I'm hard-pressed to think of an amp that won't sound good through the Baer
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Quilter Bass Block v803
- Thread starter gtirard
- Start date
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My main rig lately for most gigs is an 803 with one series 2 Baer ML112, and it's killer. I use both electric and upright in some situations and that rig gets a great sound for both.
Couple of caveats - If you play 5 or 6 string there's a little fundamental lacking on the sub-low E notes, but not to the degree that it bothers me very much.
I'd characterize the Baer cab as being more in the hi-fi camp, so when I need more of a wooly old-school sound I'll use a pedal on the front end like a SansAmp (original), Fulltone Fat Boost or a Grizzly OD.
Also, volume wise, and this I feel is due to the cabinet: you can push it to a certain point, but beyond that it starts sounding a little compressed and small. It sounds huge in low and medium volume situations, but it can disappear a little bit on the louder gigs. I have larger cabs that I use when that is the case, though I'm sure two ML112's would cut it (I only have one). I tried an ML212 and found it to be kind of a different animal.
Re. settings on the 803, I use the flat input, I toggle back and forth between the modern and warm voicings and almost never use qtube. I often find the warm setting to work best in the context of a band.
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Thanks, ad9000. I'm running a pair of ML112s so volume shouldn't be an issue for my typical needs. Just trying to get a sense of how versatile the 803 would be for all music genres in light of the upper-mid forwardness of the ML112s. Of course, much comes from the hands and other pieces of gear in the signal chain.
I've had fun manipulating the low end of the 803 by switching from the flat to the scooped input. The scooped input puts the bass emphasis in a place that works for a mid-forward cab (like my AK's), and you can then fine-tune the result with the bass control. I tend then to add mids back in where they were scooped, or at least where I like to tame or augment the cab's voice. The scoop pulls them down a bit. The scooped input then does add a nice bright edge to the top end as well vs flat. I too mostly use the warm voicing for the music I play.
These are just some suggestions for trial and error of your own. In short, I think it could sound great through the Baers with some experimenting.
I think the 803 is a very versatile head - I've used it with the ML 112 on gigs that are over the map genre-wise and it has worked great for everything, with a little front end assistance as I mentioned in post #962.
Thanks!
Yeah I never use the tweeter, and I tried a few different powerpoints and going straight in. Noise floor for sure, but thats OK. If it was a problem live I would care but otherwise its OK. Shame though as I had a genzler kinetix, run that beast at full tilt with tubes glowing and still no noise. Anyway, no such thing as a perfect amp. The Quilter is great for the price but I'm glad I didn't pay too much for it.
Quilter Labs has done a significant update to the v803 product page. It looks like they are putting answers to all the questions they've been fielding about the amp. There is much more information there than before. Current and prospective owners, here's the link: Bass Block V803
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Lately, there have been many people asking on Talkbass, more so than usual, if other people have noisy equipment in common. That's nothing new. Many players don't know that much about electrical equipment design and practice and how to properly troubleshoot their equipment.
The v803 I have is generally silent other than the fan operating, which is minimal sound. I have not taken it out of the house yet, but don't expect any noise issues when I do. My BB800 has always been silent other than the fan running.
Here are some thoughts. The general stuff is nothing new for long-time Talkbass members and users.
* Any amp with gain staging can produce background noise at higher input gain levels, particularly those with overdrive capabilities.
* Any amp can produce background noise with certain instruments and combinations of signal chain on the front end, but that's coming into the sound before it gets to the amp.
* Cabinets with tweeters are going to produce small to noticeable levels of hiss depending on the instrument and amp settings.
* Quilter amps are excellent designs and are not going to have power supply issues. They are also forgiving of less than optimal AC. Remember who the designer is.
* Usually when amps are built overseas, in this case China, people think that the QC is not as good as when they are American-made. I would say the quality is just as good as American-made, if not better. Pat Quilter is using a factory that he has checked out thoroughly and trusts to build his amps to his standard, and that's been his experience with these amps.
* I don't know how extensively that Quilter Labs QC checks and live tests every single amp they receive before they package and ship them to distributors, or sell directly, but I would think they do a pretty thorough set of tests. (Someone could ask Pat about this in an email.)
* Equipment could always develop an issue after QC testing, or be damaged in shipping. That's very different than anyone thinking that multiple amps out in the hands of players have noise issues that stem from the design and manufacturing process.
If we could do an large sample size survey of v803 owners, I believe that 95% or better would report there is no noise issue with their amps. The people who've replied to the question in this thread have reported no problem.
It's hard to troubleshoot, going on info related in a post, without knowing everything about what the player is doing. If we could visit their place, and seeing what is going on, it usually would be easy to solve.
The v803 I have is generally silent other than the fan operating, which is minimal sound. I have not taken it out of the house yet, but don't expect any noise issues when I do. My BB800 has always been silent other than the fan running.
Here are some thoughts. The general stuff is nothing new for long-time Talkbass members and users.
* Any amp with gain staging can produce background noise at higher input gain levels, particularly those with overdrive capabilities.
* Any amp can produce background noise with certain instruments and combinations of signal chain on the front end, but that's coming into the sound before it gets to the amp.
* Cabinets with tweeters are going to produce small to noticeable levels of hiss depending on the instrument and amp settings.
* Quilter amps are excellent designs and are not going to have power supply issues. They are also forgiving of less than optimal AC. Remember who the designer is.
* Usually when amps are built overseas, in this case China, people think that the QC is not as good as when they are American-made. I would say the quality is just as good as American-made, if not better. Pat Quilter is using a factory that he has checked out thoroughly and trusts to build his amps to his standard, and that's been his experience with these amps.
* I don't know how extensively that Quilter Labs QC checks and live tests every single amp they receive before they package and ship them to distributors, or sell directly, but I would think they do a pretty thorough set of tests. (Someone could ask Pat about this in an email.)
* Equipment could always develop an issue after QC testing, or be damaged in shipping. That's very different than anyone thinking that multiple amps out in the hands of players have noise issues that stem from the design and manufacturing process.
If we could do an large sample size survey of v803 owners, I believe that 95% or better would report there is no noise issue with their amps. The people who've replied to the question in this thread have reported no problem.
It's hard to troubleshoot, going on info related in a post, without knowing everything about what the player is doing. If we could visit their place, and seeing what is going on, it usually would be easy to solve.
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Recently got one and other than the fan it is silent when plugging directly in. I'm not mic'ing it up for performances anyway, as I'm sure many of you aren't. It's a great sounding amp!
I love the redesign. Not only the detailed information, I also like the fact that it's more agressive commercially including the comparison table with the competitors and so on. I usually don't like this kind of "pushy" communication, but in that particular case everything they say is true and relevant.
Good on Quilter for showing pride in the v803. I wonder how the folks complaining about the noise floor are using it? As one who has used a Quilter amp on every gig since 2018, from coffee houses, to nice stages with pro audio sound reinforcement, running loud or minimal volume with IEMs, I can't think of a scenario where I wished I had a different amp.
I don't know if this was directed at me or not, but my v803 does have a quiet yet audible electronic buzz when switched to the Warm or QTube setting. The amp is completely silent in the modern setting. I can have all of my knobs turned completely off on the amp, no gain, no master volume, nothing, and even the mute switch engaged. In the warm and qtube setting there is still a quiet yet audible buzz coming from my speaker, specifically the tweeter. I can only hear this buzzing in a totally silent room, and does not cause any problems when using it rehearsals or gigs where the rooms are not silent.
For reference, I have my v803 plugged into my Quilter Bassdock 12 speaker almost exclusively. I have spoken with Pat Quilter over email and phone about this "issue", and he has assured me there is no problem with my amp and this "issue" is to be expected due to the circuit designs of the warm and qtube profiles. This "buzzing" has never once caused me any real world problems, and I believe I've reported that. However, I've never come across a similar situation in another amp in my 30 years of playing bass where switching tone profiles causes a buzzing sound, which is what made me question it here and with Quilter support. I've only reported what I've dealt with first hand with my regular and reoccurring use of this amp, which I continue to enjoy using and hope to use successfully for many years to come.
Also, I would like to point out that I also use both the Quilter US and Uk superblock guitar amps that have three tone profiles from a toggle switch similar to the v803, and neither of the guitar amps have the same buzzing sound that the bass amp has. I only say this to show that I have experience with multiple quilter products.
My BF SuperTwin is tweeterless but my AK Thunderchild features a complex horn and tweeter assembly. I recently read about Scott Reeder using an SVT rig with Kyuss. His signature woolly sound was from cranking all the EQ controls and gain then bringing up the master just enough to hold the sound together. I tried it with the v803 in qtube mode with my AK Thunderchild. Before I hit a note there was considerable noise/hiss/buzz…but I wasn't surprised! BTW, it sounded pretty good.
This is a perfect example that the "noise" I've talked about is very different from situations like this. I would absolutely expect "noise" with the amp settings you mentioned, and I'd also expect it to sound pretty good too, lol.
They state that it has a 4-band EQ, which is not correct.
As we all know semi-parametric mid control in this context is still a 3-band EQ.
Good info though, otherwise!
I've sent them an email, and they've fixed the typo already.
In my email I've also suggested to add some samples settings, in order to show how versatile the 803 is, and they did, very quickly (I'm impressed!).
They've included the settings for no less than 20 music genres!
Nice to see they take customer feedback into account so well
In the new product page, I've also found the paragraph "Bottomless" very interesting, and I think it wasn't discussed much before. This is worth highlighting, because it's a unique feature of the Bass Block: the dual limiter controls the low end independently so that your low B strings nevers sounds "flabby" and the high register always breathes.
I love Bass Block's limiter, but I only play 4 string basses.
5 strings users, do you confirm the 803's is actually more efficient than other amps for keeping the B string tight and well defined, thanks to its unique dual limiter, or is it mainly marketing BS?
I love Bass Block's limiter, but I only play 4 string basses.
5 strings users, do you confirm the 803's is actually more efficient than other amps for keeping the B string tight and well defined, thanks to its unique dual limiter, or is it mainly marketing BS?
I'm delighted with the way the 803 handles the low end. The thing is, I'm equally happy with the low-end responsiveness of my GK and Mesa products. I simply can't vouch for having the problem they've solved.*
Looking at their recommended settings, it may simply be that I don't add as much bass as their design anticipates; I'm usually closer to 11 or 12 than 1:00 on the control - especially when I'm interacting with built-in bass boost of the scoop input. So I can't call BS, just "I dunno".
Overall, I find their controls excellent and intuitive. I do wish they'd consider publishing their HPF specs, or even implementing an adjustable HPF, Mesa/Genzler style. I find that more interactive than a "bottomless limiter" that I trust but don't control.
* I play almost entirely finger style, no nu-metal with a pick. That might matter.
Looking at their recommended settings, it may simply be that I don't add as much bass as their design anticipates; I'm usually closer to 11 or 12 than 1:00 on the control - especially when I'm interacting with built-in bass boost of the scoop input. So I can't call BS, just "I dunno".
Overall, I find their controls excellent and intuitive. I do wish they'd consider publishing their HPF specs, or even implementing an adjustable HPF, Mesa/Genzler style. I find that more interactive than a "bottomless limiter" that I trust but don't control.
* I play almost entirely finger style, no nu-metal with a pick. That might matter.
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Yes, but as they say, these are starting point, not rules. Your bass, strings, your hand and your room (and I would add the effects or preamp you insert before the amp), also play a big role.
Agree.
I bought a Broughton variable HPF for my Brooks bass, because it has 2 "mudbuckers" that can get… muddy in some situations.
I do like being able to control the ultra lows with a knob, rather than an automatic feature.
But now you compare the benefit of the dual limiter to an HPF, it makes me want to make an A/B/C test with my Brooks:
- alone,
- with the Broughton HPF,
- through the 803's bottomless limiter.
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Very, very cool!I've sent them an email, and they've fixed the typo already.
In my email I've also suggested to add some samples settings, in order to show how versatile the 803 is, and they did, very quickly (I'm impressed!).
They've included the settings for no less than 20 music genres!
Nice to see they take customer feedback into account so well
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