day playing in the bedroom that by the time the amplified sound is loud enough that I don't hear the guitar acoustically, it's pretty loud.
Not disagreeing. My first introduction to them was a borrowed, Splawn modded 1959 Marshall with KT88's that was a beast. Then I got the 2006 el34 quickrod and have no qualms with that, then most recently this Nitro with EL34's. I've had the Nitro for a while now and wouldn't want to change a thing about it. If I were to go to a newer quickrod, I'd strongly consider the 88's. He makes fantastic amps.
Quick rod with KT88 is best for that amp in my opinion. I did try a nitro with KT88 and did not like it at all. It had a frequency you couldn’t eliminate in the high end and high mids. EL34 or 6L6 is best for nitro. So I stand corrected.
