Quilter Micropro Mach 2 settings?

[stringmann]

I'm playing a jazz gig soon with a piano player and my vocal that i've done for several years, In the last few, I've used this amp.And it always seemed too bright to me. I have the settings in the accompanying picture according to rich seversons advice, Maybe a little variation, But it still seems overly bright to me. guitar I'm using this time Doesn't even have a tone control on it's floating archtop pick up+ has TI bebops rw 14's. Any counsel for getting softer, rounder tone? Tia

[stringmann]

[Bimmer]

[Joannmp]

I think it is more likely the strings and not the amp settings. I have the same amp, and use the Rich Severson video settings, too. If you switch to TI Jazz Swing strings that are flatwound, you should get the tone dialed in. The bebops are round wound and naturally brighter. Or you can spring a bit more for the flatwound George Bensons - I have a set of those on my 1953 L-7C.

[Groyniad]

use a 9m curly cable
TI swing strings

I turned up to a gig I was used to using this amp (with eastman archtop) for without my 9m curly cable - and i couldn't get the sound I was used to (same venue - same everything except the cable).

i use a planet waves one - but I'm sure it's just the length and low-fi character of the cable. Doesn't sound dull or damped - just less brittle.

all best

[jads57]

Bass over half at 1O’clock, Mid Cut 10 or 11P’clock , Treble same, High Cut at 2 to O’clock. Re era to taste

[rpjazzguitar]

I've heard a few Quilters and played through one twice, without being able to dial it in. I thought they all sounded too bright. I have assumed that I could dial it in better if I had the time, but I haven't had a chance to try.

My hearing is impaired enough in high frequencies that whatever I'm hearing isn't going to be much above 2k, or so I think. Somehow, there's something in the sound that strikes me as icy.

[Stringswinger]

I had a Quilter Mach 2 head that I paired with a Raezer's Edge cabinet and with the EQ controls all set to 12 O'clock, I got a great jazz guitar tone with any guitar I used.

I tried a bunch of guitars at Steve's Guitars in San Francisco and played through a Quilter Micropro combo with what looked like a single 8 inch speaker, and with all of the EQ controls set to 12 O'clock, I got a great jazz guitar tone through every archtop that I tried.

Honestly, I do not get the whole Quilters are too bright for jazz thing at all. Perhaps I have not met that bright quilter amp yet?

I will say that Quilters are brighter than say, a Polytone/Acoustic Image/Henriksen amp. But so are Fender tube amps (which is the sound Quilter is going for).

To the OP and all the other cats who think Quilters are too bright for jazz guitar, I am thinking that you may need to try a different amp.

[stringmann]

I'm the op + I don't think quilters are 2 bright for jazz. (I own this one + a 101 head) I said I thought my settings or something else were not getting the tone it's capable of...that's why intook a picture (+ so sorry it went upside down when i uploaded it) The comments have been helpful, esp the video. tnx everyone

[stringmann]

Also stringswinger, I've paired the 101 with an RE rich made + it's excellent. But I'm trying to carry only the mach 2.

[Woody Sound]

Try experimenting with the Voices (the knob at the right end). Depending on your guitar, speaker, etc, they yield subtle differences from the FULL Q. Also try using some of the first few Boost settings with the gain way down.

[Groyniad]

i've also found the mach2 delivers a great jazz sound with all the tone controls at 12 - and the 'brown' voicing (and my curly cable)

on a slightly different topic -

can anyone who has a clue about amps and uses them with an archtop for mainstream jazz help me with the limiter on the quilter's amps? I've read quilter's explanations - and various others - but I'm so uneducated about gain vs master etc. that i can't work it out. I used to have gain on minimum and master at full on the mach2 - but now i'm using the superblock US I have both gain and master at about 2 o'clock.

a) what does the 'limiter' do on a quilter amp?
b) does it have anything to offer for a mainstream jazz set up with an archtop?

thanks!

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

a) what does the 'limiter' do on a quilter amp?
b) does it have anything to offer for a mainstream jazz set up with an archtop?

The limiter is only useful when you’re using high gain for distortion. It limits the peaks in the induced distortion for smoother sustain, but seems to do nothing to or for clean low gain jazz tones.

[John A.]

The limiter is only useful when you’re using high gain for distortion. It limits the peaks in the induced distortion for smoother sustain, but seems to do nothing to or for clean low gain jazz tones.

Quilter's site says this:
"The Limiter goes in hand with the Gain on our amps. Ultimately, it governs how far into overdrive your Gain can go. This way, you can either set your amp to have moderate breakup, or long, but clean sustain.

For example, if you set your Gain up and set your Limiter all the way at 0, then you will get an overdriven tone. but, if you set your Limiter all the way to 10, you will get long sustain without going over into overdrive. "

I don't really understand this. To the extent I do, it seems like it's doing something different from a typical limiter, which limits how loud a signal can get and does not typically increase sustain (that's more like what a compressor with a lot of make-up gain does).

[Woody Sound]

Quilter's site says this:
"The Limiter goes in hand with the Gain on our amps. Ultimately, it governs how far into overdrive your Gain can go. This way, you can either set your amp to have moderate breakup, or long, but clean sustain.

For example, if you set your Gain up and set your Limiter all the way at 0, then you will get an overdriven tone. but, if you set your Limiter all the way to 10, you will get long sustain without going over into overdrive. "

I don't really understand this. To the extent I do, it seems like it's doing something different from a typical limiter, which limits how loud a signal can get and does not typically increase sustain (that's more like what a compressor with a lot of make-up gain does).

It sounds like maybe the Limiter chokes only the Gain, not the main Vol(?)

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

It sounds like maybe the Limiter chokes only the Gain, not the main Vol(?)

The way it affects the guitar signal makes me pretty sure it's just a frequency dependent limiter. Crunch in your tone is the result of distortion that was added to it. The source of this distortion is from a circuit in the signal path that's being operated above its rated distortion limits (i.e. overdriven) and / or a circuit that modifies the signal by adding a distortion component (e.g. square wave, triangle wave, etc). When you overdrive a tube, you're pushing more signal through it than it can process faithfully. As the output demand rises above the rated level, the waveform peaks are compressed. This affects tone by injecting higher order harmonic distortion caused by the progressive sharp cutoff of those peaks. All of that distortion energy is high frequency, and it adds a lot of electrical energy to the signal. Some of it is high enough in frequency to be barely audible (if at all) through your amp, but it's still being pumped into your speakers. This is how distortion blows speakers even though the amp's output is rated no higher than the speaker's power handling. The energy overheats the voice coil, stresses the cone, and causes damage.

From Quilter's statements on how the limiter works, I suspect it limits progressively more as frequency goes up. If I'm right, it lets the fundamental frequencies in the signal pass relatively unimpeded but progressively attentuates higher frequecies as you turn it up. This would reduce the buzzy distortion components while letting loer order harmonics and the signal itself come through relatively unaffected. But with higher gain into the output stage, the signal is much higher in voltage than it is at lower gain settings. So it sustains longer because it starts out stronger, and the limiter makes it smoother because it educes the odd order harmonics that give crunch its name and sound.

The waveforms below illustrate this. The gentle flattening of still-round peaks as you approach the upper limit of faithful amplification (i.e. relatively undistorted) causes the "edge of breakup" sound everybody loves. But going above this, you get sharp corners on the peaks (caused by exceeding the capacity of the output devices to conduct the full waveform, which gets "clipped"). These sudden transitions in frequency (i.e. the corners of the truncated peaks) generate the harsh high frequency odd order harmonics that we call fuzz, crunch, etc. The character of the distortion depends on the specific effects of the circuit on the signal, which is why there are so many different kinds of distortion available from so many effects.



The bottom line is that once you push the gain high enough to distort the output, the limiter probably reduces the high frequency distortion components relative to the signal level. The high signal level lets the sound sustain longer, while the reduction in harsh overtones reduces the buzz. That's my guess, but I'd love to learn if this is correct or how it works if I'm wrong.

[twtunes]

The limiter clearly is before the clipping. 0 limiting = normal overdrive. Limiter at 10, no overdrive, just compression sustain. The company says the signal chain is right to left on the SuperBlock, so Gain first, then limit into the main.

I've tinkered with Quilter overdrive and limiting. Too crackly when overdriving, and the limiter just feels weird.

I get good results with an overdrive pedal before the amp, so I can set tone after the clipping and control the overall result. AnalogMan's King of Tone is excellent, two sides for different gain/tone settings.

[Woody Sound]

AFA the Quilters being too bright for a jazz tone, for my own taste, I think maybe they're a bit high in the high-mids, not really the treble. But I still use two MP's.