Quilter Micro Block 45 on bass?

[bebass]

I use a 50 watt Quilter 101 Mini into a sealed 15" cabinet as one of my practice amp options. It is plenty loud for home practice or jamming with a guitarist. The tone is toward the overdrive/distortion end of the spectrum. With a passive P bass and the gain around 3 or 4, it gives a gritty, old-school, tube-amp kind of sound. In particular there is some warm and musical break-up on the low E string, or when playing chords. Increasing the gain above 5 pushes it into full-on beast mode.

Disclaimer I have NOT tried the Micro Block 45. I assume the two products have tonal similarities, but I might be wrong.

I have tried the 101 mini as a bass amp. It was OK, but like you, I found distortion easily, kinda cool for that type of sound, but personally I would suggest one of the 200 models, or better still the 800 watt bass amp as to me it represents a better investment value - for bass - with not an exorbitant size increase.

In June Pat Quilter, QL CEO Chris Parks, and I were busking in Laguna Beach as part of the city's annual Fete de la Musique. Pat built a portable bass busking amp powered by a rechargeable battery pack for me to use. It was based on the Micro Block. And I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked.

Dang, he should release that - I would buy one for personal use. I played a gig last week and used a small battery powered guitar mini-stack for bass. It got the job done, but distortion city was it's name.

 

[MarkA]

Interested to see what you you hear back about this.

I have received my unit and I like what I head so far, but I'm experiencing a major glitch: at certain gain/master settings the output kind of self-oscillates... Some kind of low frequency sinus wave becomes audible (different from regular noise, this is much lower). At max gain, it becomes audible with the master at 9 o'clock; with the master maxed out, I hear when I push the gain somewhere around 1-2 o'clock. Is this normal? Maybe some rectifier noise coming from the included power supply?

This happens while using the amps headphone output, I haven't tried it with a cab yet. @webspeare

Oh, just to clarify, this isn't a bass specific problem, as it happens even with nothing plugged in, and with the signal coming from the aux input (that, btw, goes through the whole gain structure of the preamp, so it will overdrive if you push it hard enough. Good for some easy reamping, I guess)

Another update: found my old multi tester and ground seems to be ok (230 VAC from live to neutral and from live to ground and almost 0 reading from ground to neutral)

 

[Bob Lee (QSC)]

Another update: found my old multi tester and ground seems to be ok (230 VAC from live to neutral and from live to ground and almost 0 reading from ground to neutral)

I doubt that it's an issue with the AC mains ground. Did it come with a DC power supply?

 

[samurai1993]

Hi! I've been interchanging some e-mails with Quilter, they have been very open with it and my warranty unit is on the way.

Basically, they are aware of the problem and have received reports from users about it (they friendly called it "motorboating").

The "motorboating" also comes out of the speaker, but only when headphones are connected. Without headphones, the units play fine. We have been inspecting and testing units here since the first case emerged, so we have a supply of known-good units.

As I said before, I don't own a cab at the moment to see if that's the exact behaviour of my unit, but I noticed something that makes me believe that's the case: I noticed that the noise through the headphones wasn't alone... There was also a "clicky" sound coming from inside the pedal, that was in sync both in frequency and amplitude with the first noise. Kinda like a relay in character if you have heard one. That click goes away if I disconnect the headphones.

So my blind guess is that, whatever is causing that click — mechanical or electrical in nature, I don't know — makes its way into the gain structure of the preamp.

As an user, the reasurring part is knowing that Quilter is proactive about the problem and has good and tested units at hand, because of the delays of shipping from USA to Chile.

 

[bobcruz]

Hi! I've been interchanging some e-mails with Quilter, they have been very open with it and my warranty unit is on the way.

Basically, they are aware of the problem and have received reports from users about it (they friendly called it "motorboating").

As I said before, I don't own a cab at the moment to see if that's the exact behaviour of my unit, but I noticed something that makes me believe that's the case: I noticed that the noise through the headphones wasn't alone... There was also a "clicky" sound coming from inside the pedal, that was in sync both in frequency and amplitude with the first noise. Kinda like a relay in character if you have heard one. That click goes away if I disconnect the headphones.

So my blind guess is that, whatever is causing that click — mechanical or electrical in nature, I don't know — makes its way into the gain structure of the preamp.

As an user, the reasurring part is knowing that Quilter is proactive about the problem and has good and tested units at hand, because of the delays of shipping from USA to Chile.

That is excellent customer service from Quilter. I think there will be a Quilter amp in my future although I don't have a need at present.

 

[samurai1993]

Little update: Quilter made an official statement on its forums regarding the motorboating problem. They know the cause (a missing jumper), have tracked it down to a certain range of serial numbers and are issuing a recall of the faulty units

 

[samurai1993]

I received my replacement unit yesterday. Quilter shipped my unit as soon as they checked everything was in order, but Fedex was a PITA an took lots of phone calls to finally deliver the pedal to my home. Personally, I will never use Fedex again (Not Quilter's fault, as there was no way for them to know how incompetent Fedex Chile is)

Lots of thanks to Quilter for being a great company, fully dedicated to its costumers. Peter, their sales manager, is one of the most diligent persons I've contacted in the business, and was key on making Fedex deliver the pedal successfully.

About the pedal itself: It has a really sweet crunch, with a good quantity of gain on tap. The simple Tri-q is really effective on making broad changes to your tone, even if it's designed for guitar; the full right position (Cuts lows, enhances highs) really shines, at least for my taste. It will take me 2 months to have a cab tho, but as soon as I'm done with my finals I will record a little demo, including both the direct signal and some impulse responses to simulate a cab.

 

[Zbysek]

Dang, he should release that - I would buy one for personal use. I played a gig last week and used a small battery powered guitar mini-stack for bass. It got the job done, but distortion city was it's name.

Me too

 

[Zbysek]

In June Pat Quilter, QL CEO Chris Parks, and I were busking in Laguna Beach as part of the city's annual Fete de la Musique. Pat built a portable bass busking amp powered by a rechargeable battery pack for me to use. It was based on the Micro Block. And I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked.

Does he plan to produce it and sell it? I would be interested...

 

[Bob Lee (QSC)]

Does he plan to produce it and sell it? I would be interested...

I don't think so, but you can always suggest it to him!

 

[Zbysek]

I don't think so, but you can always suggest it to him!

I did

 

[samurai1993]

After many months, my custom cab should be done this week (2 Faitals 10FE200 into a custom box made by some local builder. The Faitals took months to arrive to Chile). Will try my best to upload some demos.

 

[MarkA]

Coolio. Will be interested to hear details re. the cab, too. Hope it all works out well for you!

 

[Karl Kaminski]

In June Pat Quilter, QL CEO Chris Parks, and I were busking in Laguna Beach as part of the city's annual Fete de la Musique. Pat built a portable bass busking amp powered by a rechargeable battery pack for me to use. It was based on the Micro Block. And I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked.

details /pics please!

 

[Bob Lee (QSC)]

details /pics please!

I just used it again on Saturday (it's becoming a once-a-year thing lol). I neglected to shoot any photos of it. I'll see if anyone caught it in any photos of us playing.

 

[BassmanPaul]

Tsk, tsk, tsk Bob. You know the rules. Photos or it didn't happen!

 

[Karl Kaminski]

I just picked up a MB45 as a 'simple little amp for those simple little hits'. Man, Im pleasantly surprised at what this little thing can do. I ran an ABG passive piezo (test both with and without a Fishman Platinum pre) into a 10" cab. Obviously sounds better with a pre for impedance matching and the pre helps in a trio situation with drums. I also tested my G&L 2500 (onboard pre) > MB45 > into a 10" cab. VERY doable

If I wasn't always on the subway carrying gear I may have never needed something like this. But man so nice to through in the gig bag and go—even direct—for those 'just need a little sound situations'.

Simply Great!

 

[FDR Jones]

I had an MB45 and I tried it on bass through a 2x8 as a desktop/practice rig. It was okay but the lack of headroom gets old pretty quick. Also the knobs are wiggly. It's fine if you have size/weight/budget constraints, but it's kind of like driving a golf cart -- not great if you were expecting an actual car.

I now have a Yamaha THRC (10 watt, 2x3 combo, also with aux in and headphone out); it's not nearly as loud, but it sounds nicer and costs about the same as the Quilter/2x8. It stays pretty clean even with the knobs up; the Quilter gets dirty quick. Can't explain that. It might be an electric scooter compared to the golf cart: smaller but more fun. I can also put it right on top of my desk and therefore I find it better for near-field listening than a 2x8 under the desk. YMMV.

 

[Karl Kaminski]

Thats great if it works for you. For me, The Yamaha is 6x the size and weight and I don't need the speakers. MB45 fits the roll for what I need. YMMV

Yes, MB45 has limited headroom but than again you don't 'use a hammer when you need a screw driver'.

 

[Karl Kaminski]

I just used it again on Saturday (it's becoming a once-a-year thing lol). I neglected to shoot any photos of it. I'll see if anyone caught it in any photos of us playing.

its been a year, did you do your annual busking? pics?