Quilter Bass Block

[Kirk Bryant]

It would really be great to have a decent video on this amp, the short little video from the quilter site gives a rough idea but is certainly not in depth and does not give you a variety of tones or how the EQ shapes them. Please one of you guys that has one do a recording of some real world playing with this, that would be awesome. As to the other thousand watt amp are you referring to the PV mini mega per chance?

 

[alack]

I'd like to think I'm not in the market for a new head. But the price and power specs make this very tempting. What I can't understand is after years of gigging a RB400 (200 watts @ 4 ohms) why do I now feel a need for 800 watts?

 

[alack]

Because the world is a lot deafer (hearing, and otherwise ).

Wait! Is my need for more power and volume because I'm going deafer?

 

[GBass001]

@GBass001 how is the fan noise level on the BB800?

Is the fan running from start-up, or does it turn on later should things heat up?

At band practice no noise at all. Plugged into this for the last few songs and was totally blown away by how much power it gave up. Also I was in the active jack with master volume at about 600 watts. Incredible power. I then plugged the DI out to the board and let me tell ya that's hot as heck. No joke, clipped the board inmediately. Had to drop the gain way down compared to the db 751 front di out. Overall fit the mix perfectly against 2 marshall halfs. Again way more headroom available than I was using. The cones on my F212 were flexing big time.
Overall I wouldn't be afraid to rely on this for any size gig. I won't be live with it until the 23rd. By then you'll be happy you got one. I promise.
Oh no clips. Too much to do while setting up new board etc.

 

[GBass001]

It would really be great to have a decent video on this amp, the short little video from the quilter site gives a rough idea but is certainly not in depth and does not give you a variety of tones or how the EQ shapes them. Please one of you guys that has one do a recording of some real world playing with this, that would be awesome. As to the other thousand watt amp are you referring to the PV mini mega per chance?

Yeppers.

 

[GBass001]

Wait till you see the reaction you'll get from your band mates, especially the drummers...!

It definitely held its ground in the mix. Unfortunately our deaf singers monitors had an overwhelming drowing effect. We're gonna be setting him up with some shure iems tomorrow so Wednesday night should be more better.

 

[Mike Barry]

Wait! Is my need for more power and volume because I'm going deafer?

Yes...

 

[Bob Lee (QSC)]

And there is a little pop when engaging the mute button and disengaging.

Do you have the XLR output feeding a mixer input that has phantom power?

 

[GBass001]

Do you have the XLR output feeding a mixer input that has phantom power?

Not at that time. But again, I was in my 40 cords plugged into things room. Aka home office. I did the above at practice yesterday and no pop or noise.

 

[bebass]

At band practice no noise at all. Plugged into this for the last few songs and was totally blown away by how much power it gave up. Also I was in the active jack with master volume at about 600 watts. Incredible power. I then plugged the DI out to the board and let me tell ya that's hot as heck. No joke, clipped the board inmediately. Had to drop the gain way down compared to the db 751 front di out. Overall fit the mix perfectly against 2 marshall halfs. Again way more headroom available than I was using. The cones on my F212 were flexing big time.
Overall I wouldn't be afraid to rely on this for any size gig. I won't be live with it until the 23rd. By then you'll be happy you got one. I promise.
Oh no clips. Too much to do while setting up new board etc.

That is a relief to hear that there was no noise!

 

[Bob Lee (QSC)]

Not at that time. But again, I was in my 40 cords plugged into things room. Aka home office. I did the above at practice yesterday and no pop or noise.

OK, I was wondering because that's how I was using one of the prototypes when I experienced similar popping while engaging and disengaging the mute.

 

[MarkA]

OK, I was wondering because that's how I was using one of the prototypes when I experienced similar popping while engaging and disengaging the mute.

Is this something to be expected when using an amp (not necessarily the Bass Block) on a "busy" circuit?

 

[GBass001]

OK, I was wondering because that's how I was using one of the prototypes when I experienced similar popping while engaging and disengaging the mute.

Luckily all the places I've played and play don't interfere with any amps/pa's we've ever plugged in. So, I don't expect to get that while playing out. I think, in my office, I was plugged into the busy house shared circuit. I also have one in the room that's dedicated so I'll have to find it (out of like 4 receptacles) and test the noise/no noise on that line. I'll do that soon and report back. It's good to clear these kinds of things up for sure.

 

[GBass001]

Report from practice on Sunday:
I had the 751 set flat and the aguilar tone capsule pumping through GZR pickups in my Spector Euro 4LX and it was very mid present. I had to cut some high mids (about 30% of cut portion of knob) and push my bass knob way up to get some good bottom (out of the bottom heavy 751). The Tone Capsule has vol, blend, bass and stacked hi & lo mids.

This is a new eq in this bass and works really well with the 80's band I'm in, set flat. But in this heavy rock band "both" guitarists have new (well revamped) Marshall cabinets. Both vintage and both very mid present. So I was having a hard time getting my own freq.- at first and struggled through practice.

But once I plugged into the BB800 it seemed to settle right in where it needed to be. I had both the contour and depth knobs near the 12 o'clock positions. The gain was just under 12 o'clock also. I was in the active jack. The volume was about 600 watts and I had the bottom I needed right away through that F212 with that BB800. I hardly touched the controls. It just sat right in comfortably. By this point all our ears were fried by how "too loud" we were practicing. We made too many changes at this practice. Moved the pa, used monitors, setup new board with 32 band, mic'd everything. We practiced last night but I forgot to bring the BB800.

I can confidently say it held its ground easily against that behemoth of an amp (DB 751). Btw the 751 replaced my GK 2001rb, which weighs exactly the same - 42lbs. And the BB800 is 'replacing' my mM and mostly likely all my amps. I can see having 2 of these may be, "all I really need."

 

[Stu_Bass]

Unfortunately, Quilter is excluded from the sale. If you follow the sale link at the top of the page and read the fine print there's a list of manufacturers that are excluded.

Hi. I hope this is a legal post. If not I will take it down. First, I have no horse in this race so I am merely stating my experience. Alto Music in Middletown, NY sold me one for $50 below average street price. I live 20 miles away across the border in PA so I had it shipped, tax free, to me and paid $564 total.

 

[Stu_Bass]

I'll add my $.02 to the wish list.
First I have to acknowledge that this is part of the "Block" series and therefore intended to be small, lightweight and somewhat basic in it's functions.
Here goes:
I would eliminate the active input and add a 10dB pad switch.
In it's place I would add a bright switch.
I would make the line in jack a 1/4"/xlr combo.
I would add mic/line, ground lift and pre/post eq switches to the xlr out.
I would eliminate the 1/4" speaker outputs and make those 1/4" jacks preamp out and power amp in (effects loop). The preamp out jack would be half-normalled to allow for use as a tuner out.
I would add a 24dB/octave HPF at 25Hz
I predict this amp will sell quite well as it is a great amp as-is. I also envision a somewhat larger full on bass head with a full complement of features being released somewhere down the road.

 

[Bob Lee (QSC)]

Is this something to be expected when using an amp (not necessarily the Bass Block) on a "busy" circuit?

What does "'busy' circuit" mean? An input with phantom power?

 

[bebass]

What does "'busy' circuit" mean? An input with phantom power?

I thought he was referring to one with several things (busy) plugged in. I could see this happening if a fan or motor or heavy load was pulling from a single circuit. I run a distributed power circuit in to my showroom off a dedicated 220 due to experiencing a similar issue previously.

 

[Bob Lee (QSC)]

I thought he was referring to one with several things (busy) plugged in. I could see this happening if a fan or motor or heavy load was pulling from a single circuit. I run a distributed power circuit in to my showroom off a dedicated 220 due to experiencing a similar issue previously.

No, I wouldn't expect popping to happen in such a situation.

I'd only mentioned having the line out plugged into a mixer that had phantom power switched on (unfortunately on that mixer it couldn't be switched for individual inputs, only all on or off). I wondered if that's what he meant by a "busy" circuit. In years of doing tech support I've learned that some people (and some regions) have unusual terminology for things.

I never had any other popping incidents with the mute switch outside of that one gig. I could tell the noise sounded like a temporary DC shift coupled through a capacitor, which led me to check the mixer the Bass Block was plugged into for phantom power; that was the only thing I could think of that would have a DC voltage. I was playing at a wedding service in a church, so I had to make do with what was there.

 

[MarkA]

I thought he was referring to one with several things (busy) plugged in. I could see this happening if a fan or motor or heavy load was pulling from a single circuit. I run a distributed power circuit in to my showroom off a dedicated 220 due to experiencing a similar issue previously.

No, I wouldn't expect popping to happen in such a situation.

I'd only mentioned having the line out plugged into a mixer that had phantom power switched on (unfortunately on that mixer it couldn't be switched for individual inputs, only all on or off). I wondered if that's what he meant by a "busy" circuit. In years of doing tech support I've learned that some people (and some regions) have unusual terminology for things.

I never had any other popping incidents with the mute switch outside of that one gig. I could tell the noise sounded like a temporary DC shift coupled through a capacitor, which led me to check the mixer the Bass Block was plugged into for phantom power; that was the only thing I could think of that would have a DC voltage. I was playing at a wedding service in a church, so I had to make do with what was there.

Thanks, guys. By "busy circuit" I did indeed mean one with lots of (possibly electrically noisy) stuff plugged in, and wondered if that might somehow induce a "pop" when engaging the mute switch. Far as I know, that's my own imprecise terminology and not regional jargon.