Mini Review Quilter OD200 amp / Blockdock 12HD cab

[jzucker]

Yeah, I feel you and quilter has a lot of different tech in their product line with different strengths and weaknesses.

I didn't bond with one of their earlier offerings but I really like this one. In this amp, the volume control and gain work as you'd expect. The gain stays clean until you get it up to around 11 or 12 o'clock and with it at 10, there is literally enough volume to knock my pictures off the way if I max out the volume. It is a realistic 200w as opposed to some other class D offerings I've played through that are rated at 600w but are more realistically about a 75w tube amp in terms of DB output.

they have a good return policy though as does musiciansfriend and guitarcenter so you can always return it if you don't like it.

Thanks Jack, it sounds great.

I agree with Entresz' comment... "It's very hard to find anything but heavy metal demos/reviews about this amp." but I'll add to that most every other amp I hear nowadays online is in the same boat.

I've looked at the OD200 as well as the Micropro and have never even seen either locally but EVERY amp I've played with a "Gain" or other some such control the "volume" control (if it had one) was ineffective until the gain was turned up and clean invariably went away.

It seems that quilter has a problem with the word volume, preferring Gain, output, master, boost, which are all consistently inconsistent across their product line. Add to that they have cutsie names for EQ controls that steer me away.

So, amps with a gain, overdrive, crunch, or other idiotic descriptor in place of a volume control THEN making any "gain" control inextricably linked to the power output while adding distortion is immediately relegated to the "I'm not interested" category because a $500 and up mistake on an internet purchase is not in my future purchase plans.

[GNAPPI]

As I expect and what the maker does may be different.

My expectation is if GAIN is left at ZERO and whatever is analagous to volume goes up is the max amp output what it is rated at?

[jzucker]

Gain is simply the preamp volume control. Volume is the total output power.

So if gain is at 0, there is no output. On a fender amp, the volume control is the gain control. Fender doesn't have a master volume or wattage control so it defaults to being on 10. If you add a post phase inverter volume control to a fender amp it works just like the quilter OD200 in terms of function.

As I expect and what the maker does may be different.

My expectation is if GAIN is left at ZERO and whatever is analagous to volume goes up is the max amp output what it is rated at?

[jzucker]

the quilter is not like evans which has a bunch of made-up preamp turns like scruff, body, buff, etc. I've always considered that useless frankly.

The quilter is actually logical, based on a solid state version of a tube amp design.

[fep]

It seems that quilter has a problem with the word volume, preferring Gain, output, master, boost, which are all consistently inconsistent across their product line. Add to that they have cutsie names for EQ controls that steer me away.

So, amps with a gain, overdrive, crunch, or other idiotic descriptor in place of a volume control THEN making any "gain" control inextricably linked to the power output while adding distortion is immediately relegated to the "I'm not interested" category because a $500 and up mistake on an internet purchase is not in my future purchase plans.

My MicroPro 200 has Vol, Gain, Bass, Mid, Treb. The Gain set to zero and there is no output. Depending on how hot or not the input signal is, it is clean to about 12 O'Clock just as Jack describes. It's not difficult to deal with, just keep it at 12 O'Clock or less if you want clean and adjust volume with the volume control. I set my gain a bit higher so that it is clean to my ear unless I pick harder than average and I'll get a little bit of gain. Like a tube amp the gain reacts to the player.

[Klatu]

How does the clean headroom of the OD200 compare with the 101 Reverb or mini?

[jzucker]

My MicroPro 200 has Vol, Gain, Bass, Mid, Treb. The Gain set to zero and there is no output. Depending on how hot or not the input signal is, it is clean to about 12 O'Clock just as Jack describes. It's not difficult to deal with, just keep it at 12 O'Clock or less if you want clean and adjust volume with the volume control. I set my gain a bit higher so that it is clean to my ear unless I pick harder than average and I'll get a little bit of gain. Like a tube amp the gain reacts to the player.

That's how I use it as well. I actually like the sound of a little overdrive for single notes but not so much for chords...

Regarding the headroom comment, it's got about 4x the headroom of the 101

[edit] - oops, that's not headroom. Just a guess but I'd say the headroom is the same when the OD200 gain is set to 10 o'clock. Maybe melton can comment when he gets back from namm...

[jzucker]

here's another clip of the quilter...

[mad dog]

Based largely on this thread, I decided to give Quilter another shot. Had owned an aviator head, also a 101 mini, but hadn't really warmed up to them. Could have been many reasons. One for sure was that nasal quality I heard at times which has been mentioned here.

Anyway, just picked up a used od200 from a guy who bought it, never even got to use it. Tried it first with my favorite 1x12 cab ... the small, ported cab that came with my Pure 64 Mean Streets classic head. With the stock, custom 16 ohm speaker. It has a very big sound for a small cab - and certainly is part of why that Mean Streets amp sounds so good.

The Quilter is 200 watts at 4 ohms, clearly would be much less at 16 ohms. I plugged into the 8 ohm out with first an ES-335, then a P-90 equipped tele. And this little amp turns out to be exactly what I had hoped the other ones could be. Beautiful sound, not sterile or harsh, lots of power. I'm impressed. Not sure whether it's just a matter of this time around I used a really good cab. Not that it matters. Together the od200 and the little cab probably weigh under 20 pounds. Couldn't be more convenient. I used only the clean channel so far, channel gain from 10 am to 2 pm, master volume not even halfway up. Plenty of volume here, more than I could use, even at 16 ohm.

Very cool little amp. Thanks for the tip Jack!

[Woody Sound]

Anyway, just picked up a used od200 from a guy who bought it, never even got to use it. Tried it first with my favorite 1x12 cab ... the small, ported cab that came with my Pure 64 Mean Streets classic head. With the stock, custom 16 ohm speaker. It has a very big sound for a small cab - and certainly is part of why that Mean Streets amp sounds so good.

The Quilter is 200 watts at 4 ohms, clearly would be much less at 16 ohms. I plugged into the 8 ohm out with first an ES-335, then a P-90 equipped tele. And this little amp turns out to be exactly what I had hoped the other ones could be. Beautiful sound, not sterile or harsh, lots of power. I'm impressed. Not sure whether it's just a matter of this time around I used a really good cab. Not that it matters. Together the od200 and the little cab probably weigh under 20 pounds. Couldn't be more convenient. I used only the clean channel so far, channel gain from 10 am to 2 pm, master volume not even halfway up. Plenty of volume here, more than I could use, even at 16 ohm.

Very cool little amp. Thanks for the tip Jack!

Perhaps it likes seeing 16 Ohms. Very possible.

[6stringjazz]

Based largely on this thread, I decided to give Quilter another shot. Had owned an aviator head, also a 101 mini, but hadn't really warmed up to them. Could have been many reasons. One for sure was that nasal quality I heard at times which has been mentioned here.

Anyway, just picked up a used od200 from a guy who bought it, never even got to use it. Tried it first with my favorite 1x12 cab ... the small, ported cab that came with my Pure 64 Mean Streets classic head. With the stock, custom 16 ohm speaker. It has a very big sound for a small cab - and certainly is part of why that Mean Streets amp sounds so good.

The Quilter is 200 watts at 4 ohms, clearly would be much less at 16 ohms. I plugged into the 8 ohm out with first an ES-335, then a P-90 equipped tele. And this little amp turns out to be exactly what I had hoped the other ones could be. Beautiful sound, not sterile or harsh, lots of power. I'm impressed. Not sure whether it's just a matter of this time around I used a really good cab. Not that it matters. Together the od200 and the little cab probably weigh under 20 pounds. Couldn't be more convenient. I used only the clean channel so far, channel gain from 10 am to 2 pm, master volume not even halfway up. Plenty of volume here, more than I could use, even at 16 ohm.

Very cool little amp. Thanks for the tip Jack!

OK, I'll join in. I did the same thing based largely on this thread. I previously owned the Mach 2 combo and also heard the nasal quality there. I had previously tried the 101 reverb head and found it too bright. Since the OD200 is basically the same preamp as the 101 reverb, it is also too bright for my taste, even with the treble all the way off. I thought that maybe it was my speaker, so I bought the block dock HD12 cabinet with the Celestion 300 watt speaker. Still too bright, so I tried a Warehouse ET90 recommended by Jack, still too bright, maybe even brighter than the Celestion, but has a boomy low end.

Also I am hearing some preamp break up between 3 and 4 on the clean channel gain control, and I am not using high output pickups. They are Duncan Seth Lovers. I sent the amp back to Quilter for an evaluation, and Peter was very nice about the whole thing, but they said the amp was performing up to spec. He sent me a video showing that he was not getting the break up until about 6 or 7. I got it back, and nothing changed, it still breaks up between 3 and 4 and the treble sounds ice pick to me at 0.

I have a Zoom BT100 multi effects unit that I put in the effects loop for reverb and delay which also has a parametric eq, so Jack suggested to eq out 4K. I did that and now the amp is usable and sounds pretty good, and no nasal quality like the Mach 2, although I don't think it should be required to have to use an eq just to tame the amp enough to make it gigable for me. I did try to get usable tones without anything in the effects loop and it just wasn't happening for me. Just my personal experience here, and it seems to be contradictory to what most people have experienced with this amp. I will keep it and continue to use it and tweak as needed, but it's been a difficult piece of gear for me to adjust to.

[mad dog]

Interesting:

My od200 does not seem to be overly bright. I kept the treble knob at less than halfway, which seemed to work well with the 335 neck only position, w/o any tone rolled off on the guitar. With the tele, I rarely have the tone knob up full. And with this amp, felt like about the same level of guitar tone roll off sounded best.

Keeping the mids knob lower definitely helps (to my ears) with this amp. The bass/mids/treble settings that sound best are 4/3/3.

That said, it's quite possible running the od200 into a 16 ohm, ported cab could be a decisive difference. (Haven't tried it yet with the pine 10+12 ...) Thinking back to the 101 reverb, that quilter was definitely on the bright side for me with an open, pine 1x15 cab. Which is one reason it didn't stay.

[jzucker]

I think the brightness thing depends on what school of playing you come from. On this clip, I had the bass on 1 or 2 and the treble all the way off. What I have found is that the treble control is voiced more in the high mids so it doesn't quite do the fender treble thing but at zero I love it.

I can get the adam rogers / metheny tone by turning the guitar's tone controls down. To get a more bensony tone, I have to use an eq and boost the 4k sweet spot. I don't use the EQ in the effect loop though. Right in front.

And I get no breakup with the preamp on 4 even with my boost pedal set to +3db!

[jzucker]

but another thing to consider...The power rating on this amp isn't like an acoustic image. The wattage setting on the amp corresponds to tube amp ratings IMO. 50w is REALLY 50w so even with the preamp down between 1 and 2 it can get louder than a twin reverb...

[petermelton]

Based largely on this thread, I decided to give Quilter another shot. Had owned an aviator head, also a 101 mini, but hadn't really warmed up to them. Could have been many reasons. One for sure was that nasal quality I heard at times which has been mentioned here.

Anyway, just picked up a used od200 from a guy who bought it, never even got to use it. Tried it first with my favorite 1x12 cab ... the small, ported cab that came with my Pure 64 Mean Streets classic head. With the stock, custom 16 ohm speaker. It has a very big sound for a small cab - and certainly is part of why that Mean Streets amp sounds so good.

The Quilter is 200 watts at 4 ohms, clearly would be much less at 16 ohms. I plugged into the 8 ohm out with first an ES-335, then a P-90 equipped tele. And this little amp turns out to be exactly what I had hoped the other ones could be. Beautiful sound, not sterile or harsh, lots of power. I'm impressed. Not sure whether it's just a matter of this time around I used a really good cab. Not that it matters. Together the od200 and the little cab probably weigh under 20 pounds. Couldn't be more convenient. I used only the clean channel so far, channel gain from 10 am to 2 pm, master volume not even halfway up. Plenty of volume here, more than I could use, even at 16 ohm.

Very cool little amp. Thanks for the tip Jack!

Thanks for picking up one of our amps! Just so you know, it's 200 watts at 4 or 8 ohms and potentially more than 200 at 16 ohms. There's actually a 400 watt amp inside there that is divided in half for a few things. When you mismatch the impedance that way the amp will over compensate for it and actually deliver more power to the speaker. If you compared the same settings to the same speaker model but an 8 ohm build the 16 ohm will be louder. Tone is the same until you get to the extremes where you might run into some Class D clipping, but you won't hurt the amp. If you have a low powered speaker you could blow it easier so just be careful. You can use 16 ohms without harming the amp but that's why we put 4 and 8 on the back. Cheers

[Geetar]

Same Peter. That's what happens when you push for a vintage style one channel combo and then go on vacation haha. You come back with your face on a cardboard box. The Pete's Special is an experiment to see if people will buy one channel combo amps from us for $699. I'm a big fan of the 101 Reverb with that cab and speaker so that's how that happened. That's what I gig with.

The clean channel on the Overdrive 200 is the same as the 101 Reverb. You are correct. The mid is flat on five, decreasing it does the Blackface scoop and increasing it boosts the mid frequency range found in Dumbles. The bass control should be essentially identical to your Fender. Pat voiced the treble control just a little wider so it isn't so spikey.

Hi Peter,
Wondering why you preferred the GA SC 64 instead of the Celestion bn 12 300 that comes with the BlockDock. I have a mini reverb and am going through a trial period with the Celestion right now and am curious!

[jonh]

I think the brightness thing depends on what school of playing you come from. On this clip, I had the bass on 1 or 2 and the treble all the way off. What I have found is that the treble control is voiced more in the high mids so it doesn't quite do the fender treble thing but at zero I love it.

I can get the adam rogers / metheny tone by turning the guitar's tone controls down. To get a more bensony tone, I have to use an eq and boost the 4k sweet spot. I don't use the EQ in the effect loop though. Right in front.

And I get no breakup with the preamp on 4 even with my boost pedal set to +3db!

Jack, if this is the rig you used last night (June 12, 2019) at the Bop Stop, the tone was outstanding.

-Jon

[jzucker]

Jack, if this is the rig you used last night (June 12, 2019) at the Bop Stop, the tone was outstanding.

-Jon

i was actually using a stereo rig with fargen blackbird on one side and dv mark gh250 on the other side

[Wildcat]

Jack,
I live in Pittsburgh. I would like to head up to check your trio out some time. Looking at the schedule I don't see you playing anytime soon. When's you next date?

i was actually using a stereo rig with fargen blackbird on one side and dv mark gh250 on the other side

[jzucker]

Jack,
I live in Pittsburgh. I would like to head up to check your trio out some time. Looking at the schedule I don't see you playing anytime soon. When's you next date?

we're setting up a date either in the fall or novemberish. Also looking at playing at nighttown which is another great jazz club here. I'd love to play pittsburgh sometime.

[Wildcat]

Jazz in Pittsburgh has fluctuated over the years. One recent attempt in Downtown Pittsburgh is Andy's Wine bar. They do live Jazz performances Friday and Saturday nights, 8-12. This month is the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival. June 20-23. They close down the streets in Downtown Pittsburgh for this event. There are few smaller clubs that have Jazz performances. The anchor for all things Jazz is the Manchester Craftsmanship Guild (MCG). I have seen quite a few perforamances over the years. Pat Martino and Larry Carlton come to mind first.

[jzucker]

Jazz in Pittsburgh has fluctuated over the years. One recent attempt in Downtown Pittsburgh is Andy's Wine bar. They do live Jazz performances Friday and Saturday nights, 8-12. This month is the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival. June 20-23. They close down the streets in Downtown Pittsburgh for this event. There are few smaller clubs that have Jazz performances. The anchor for all things Jazz is the Manchester Craftsmanship Guild (MCG). I have seen quite a few perforamances over the years. Pat Martino and Larry Carlton come to mind first.

Ken Karsh and I have been talking about doing a duo gig for years. Maybe we'll make it happen this year. Thanks for the info!