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Quilter Bass Block

#362
Alright everyone other than me seems to be saying that you cannot overdrive the front end of the BB800. I am plugging a passive jazz bass (Fender Custom Shop '64 to be exact) into the passive input and when the gain is at 7 or above I am overdriving the preamp. At 7 a slight change but noticeable. 7 1/2 an edge to the signal. 8 definitely overdriven. Above that it gets more overdriven and the limiters are very much in play. At 10 a low E is quite overdriven and very squashed. Can anyone else comment on this? I am running it at 7 - 8 for a somewhat furry old-school tube amp sound. Am I the only one that finds this with the amp?
 
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#363
Stu_Bass said:
Alright everyone other than me seems to be saying that you cannot overdrive the front end of the BB800. I am plugging a passive jazz bass (Fender Custom Shop '64 to be exact) into the passive input and when the gain is at 7 or above I am overdriving the preamp. At 7 a slight change but noticeable. 7 1/2 an edge to the signal. 8 definitely overdriven. Above that it gets more overdriven and the limiters are very much in play. At 10 a low E is quite overdriven and very squashed. Can anyone else comment on this? I am running it at 7 - 8 for a somewhat furry old-school tube amp sound. Am I the only one that finds this with the amp?
Click to expand...

My experience is that the BB800 preamp was not designed to overdrive and it attempts to keep the signal clean by using the internal limiter. Over that, there is a hint of distortion at extreme levels, but nothing I would recommend.
 
#364
Stu_Bass said:
Alright everyone other than me seems to be saying that you cannot overdrive the front end of the BB800. I am plugging a passive jazz bass (Fender Custom Shop '64 to be exact) into the passive input and when the gain is at 7 or above I am overdriving the preamp. At 7 a slight change but noticeable. 7 1/2 an edge to the signal. 8 definitely overdriven. Above that it gets more overdriven and the limiters are very much in play. At 10 a low E is quite overdriven and very squashed. Can anyone else comment on this? I am running it at 7 - 8 for a somewhat furry old-school tube amp sound. Am I the only one that finds this with the amp?
Click to expand...


Yeah I noticed this as well. It will overdrive if you really crank it (I have active pickups, so if I go into the passive input this happens quite easily). The overdrive does not sound good and I don't think it's really musically usable for my taste however.

I go into the active input and set the gain around 8 and it sounds great. I'm really enjoying the built in limiter.
 
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#365
Well mine arrived today and I've had about an hour to compare it to my subway d800. This was playing through my 15/6/1 4 ohm cab.
Headroom goes to the bb800 to get the same volume with the d800 it will start clipping.
The tone on the bb800 is exactly what you put into it it truly sounds like your bass . The d800 has more of a thicker rounded bottom end to it ,it just seems fuller.you can get there with the bb800 you just have to crank up on the deep circuit.i typically play an American p5 or my esp Rocco prestia 5 . Both amps are great but when you add a pedal things get more interesting I use a zoom ms60b with just a couple of presets one of them thickens the p bass up a bit and the other kinda leaves the esp where it is just adds a little compression to both patches.If I were going to be using a pedal most of the time the bb800 is the winner for me it seems to give the feeling that you have a tube amp behind you ( it's hard to explain) on the other hand using the same patch with the mesa I have to turn off the deep switch it's really freaking close . Although the mesa should sound warmer it just doesn't seem to have the heft on the lower range notes that the bb800 . It's really all subjective apples to oranges . For the shear headroom the bb800 will cover most my single cab gigs I will probably keep the mesa for two cab gigs where I need to be able to run both an 8 and 4 ohm cab together . If the quilter would do that I would probably let the mesa go. IMHO will have to gig them back to back to be sure.
 
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#366
I just feel the need to say that anyone wanting either the quilter bb800 or the mesa subway d800 . You really can't go wrong with either one . They both accurately reproduce what your putting in. The bb800 has more headroom and gives the feeling of a really good clean tube sound . The mesa has a little bit if a baked in tone to it as where the bb800 really doesn't. Both play well with a pedal or pedalboard. Adding a dark glass in front of the bb800 would probably be killer. I just don't want to sway anyone one way or the other they are both great amps and each has their place. I really like them both. I have yet to try the peavey minimega so I can't attest to that amp in any way. I do like both of these amps better than the GK mb800 fusion I Let go of to get something different . The quilter is just simple and precise. The mesa has more eq available as will most other amps so if you do a lot of shaping via the amp that might be the way to go if not the quilter is going to be hard to beat
.
 
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#367
johnnybass01 said:
Well mine arrived today and I've had about an hour to compare it to my subway d800. This was playing through my 15/6/1 4 ohm cab.
Headroom goes to the bb800 to get the same volume with the d800 it will start clipping.
The tone on the bb800 is exactly what you put into it it truly sounds like your bass . The d800 has more of a thicker rounded bottom end to it ,it just seems fuller.you can get there with the bb800 you just have to crank up on the deep circuit.i typically play an American p5 or my esp Rocco prestia 5 . Both amps are great but when you add a pedal things get more interesting I use a zoom ms60b with just a couple of presets one of them thickens the p bass up a bit and the other kinda leaves the esp where it is just adds a little compression to both patches.If I were going to be using a pedal most of the time the bb800 is the winner for me it seems to give the feeling that you have a tube amp behind you ( it's hard to explain) on the other hand using the same patch with the mesa I have to turn off the deep switch it's really freaking close . Although the mesa should sound warmer it just doesn't seem to have the heft on the lower range notes that the bb800 . It's really all subjective apples to oranges . For the shear headroom the bb800 will cover most my single cab gigs I will probably keep the mesa for two cab gigs where I need to be able to run both an 8 and 4 ohm cab together . If the quilter would do that I would probably let the mesa go. IMHO will have to gig them back to back to be sure.
Click to expand...
Thought the Quilter would do 2.7 Ohms alright. Think I read (either in the manual or on the webpage) that it'll do 2 Ohms safely but might clip if you push it -- or words to that effect. (It's late -- someone correct me if I'm wrong.)
 
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#368
Very informative review JB01. Thanks, I especially appreciate the a/b between the two. I've only played the Subway in a store and it didn't wow me but obviously the store setting is extremely limiting. I've been wanting to play the Quilter but there's only one store that has/had one so far and a friend bought it. He loves it but I haven't had the chance to play it yet. I bought the PV MM a month ago. I have 15 gigs on it and am really digging it so far but would love to a/b it to these other two.
 
#369
MarkA said:
Thought the Quilter would do 2.7 Ohms alright. Think I read (either in the manual or on the webpage) that it'll do 2 Ohms safely but might clip if you push it -- or words to that effect. (It's late -- someone correct me if I'm wrong.)
Click to expand...

You are correct! According to the technical blurb it can drive full voltage to 2.5ohms (or 2 ohms with possible clipping at high volumes).
 
#370
I Emailed Pat about going down to low ohms. He told me plan and simple ( you will not hurt the amp, it has so much protection built it. ) but he did say to crank the volumes and then if you get cliping just turn the master back a bit until the cliping goes away. I asked because I just ordered a Schroeder 212 4 ohm cab and wanted to see if I need to move more air if I could put a 8ohm cab ontop.
 
#371
johnnybass01 said:
Well mine arrived today and I've had about an hour to compare it to my subway d800. This was playing through my 15/6/1 4 ohm cab.
Headroom goes to the bb800 to get the same volume with the d800 it will start clipping.
The tone on the bb800 is exactly what you put into it it truly sounds like your bass . The d800 has more of a thicker rounded bottom end to it ,it just seems fuller.you can get there with the bb800 you just have to crank up on the deep circuit.i typically play an American p5 or my esp Rocco prestia 5 . Both amps are great but when you add a pedal things get more interesting I use a zoom ms60b with just a couple of presets one of them thickens the p bass up a bit and the other kinda leaves the esp where it is just adds a little compression to both patches.If I were going to be using a pedal most of the time the bb800 is the winner for me it seems to give the feeling that you have a tube amp behind you ( it's hard to explain) on the other hand using the same patch with the mesa I have to turn off the deep switch it's really freaking close . Although the mesa should sound warmer it just doesn't seem to have the heft on the lower range notes that the bb800 . It's really all subjective apples to oranges . For the shear headroom the bb800 will cover most my single cab gigs I will probably keep the mesa for two cab gigs where I need to be able to run both an 8 and 4 ohm cab together . If the quilter would do that I would probably let the mesa go. IMHO will have to gig them back to back to be sure.
Click to expand...

Just curious. What 15/6/1 cab is 4 ohms ?
 
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#372
I was A/Bing the Quilter against a GK MB for an amp that would fit in my bass's gigbag and power my Baer.
For my tone goals the BB800 won hands down. I love the way it sustains on higher gain settings- kinda feels like a tube amp without going into actual breakup. The GK always sounded like a GK; no matter which bass I used, the baked in sound of that amp couldn't be "tuned out". The Bass Block lets my PBass sound like a PBass and my Status sound like it does. And I love the simple tone controls - I'm able to get exactly where I want to be with the lows and highs cut and the gain boosted.
Did I mention I love this amp?

Peace
 
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#373
phattline said:
Yeah I noticed this as well. It will overdrive if you really crank it (I have active pickups, so if I go into the passive input this happens quite easily). The overdrive does not sound good and I don't think it's really musically usable for my taste however.

I go into the active input and set the gain around 8 and it sounds great. I'm really enjoying the built in limiter.
Click to expand...
My experience is that it is dead clean for the most part then gets a little furry then goes too far and gets ugly. I love the little furry version.
 
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#374
I did my own 15/6/1 it's actually a 15/5/1 I'm using the 3015lf 4ohm crossed over at 900hz to the fatal pro midrange that overlaps at about 500kz and runs open to its peak. Can't remember exactly where I crossed over the horn .it's slightly smaller than a fearful 15/6 and just a little bigger than the fearless f115 . It's tuned to about 50hz . I love it it's my go to cab .with the fatal pro mid it doesn't really need the horn most of the time I turn it off.i like building my own cabinets . It started with a 15/5 I built with the regular kapplite 3015 non lf and the faital pro mid . I built 4 different crossovers before I got it where I like it.
 
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#379
CharlieC said:
It is a fantastic DI, but with the following to consider:
  1. The DI level is directly affected by the Master knob level
  2. The DI signal is solely post EQ/Limiter
  3. There is no ground-lift should that be required
Cheers!
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Agreed! Ideally it would be switchable for : pre/post, mic/line and ground/lift (and be pre-master volume).
For some manufacturers the ground solution is to leave pin 1 disconnected. I just put a meter on the BB800 and pin 1 IS connected to ground.
One might consider throwing a few inline xlr adapters in their bag. They are made by Sescom, Shure and others. These would include Line to Mic Level, a Ground Lift and maybe even a variable inline xlr volume control.
 
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#380
Stu_Bass said:
Agreed! Ideally it would be swichable for : pre/post, mic/line and ground/lift (and be pre-master volume)
Click to expand...

With this said, I much rather prefer that no XLR out be provided and I can simply tap my own via "FX Send" as per the following pipe dream!

bb800_v2.jpg
 
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