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After converting my Fender Champion to a cab (stock 20W, 8" speaker), I'm looking for a mini head amp to plug into it and my guitars. Primarily used only for jazz home practice with Heritage archtops or a cheap tele clone. I do have a "real amp"- A Fender Deluxe Reverb from the ?80's but it's nice to have a smaller amp/cab to carry out. I don't used effects or even pedals (maybe I should) and primarily am looking for a warm clean sound. And by affordable, I mean under $250 and preferably less. Am sure there are opinion from those who have multiple amps. Opinions welcome. Thanks.
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07-18-2024 07:03 PM
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Quilter, everyone here but DawgBone likes them. He only likes Twin Reverbs.
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hmm. Pretty much Reverb price. Is Quilter it? I mean it would be powering an 8" stock Fender speaker! I will keep my eye on it however. Thanks.
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TC Electronic BAM is another standard choice for what you're describing.
Originally Posted by ewall
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How about the Vox MV50 Clean? 50 watts. $220. 1.32 lbs.
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You may also find the mini Vox heads (what Jim said) and the Joyo bantam type heads will work out as well.
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Does anybody have experiences with the Hotone Nano legacy series?
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I own/have owned all of the above and then some, like Mooer Baby Bomb, H&K Spirit of Vintage, EHX Cal.22, Orange Micro and Dark Terror, DV Mark Micro 50 and Kyro Dulo, in no particular order. For a jazz player, on-board reverb is a must. This alone makes the Quilter SuperBlock stand out in the sub 2 lbs. category. The micro-micros fed from an external DC power unit (19 V for VOX, 24V for H&K and Quilter) invariably get dirty on higher volumes. Hotone Mojo Attack is a great design, with ok clean and reverb, but the dirty channel hasn't pleased critics. Baby Bomb and Kyro are the loudest 30W I know of, but pretty in-your-face without a preamp. Same with the VOX "Clean". Why not try a secondhand DV Mark? It's got a far darker and jazzier sound than Quilter 101R, for example. The reverb does sound like a drunken intellectual (great for acoustic guitar) but you only need a tad of it. And your cab is hefty enough for the bulk. Are you OK with the stock speaker? Do you know its power rating and impedance? 4 ohms = poison to many small amps.
Having said all of the above, my go-to amps for the past few years have been the SuperBlock US and BAM 200. Nobody has been able to merge the two for a jazz guitarist's Holy Grail Lite.
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Yes, they're friggin good. Cheap, tiny, good tone. Way more tone than you'd expect from a lil pos. Originally Posted by Bop Head
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The Quilter TB 202 is the one that reliably gives me a great tone, on different guitars with different pickups. It actually has 2 good tones, the ‘blackface’ one and the ‘wide open’ one. Good reverb as well.
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It’s a shame you can’t buy the
amps contained in the various
champion combos separately ….
a Champion 20 combo retails
for approx £130 in the UK
so the amp section sold separately
would presumably be about £70
best bargain ever ?
(also the OP would be able to fix his
20 combo)
this price for an amp with a decent clean sound and a good reverb
(also a few fx and flavours of distortion thrown in)
(ps even at £130 it’s still a good buy)
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Agree! The big Quilters are versatile powerhouses with great tone. I got an OD202 a few months ago, and it’s truly wonderful. Through the Eminence 300W 12” speaker in my DockBlock HD, the OD is the equivalent of a Boogie Mk 2C+ to the TB’s Mark 1. They both deliver great clean jazz tone in spades. Having the 202 is the main reason I’m selling my SBUS (the one Jim777 linked in his post). Originally Posted by cmajor9
The 202s are well worth the money if you want or need the power. They’re twice the price of a SB (new or used) and twice the size. But any Quilter is a solid, reliable amp that delivers what it promises. The only ones I don’t personally like for tone are the 101s.
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The Quilter Mach 3 is a state of the art SS amp for those who need power, versatility and light weight with a "tube amp" sound. I have the combo and can report that it can get as loud as my Boogie Mark 4 did at 1/3rd the weight. Does it completely nail Fender tube amp tone? No, but in the real world of a jazz gig, it does the trick. That said, if you are after the Polytone/Ampeg jazz tone, go Henriksen. The Mach 3 head is not "mini" or inexpensive, but if you want the best, look no further. Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
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Does that mean you don't need reverb? Originally Posted by ewall
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Let's not forget that the OP is looking for an affordable mini amp head for a 8", 20W speaker. For environmental reasons, I understand, given how low the price of a new Champion 20 is.
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All I can say in response to this thread is that if a genie appears and offers to grant your wishes, be vary careful how you phrase things and that the genie is not hard of hearing. Asking for a mini head might not get you exactly what you want.
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Did you really play them? Or did you -- just like me -- read reviews and watch YouTube videos about them? Originally Posted by Bobby Timmons
I am looking for real experience by someone who has e.g. used the Nano Legacy Mojo Diamond ("Twin" sound) or the Nano Legacy British Invasion ("Vox AC30" sound") for jazz. I see them sold used all the time for rather cheap and I'd like to know if all the raving about them is true and those who sell them just do not have the patience to use them right or are among those who have to try out every gimmick they see advertised and get bored soon or if those little amps suck in reality and therefore are soon sold again. Hotone's concept with those amps seems to be nice at least. (The latest offer I saw e.g. for a "British Invasion" was 35,-- EUR used.)
EDIT: I just rechecked and the Nano Legacy series mini heads are all 5 watts and according to reviews I have read could keep up with a quiet drummer. So their clean range is probably neighbour friendly.
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Here’s another possible direction. I can recommend the Vox MV50 for a tiny head with very good sound. I played a gig a few weeks ago at The World Cafe Live with a quintet in which I played my Roland synth equipped LP. The other guitarist had a 2x12 combo amp with an MV50 sitting on it, and I assumed the Vox was a backup.
When we were set up and ready for the sound check, I realized he was playing through the Vox powering the combo speakers. The Korg NuTube inside makes for great tube-y tone, and the class D module puts out an honest 50 watts into 4 Ohms. My D V Mark EG250 has a similar tube front end that sounds very warm, rich, and full. Although equal in power to the Quilter 202s (250W into 4 Ohms), it’s between the little guys and the Quilter 202s in price and features.
The MV50 is an amazing little head - warm, full, and clean to a very impressive SPL driven by a Tele with a blade HB at the neck. He had a small pedal board, and it did full justice to his effects too. WCL is a big venue and before the sound guy set up the mics, this rig was loud & proud without reinforcement. After playing around with it, I would gladly use one.
FWIW, John, I consider a Quilter TB to be a mini head. It’s a lot more amp than a BAM200 or a Gnome, but it’s small & light. It just ain’t cheap
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I went through Thomann's "transistor" guitar heads and found out that Quilter occupies the top three positions, with Aviator Mach 3 Head as #1, SuperBlock US #2 and ToneBlock 202 #3. Congratulations to Pat Quilter in Europeisch!
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Quilter superblock is awesome. I prefer the milkman but for the price you can’t beat the quilter.
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Depending of which Milkman, you have 50 or 100 watts against SuperBlock's 25. I just happened to host the German jazz guitarist Paul Brändle at my workshop earlier today. He's touring with the phenomenal Mongolian jazz singer Enji and US/Amsterdam bassist River Adomeit, with a performance at the North Sea Jazz Festival behind and the Odysseus Festival in Helsinki ahead tomorrow. In an A/B comparison we found his 100W Milkman and my SuperBlock US to be very similar in sound, through a telescopic TOOB 10T.
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Paul is playing a Quilter as well. I played over his set-up a while ago at a session he hosted. Could have been a ToneBlock or a SuperBlock. I was too excited to take care of such details LOL. Originally Posted by Gitterbug
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I recommend the Quilter Superblock, either the US or UK. I have the UK and I find it breaks up earlier than I want when the master volume is maxed out so the US would probably be your best bet. I chose the UK mainly because when I called up Quilter they said that the UK has less bass frequencies and boominess than the US. Both Superblocks are rated at 25 tube watts. The speaker for the Fender Champion 20 is rated at 20 watts. That's only 5 watts above what the speaker can handle. If you don't fully crank the Superblock with everything set at 10, you should be fine with the slightly underpowered speaker.
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A 200W ToneBlock, too, does have he. Obsessed with size and weight, Paul now trots the Globe with a travel guitar with a detachable neck and blade, plus a Metro 6.5 telescopic tweed custom cab by Yours Truly, all fitting in a carry-on bag. The SuperBlock is under consideration, enabling another pair of socks or the like to fit in. Originally Posted by Bop Head
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A Quilter Superblock US in Canada
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