Quilter Bass Block

[Stu_Bass]

Tom (or anybody else with a BB800), can you get a subtle crunch with higher gain settings (lowered master, I imagine) or is it too early to tell? Reading the manual suggests that it remains fairly clean and provides increasing amounts of compression as gain increases, if I read it correctly. Thx!

With a passive jazz bass I get some tubbiness in the 8-10 area of the gain knob. Not loose and sloppy. Reminds me a bit of an SVT. Anyone else?

 

[TomB]

Is that "tubby" or "tubey" - or both? ...sorry, had to ask .

 

[bebass]

Is that "tubby" or "tubey" - or both? ...sorry, had to ask .

It could be "tubby" in that he is saying it makes him want to sit and do nothing but play bass all day. Ha Ha

 

[Stu_Bass]

Is that "tubby" or "tubey" - or both? ...sorry, had to ask .

Actually I was looking at myself in the mirror. Gotta lose 50 pounds like I did by getting the Big Baby and the BB800.
It reminds me of an SVT turned up to around 4-6. I'm interested in other opinions on this. Especially someone with an Ampeg for comparison.

 

[TomB]

I would guess that Mr. Bowlus has an Ampeg or two...

 

[tombowlus]

I would guess that Mr. Bowlus has an Ampeg or two...

True story! So far, it has struck me as more of a "clean, full, uncolored" kinda tone, but I will try pushing the input gain a bit harder.

 

[Mike Barry]

Actually I was looking at myself in the mirror. Gotta lose 50 pounds like I did by getting the Big Baby and the BB800.
It reminds me of an SVT turned up to around 4-6. I'm interested in other opinions on this. Especially someone with an Ampeg for comparison.

Stu,
So far I've played 10 gigs with the BB800 thru either a GK NEO 12" or 15" cab, (depending on the venue). Three of them were outside gigs with no PA support; to me, this is where the rubber meets the road to gage/judge new gear. You can really hear what's going, no rattles to deal with, no built in room sound, does the rig keep up, full spectrum tone with plenty of lows to drive loud bands/drummers? To me your comparison to a SVT is spot on; tone wise, nothing gives up, especially the lows. I don't own Ampeg gear but I've played them on festival backlines for decades.

Comments from several bass players at Saturday's (outside gig) were all very positive; comments from the guitar players on the gig were more specific to the SVT comparison...

Hope this helps, not scientific, just from the gut; I'm also waiting for Tom's review...!
Cheers,
Mike

 

[TomB]

True story! So far, it has struck me as more of a "clean, full, uncolored" kinda tone, but I will try pushing the input gain a bit harder.

Thanks! Clean, full, uncolored is what's advertised by Quilter. My reference point is an MB Fusion which breaks up nicely (IMO) with higher gain settings but is not everyone's cup of tea, from what I gather here. I do use my GK's in that mode, but some commenters have suggested that Quilter has designed this with OD pedals in mind. I will look forward to your review!

 

[Stu_Bass]

I will offer this based on my limited use of the amp thus far. I feel that the amp leans slightly towards the warm side rather than the hifi side. Not limited in any way but not crisp. I own a Thunderfunk and it is more like the Thunderfunk in tube mode than SS mode. I like to run the Thunderfunk with the switch set to red and the limiter engaged and lighting up 1/3 to 1/2 of the time. It is just a little towards the fat side instead of ultra-clean. Thats what I'm hearing with the BB800. I'm running the gain at 7 1/2 to 8.

 

[tombowlus]

I will offer this based on my limited use of the amp thus far. I feel that the amp leans slightly towards the warm side rather than the hifi side. Not limited in any way but not crisp. I own a Thunderfunk and it is more like the Thunderfunk in tube mode than SS mode. I like to run the Thunderfunk with the switch set to red and the limiter engaged and lighting up 1/3 to 1/2 of the time. It is just a little towards the fat side instead of ultra-clean. Thats what I'm hearing with the BB800. I'm running the gain at 7 1/2 to 8.

+1 I'd buy that. Definitely not a sterile kind of clean.

 

[tombowlus]

I played the Bass Block in band practice last night, and it sounded great. I had been playing through a new Fender Bassman 800 (tube front end, 800-watt ICEpower module) and Bassman Neo 410 (both in for review), and when I switched to the BB800, I was struck by how similar the Quilter sounded to the Bassman 800 (which I had set up to be fairly "flat"). They both do a nice job of being full, stout, balanced, somewhat (but not unduly) warm, and yet clear and articulate. If anything the Quilter seemed both a bit more solid and a bit more clear (but I did not spend a lot of time gain matching, so take this with a grain of salt).

As discussed above, I tried pushing the input levels super high to see if I could get some grit/drive, and I really didn't, though it does get a bit more "vintage-sounding" at higher input levels, so there is probably something going on with increased harmonic content. I was impressed by how well the Quilter handled the output of my active Pedulla MVP4, even in the passive input, with the input gain dimed. Two other guys in this band also play bass, and the three of us played around a bit with the tone controls. We were all impressed, once again, by the range of usable tones from just those two controls. And again, the tone with "all controls at noon" is right up my alley, being full, balanced, articulate and clear, with plenty of "heft" behind the notes.

Very impressed, so far!

 

[B-line]

I bought one; will arrive Wednesday.
Something was missing from both my MB Little Mark Tube 800 & my G-K MB Fusion 500.Both very solid amps, but I want something...diifferent.

I considered heads from Mesa (Subway), the Ashdown Retroglide, Trickfish, Form Factor, Darkglass, and Demeter.
Lots of choices now, eh?

The specs, design elements, pedigree, and of course pricing all played a role in my ordering the BB800.
I'm very anxious to play this through both my Schroeder PL212 and my Bergantino HS410, and see what happens...

 

[bassmanshoe]

Hello guys, I usually just lurk on here, but I just found out that Quilter has passed FCC regulations and the bass block is now in production!

Quilter Bass Block 800 observations. I've had one for a week and a half now, have used it for bass guitar four gigs, and as a PA subwoofer amp twice. In over 50 years of playing bass, I've had many of the most normal bass amps, as well as a few screwball rigs. Since 2013 my go-to amplifier is an Aguilar Tonehammer 500. It is an excellent amp, and I absolutely love it. I use the Aguilar TH with either one or two Aguilar SL 12 cabinets. It is an ideal pairing. For the few occasions when I have to play louder, I have an Aguilar SL 410 rated at 1200 watts. On paper, this should be another step up, volume wise, but in fact it is only slightly louder. Turning the 500W solid state amp up, it simply runs out of headroom, and the lowest notes start to sound flabby. The four Aguilar 10s are very power hungry. The newest generation of SL 410 (newer than mine) uses a different, more efficient driver. The 800W Quilter addresses the power issue nicely.



Both the Aguilar and Quilter are made in the USA, and exhibit excellent build quality. This explains their fairly high price, about $600 for the Quilter, $700 for the Aguilar. Keeping the jobs in the US, and keeping the reliability built in are worth the price for me. My modern Ampeg and Fender gear is not built to their old standards. If price is your biggest concern, and you are ok with sending more dollars out of the country, TC and Mark Bass make good gear too. In my opinion, cost driven production methods in low wage counties are apt to lead to more service problems over time.



The Quilter's tone controls are conspicuously different than most contemporary bass amps. Instead of bass and treble, maybe middle, along with a graphic or semi parametric EQ, the Quilter uses just two tone controls. One knob is more or less a bass control, one a notch filter. It doesn't look like enough, but I find it very intuitive, and have no trouble at all dialing in exactly what I want to hear for any of my basses. I don't know if that would work for everybody. The gain control works not just with the front end of the signal chain, but also with a limiter. The result is that you can easily dial in a very modern hifi sound, or recreate the interaction between big iron transformers, preamp tubes and power tubes of normal Fender and Ampeg etc designs. The compression obtained by turning the gain up is remarkably similar to the progression of tones of various tube amps from a B15 to a Bassman to a Showman to an SVT.



It has two instrument inputs, one with a 10 DB pad, and both can be used at the same time. It has a headphone output jack, that can be used whether or not a speaker load is present. It has a mute switch. It has an XLR direct out, post EQ only. No ground lift, potentially a problem, maybe not. It has an XLR input that goes directly to the power section, bypassing the preamp. It has two 1/4 output jacks, and one speakon jack, all in parallel. One more speakon would be nice. Since these four lb. amps don't have a lot of square inches of panel space, there just isn't room for too many connections. My Aguilar has speakon outputs only. Neutrik and Switchcraft both make combination speakon-1/4 jacks. Both Quilter and Aguilar ought to consider these. Maybe they have, and don't consider them sufficiently reliable. When the speakon jacks were first introduced, I was very skeptical that they were any better than phone jacks, but experience has shown that Neutrik was right.



It does not have a separate silent tuner output, which I consider a design flaw. A practical work-around is using the second input jack to send a signal to your tuner, and push the mute switch while tuning. Okay, but I would prefer a true tuner output anyway. Same as the Aguilar, the Quilter has a cooling fan. The Quilter is rated for 4 to 8 ohms speaker impedance. They say that a 2 ohm load is safe, but a poor choice. It does not have an effects loop.



Like many class D amplifiers on the market, Aguilar bundles their own preamp and housing with a Bang & Olufsen ice power module. The B & O design is a well-proven industry standard. Quilter on the other hand, is the instrument amplifier company of Patrick Quilter, the founder of QSC power amps, relied on by many big sound contractors as well as too many weekend warrior bands to count. Their products are designed in-house by a team with extensive experience working directly with musicians and sound techs. This unit is born of Quilter's own class D experience, and is totally intended as a purpose built bass guitar amplifier, not a generic hifi amp. Musician's gear has been Pat Quilter's life's work. QSC's quality reputation is unmatched.



Which amp do I like better? I love them both, would feel very confident recommending either. Dollar for dollar, the Quilter is 75¢ per watt compared to the Aggie's $1.40, advantage Quilter. Since my most-used configuration is two SL12 cabinets, the TH 500's two speakon outputs are distinctly better, advantage Aguilar. For the 90% of the time that the SL 12s are adequate for the job, I will stick with the Aguilar amp. I don't know how damping factor is supposed to be expressed, but the Quilter is the tightest sounding bass amp I have heard, and together with the way the SL410 is voiced, it sounds like the Fender Dual Showman with D140Fs that I love, but orders of magnitude louder. I like the sound of this Quilter/ SL 410 combination very slightly better than the TH with the smaller speaker cabinets, but not enough to justify the extra weight and floor space. Hey, give me a break, me and my back are 65. When I really need more volume, the Quilter with the bigger, heavier cabinet gets the nod. Also, there are a lot of times, not necessarily on stage, when I simply want two inputs. Advantage Quilter.



While it seems like quite a stretch to use a Bass Block 800 with the 410 cabinet as a PA subwoofer, crossed over at 140 Hz, it is plenty strong enough to match a pair of Mackie 450s, indoors at least. Sounds very punchy, gets plenty of kick drum out there to put dancers on the floor. Don't expect a professional sound tech to give that concept any respect, but if you are on a bar band budget, it's a hell of a good way to get a lot of bang for the buck. Having several uses for this new piece of gear makes it easier to justify the expense.

 

[ric4682]

Hey @bassmanshoe , I really appreciate the thorough and honest review. I gigged with a TH500 for the better part of a year so it was nice to hear you compare those two specifically! You're both a gentleman and a scholar.

 

[John D Harris]

Quilter Bass Block 800 observations. I've had one for a week and a half now, have used it for bass guitar four gigs, and as a PA subwoofer amp twice. In over 50 years of playing bass, I've had many of the most normal bass amps, as well as a few screwball rigs. Since 2013 my go-to amplifier is an Aguilar Tonehammer 500. It is an excellent amp, and I absolutely love it. I use the Aguilar TH with either one or two Aguilar SL 12 cabinets. It is an ideal pairing. For the few occasions when I have to play louder, I have an Aguilar SL 410 rated at 1200 watts. On paper, this should be another step up, volume wise, but in fact it is only slightly louder. Turning the 500W solid state amp up, it simply runs out of headroom, and the lowest notes start to sound flabby. The four Aguilar 10s are very power hungry. The newest generation of SL 410 (newer than mine) uses a different, more efficient driver. The 800W Quilter addresses the power issue nicely.



Both the Aguilar and Quilter are made in the USA, and exhibit excellent build quality. This explains their fairly high price, about $600 for the Quilter, $700 for the Aguilar. Keeping the jobs in the US, and keeping the reliability built in are worth the price for me. My modern Ampeg and Fender gear is not built to their old standards. If price is your biggest concern, and you are ok with sending more dollars out of the country, TC and Mark Bass make good gear too. In my opinion, cost driven production methods in low wage counties are apt to lead to more service problems over time.



The Quilter's tone controls are conspicuously different than most contemporary bass amps. Instead of bass and treble, maybe middle, along with a graphic or semi parametric EQ, the Quilter uses just two tone controls. One knob is more or less a bass control, one a notch filter. It doesn't look like enough, but I find it very intuitive, and have no trouble at all dialing in exactly what I want to hear for any of my basses. I don't know if that would work for everybody. The gain control works not just with the front end of the signal chain, but also with a limiter. The result is that you can easily dial in a very modern hifi sound, or recreate the interaction between big iron transformers, preamp tubes and power tubes of normal Fender and Ampeg etc designs. The compression obtained by turning the gain up is remarkably similar to the progression of tones of various tube amps from a B15 to a Bassman to a Showman to an SVT.



It has two instrument inputs, one with a 10 DB pad, and both can be used at the same time. It has a headphone output jack, that can be used whether or not a speaker load is present. It has a mute switch. It has an XLR direct out, post EQ only. No ground lift, potentially a problem, maybe not. It has an XLR input that goes directly to the power section, bypassing the preamp. It has two 1/4 output jacks, and one speakon jack, all in parallel. One more speakon would be nice. Since these four lb. amps don't have a lot of square inches of panel space, there just isn't room for too many connections. My Aguilar has speakon outputs only. Neutrik and Switchcraft both make combination speakon-1/4 jacks. Both Quilter and Aguilar ought to consider these. Maybe they have, and don't consider them sufficiently reliable. When the speakon jacks were first introduced, I was very skeptical that they were any better than phone jacks, but experience has shown that Neutrik was right.



It does not have a separate silent tuner output, which I consider a design flaw. A practical work-around is using the second input jack to send a signal to your tuner, and push the mute switch while tuning. Okay, but I would prefer a true tuner output anyway. Same as the Aguilar, the Quilter has a cooling fan. The Quilter is rated for 4 to 8 ohms speaker impedance. They say that a 2 ohm load is safe, but a poor choice. It does not have an effects loop.



Like many class D amplifiers on the market, Aguilar bundles their own preamp and housing with a Bang & Olufsen ice power module. The B & O design is a well-proven industry standard. Quilter on the other hand, is the instrument amplifier company of Patrick Quilter, the founder of QSC power amps, relied on by many big sound contractors as well as too many weekend warrior bands to count. Their products are designed in-house by a team with extensive experience working directly with musicians and sound techs. This unit is born of Quilter's own class D experience, and is totally intended as a purpose built bass guitar amplifier, not a generic hifi amp. Musician's gear has been Pat Quilter's life's work. QSC's quality reputation is unmatched.



Which amp do I like better? I love them both, would feel very confident recommending either. Dollar for dollar, the Quilter is 75¢ per watt compared to the Aggie's $1.40, advantage Quilter. Since my most-used configuration is two SL12 cabinets, the TH 500's two speakon outputs are distinctly better, advantage Aguilar. For the 90% of the time that the SL 12s are adequate for the job, I will stick with the Aguilar amp. I don't know how damping factor is supposed to be expressed, but the Quilter is the tightest sounding bass amp I have heard, and together with the way the SL410 is voiced, it sounds like the Fender Dual Showman with D140Fs that I love, but orders of magnitude louder. I like the sound of this Quilter/ SL 410 combination very slightly better than the TH with the smaller speaker cabinets, but not enough to justify the extra weight and floor space. Hey, give me a break, me and my back are 65. When I really need more volume, the Quilter with the bigger, heavier cabinet gets the nod. Also, there are a lot of times, not necessarily on stage, when I simply want two inputs. Advantage Quilter.



While it seems like quite a stretch to use a Bass Block 800 with the 410 cabinet as a PA subwoofer, crossed over at 140 Hz, it is plenty strong enough to match a pair of Mackie 450s, indoors at least. Sounds very punchy, gets plenty of kick drum out there to put dancers on the floor. Don't expect a professional sound tech to give that concept any respect, but if you are on a bar band budget, it's a hell of a good way to get a lot of bang for the buck. Having several uses for this new piece of gear makes it easier to justify the expense.

It would be a very easy thing to put together your own custom 'Y' cable: 1 Speakon to 2 Speakon speaker cable (or have someone build you one).
Just a thought.
BTW, thanks for the great review!

 

[808P123]

Quilter Bass Block 800 observations. I've had one for a week and a half now, have used it for bass guitar four gigs, and as a PA subwoofer amp twice. In over 50 years of playing bass, I've had many of the most normal bass amps, as well as a few screwball rigs. Since 2013 my go-to amplifier is an Aguilar Tonehammer 500. It is an excellent amp, and I absolutely love it. I use the Aguilar TH with either one or two Aguilar SL 12 cabinets. It is an ideal pairing. For the few occasions when I have to play louder, I have an Aguilar SL 410 rated at 1200 watts. On paper, this should be another step up, volume wise, but in fact it is only slightly louder. Turning the 500W solid state amp up, it simply runs out of headroom, and the lowest notes start to sound flabby. The four Aguilar 10s are very power hungry. The newest generation of SL 410 (newer than mine) uses a different, more efficient driver. The 800W Quilter addresses the power issue nicely.



Both the Aguilar and Quilter are made in the USA, and exhibit excellent build quality. This explains their fairly high price, about $600 for the Quilter, $700 for the Aguilar. Keeping the jobs in the US, and keeping the reliability built in are worth the price for me. My modern Ampeg and Fender gear is not built to their old standards. If price is your biggest concern, and you are ok with sending more dollars out of the country, TC and Mark Bass make good gear too. In my opinion, cost driven production methods in low wage counties are apt to lead to more service problems over time.



The Quilter's tone controls are conspicuously different than most contemporary bass amps. Instead of bass and treble, maybe middle, along with a graphic or semi parametric EQ, the Quilter uses just two tone controls. One knob is more or less a bass control, one a notch filter. It doesn't look like enough, but I find it very intuitive, and have no trouble at all dialing in exactly what I want to hear for any of my basses. I don't know if that would work for everybody. The gain control works not just with the front end of the signal chain, but also with a limiter. The result is that you can easily dial in a very modern hifi sound, or recreate the interaction between big iron transformers, preamp tubes and power tubes of normal Fender and Ampeg etc designs. The compression obtained by turning the gain up is remarkably similar to the progression of tones of various tube amps from a B15 to a Bassman to a Showman to an SVT.



It has two instrument inputs, one with a 10 DB pad, and both can be used at the same time. It has a headphone output jack, that can be used whether or not a speaker load is present. It has a mute switch. It has an XLR direct out, post EQ only. No ground lift, potentially a problem, maybe not. It has an XLR input that goes directly to the power section, bypassing the preamp. It has two 1/4 output jacks, and one speakon jack, all in parallel. One more speakon would be nice. Since these four lb. amps don't have a lot of square inches of panel space, there just isn't room for too many connections. My Aguilar has speakon outputs only. Neutrik and Switchcraft both make combination speakon-1/4 jacks. Both Quilter and Aguilar ought to consider these. Maybe they have, and don't consider them sufficiently reliable. When the speakon jacks were first introduced, I was very skeptical that they were any better than phone jacks, but experience has shown that Neutrik was right.



It does not have a separate silent tuner output, which I consider a design flaw. A practical work-around is using the second input jack to send a signal to your tuner, and push the mute switch while tuning. Okay, but I would prefer a true tuner output anyway. Same as the Aguilar, the Quilter has a cooling fan. The Quilter is rated for 4 to 8 ohms speaker impedance. They say that a 2 ohm load is safe, but a poor choice. It does not have an effects loop.



Like many class D amplifiers on the market, Aguilar bundles their own preamp and housing with a Bang & Olufsen ice power module. The B & O design is a well-proven industry standard. Quilter on the other hand, is the instrument amplifier company of Patrick Quilter, the founder of QSC power amps, relied on by many big sound contractors as well as too many weekend warrior bands to count. Their products are designed in-house by a team with extensive experience working directly with musicians and sound techs. This unit is born of Quilter's own class D experience, and is totally intended as a purpose built bass guitar amplifier, not a generic hifi amp. Musician's gear has been Pat Quilter's life's work. QSC's quality reputation is unmatched.



Which amp do I like better? I love them both, would feel very confident recommending either. Dollar for dollar, the Quilter is 75¢ per watt compared to the Aggie's $1.40, advantage Quilter. Since my most-used configuration is two SL12 cabinets, the TH 500's two speakon outputs are distinctly better, advantage Aguilar. For the 90% of the time that the SL 12s are adequate for the job, I will stick with the Aguilar amp. I don't know how damping factor is supposed to be expressed, but the Quilter is the tightest sounding bass amp I have heard, and together with the way the SL410 is voiced, it sounds like the Fender Dual Showman with D140Fs that I love, but orders of magnitude louder. I like the sound of this Quilter/ SL 410 combination very slightly better than the TH with the smaller speaker cabinets, but not enough to justify the extra weight and floor space. Hey, give me a break, me and my back are 65. When I really need more volume, the Quilter with the bigger, heavier cabinet gets the nod. Also, there are a lot of times, not necessarily on stage, when I simply want two inputs. Advantage Quilter.



While it seems like quite a stretch to use a Bass Block 800 with the 410 cabinet as a PA subwoofer, crossed over at 140 Hz, it is plenty strong enough to match a pair of Mackie 450s, indoors at least. Sounds very punchy, gets plenty of kick drum out there to put dancers on the floor. Don't expect a professional sound tech to give that concept any respect, but if you are on a bar band budget, it's a hell of a good way to get a lot of bang for the buck. Having several uses for this new piece of gear makes it easier to justify the expense.

I appreciate the review as well. I have a lot of friends, primarily guitar players and pedal steel players that love their Aviators and Steelaire amps so this has my attention. I'm very curious to hear from those of you running this with a Barefaced rig.

 

[TomB]

Don't SL12 cabs have 2 Neutrik connectors so that you could chain them together out of a single amp output for a 4 ohm load?

 

[John D Harris]

Don't SL12 cabs have 2 Neutrik connectors so that you could chain them together out of a single amp output for a 4 ohm load?

Their website says one Speakon & two 1/4".

 

[bebass]

Haven't devoted full or sharp attention to the extent of this thread (this will soon be obvious). I must admit that until now I regarded the Bass Block as a power amp, and I was puzzled that it was rather pricey in that sole function. I was also surprised to see little discussion of preamps that were being used as feeds, and I was curious about results of these applications.

Now I realize that the Bass Block is an integrated amp . The line in relegated to rear panel, and instrument inputs and EQ on front panel were the clues, as well as all the discussion of instrument plug and play. Now that the light is on, it seems that this amp is a nice addition to current competitive market offerings, and the price is reasonable.

My stubborn curiosity persists as to use of the Bass Block as a power amp. Anyone using their own preamps to drive the Bass Block? Instrument level result? Line level result? Comments?

Just bear in mind that using the amp-in input will bypass the built-in limiting circuitry. I would suggest listening to the internal pre before going with the idea that an external will be better as you may or may not like it better. But in use, it should be exactly like using a dedicated power amp with the pre of your choice. I used to use a QSC PLX1804 with 2 separate pres and I suspect that in a blind listening test I would not be able to tell the difference in the BB800 and the PLX1804. They do share the same designer, Q for Quilter.

 

[Stu_Bass]

Haven't devoted full or sharp attention to the extent of this thread (this will soon be obvious). I must admit that until now I regarded the Bass Block as a power amp, and I was puzzled that it was rather pricey in that sole function. I was also surprised to see little discussion of preamps that were being used as feeds, and I was curious about results of these applications.

Now I realize that the Bass Block is an integrated amp . The line in relegated to rear panel, and instrument inputs and EQ on front panel were the clues, as well as all the discussion of instrument plug and play. Now that the light is on, it seems that this amp is a nice addition to current competitive market offerings, and the price is reasonable.

My stubborn curiosity persists as to use of the Bass Block as a power amp. Anyone using their own preamps to drive the Bass Block? Instrument level result? Line level result? Comments?

Will do this weekend