The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    I am becoming less and less a fan of the hum my Magnatone has been giving me, and it has started to develop a rattle on the low notes, so I bought a Quilter Interblock 45. This things gets sweet clean tones with my Godin 5th Avenue. And the neck P90 on my Hamer gets a fuzz tone when the gain is turned up and I scoop the mids and roll the tone knob back to 6-7.

    Now I have to figure out what speaker I want to pair it with.

    EDITED TO ASK FOR ADVICE: Seems like a lot of people are using Neo drivers to cut weight, but with a solid state amp, I am worries about the tone sounding sterile (which I find a lot of jazz players like, but not my cup of tea). I am thinking about an AlNiCo speaker, like a 10” Celestion Gold. Any tips, experiences, recommendations you care to share are greatly appreciated.
    Last edited by zcostilla; 07-21-2019 at 09:32 PM.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    I'm using one in combination with my TOOB 12J. Alternating between micro-amps for testing purposes, I can't say it's a fave head and head and shoulders above the rest. For a Quilter, it gives a lot of bass end. My gripe is where to put the middle eq. Anyway, master volume near max and drive 'til it starts to break. Not an awful lot of clean headroom but way better (not louder though) than a Mooer Baby Bomb (if this one still exists).

  4. #3

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    I’ve got the Quilter 200 and have used it with two different Eminence 10” speakers - the Copperhead and the Lil’ Buddy. I haven’t tried out any neo speakers so can’t give you a comparison there. Between those two the Lil’ Buddy is slightly warmer, but a bit heavier. I’m pleased with the jazz tone out of either.

    I tried an 8” (I think it was a Jensen mod series) and didn’t like that tone - but I think it had more to do with the 8” size and lack of bass response.

  5. #4

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    I have a 10" Neo Weber speaker that I am very pleased with. Using it in a 5e3 cabinet makes for a very light amp. (I am using a 12" to 10" baffle converter.)

    I'd like to see how this works with a setup like the new Henriksen amp, but right now I have a 5e3 Deluxe amp in the cabinet.

    The Deluxe feeds a ten with pleasing results for an archtop guitar.

  6. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by Greentone
    I have a 10" Neo Weber speaker that I am very pleased with. Using it in a 5e3 cabinet makes for a very light amp. (I am using a 12" to 10" baffle converter.)

    I'd like to see how this works with a setup like the new Henriksen amp, but right now I have a 5e3 Deluxe amp in the cabinet.

    The Deluxe feeds a ten with pleasing results for an archtop guitar.
    But that’s a tube amp, right? If the tubs give it enough warmth, the neo driver won’t be as much a factor. Maybe I’m looking at it with a confirmation bias. I’m hoping someone will have tried both and give some feedback.

  7. #6

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    I see what you mean

  8. #7

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    I like the Celestion BN something-or-other that's in Quilter's HD cabs very very much. It is a 12 inch speaker though. It sounds terrific in combo with Aviator 8. Very much a guitar amp sound. (I was a Mesa guy from '76 to 2018. I know and love the little glass bottles)

    Just in case you forgot about them, here's a couple threads with a couple of our own JGO greats demonstrating a couple Quilter heads into Neo speakers:

    Mini Review Quilter OD200 amp / Blockdock 12HD cab

    New Quilter head: Tone Block 202

    I'm currently trying to get my hands on a ToneBlock 202 and the 12 inch Block Dock with Celestion BN Neo. I think that's going to make me happy.

  9. #8

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    While sharing my experiences with the Interblock, I failed to address the main question, i.e. which speaker? "Warmth" is subjective. I subjectively get a lot of it from Jensen's 10" and 12" Neo Tornados. Eminence's Lil'Texas is fine, Celestion's Neo Creamback a bit less of everything. DV Mark's line of 12" Neo speakers is the lightest (just 1.5 kg or a tad over 3 lbs), but not sold to other cab makers. No specs available. I suspect low sensitivity is the reason.

    Interblock is way better than first-gen micro-amps. Current Neo Speakers are way better (and warmer) than the first-gen shrillers. And they match perfectly! While the 10" Jensen Tornado is super, I can also laud the Celestion BN12-300S mentioned in another post. I use it as a bass speaker in my TOOB line, but it's also great for jazz guitar. Yet, with Interblock, you'll be nowhere near the 300W it's supposed to handle.

  10. #9

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    UPDATE: I went by the local guitar center today and they have two Quilter Labs Frontliner dock cabinets and a tone block 200 (which I didn’t try, because of time). The Frontier sounded too sterile to me. For clean tones it was decent, but jazz isn’t the only genre of music I play. And there’s no way I’d pay $539 for just ok. The 1x12 Line6 cabinet just sounded so much better, but even it didn’t floor me as far as tones go. I can handle about 25 pounds for a cabinet, but I’d like to get under 20. Thinking about making one out of 1/2” poplar boards from Lowe’s and staining it to avoid gluing Tolex to it, although that Toob concept looks promising (but out of my price range).
    Last edited by zcostilla; 07-23-2019 at 11:23 PM.

  11. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by zcostilla
    UPDATE: I went by the local guitar center today and they have two Quilter Labs Frontier dock cabinets and a tone block 200 (which I didn’t try, because of time). The Frontier sounded too sterile to me. .....The 1x12 Line6 cabinet just sounded so much better.....
    I'm guessing Frontier is an autocorrect botching of Frontliner.

    I wonder if you're starting to discover, as I did, that 12" speakers are where it's at for me. The small speakers are amazing, but don't quite have all that I want.

    I guess after decades of playing 12s it's what I'm used to, but that's where I'm at after a year and a half or so of Aviator 8 and trying out some other small amps like Blu. I thought it'd be really great to have a tiny little amp, but the truth is they don't have subways where I live now and I'm driving anyway. I think the BlockDock 12 with 202 is plenty light enough for me. Looks like it's around the same as Aviator 8.

  12. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by ccroft
    I'm guessing Frontier is an autocorrect botching of Frontliner.
    Another case where autocorrect becomes autoconfused!

  13. #12

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    Don't forget, in order to get great tone out of a speaker, there has to be great tone going into it. That's why my speakers only sound okay.

  14. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by zcostilla
    UPDATE: I went by the local guitar center today and they have two Quilter Labs Frontliner dock cabinets and a tone block 200 (which I didn’t try, because of time). The Frontier sounded too sterile to me. For clean tones it was decent, but jazz isn’t the only genre of music I play. And there’s no way I’d pay $539 for just ok. The 1x12 Line6 cabinet just sounded so much better, but even it didn’t floor me as far as tones go. I can handle about 25 pounds for a cabinet, but I’d like to get under 20. Thinking about making one out of 1/2” poplar boards from Lowe’s and staining it to avoid gluing Tolex to it, although that Toob concept looks promising (but out of my price range).
    25lbs ?
    how does 12lbs grab you ?
    Boutique

    don't know if it sounds any good ....
    but you could swap out to your favourite 12 I guess

  15. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by pingu
    25lbs ?
    how does 12lbs grab you ?
    Boutique

    don't know if it sounds any good ....
    but you could swap out to your favourite 12 I guess
    Whoah!

  16. #15

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    So I built a homemade cabinet out of 5/8” pine I had laying around, with the face out of 3/4” furniture grade maple plywood leftover from a bar countertop we did in a remodel. I put a 5° slant into the sideboards to slightly project the sound up. I’m guesstimating it weighs about 12-15 pounds. I used a wholly inadequate Celestion organ speaker I pulled out of an organ someone was throwing away (I wanted the reverb tank and power transformer for a possible homemade tube amp project that I gave up on...for now).

    Anyway, even this thing sounds better to me than the Quilter Frontier 2x8 cabinet. I am going to be looking for a used, broken in speaker to save costs (I’m on a fixed income, and I don’t have extra funds right now). And maybe I do have confirmation bias, but this old, broken in speaker sounds better than the Quilter. My cabinet is not exactly pretty, but it is well built, with Titebond extra thick glue used between the joints and then screwed in. Since I didn’t have any amp hardware, the edges are protected with gorilla tape (for now). I like the box design, and since I don’t play professionally, I don’t care too much about the aesthetics for now. Hopefully I’ll find the right driver to put into the cabinet.
    Last edited by zcostilla; 07-27-2019 at 03:51 AM.

  17. #16

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    So here’s a sound check sample of me playing part of “The Wind Cries Mary”. Actual playing starts at 32 seconds if you don’t want to hear the gear rundown. I put my iPad in the floor about 9” in front of the cabinet to mic it, so it’s not the highest quality.



    I was fiddling with it and the tone just inspired me to play something I hadn’t in probably almost 20 years. I was rusty but enjoyed it. Sharing more for a tone critique than for the playing technique. I was surprised that this Hendrix tune was still in the back of my memory (Jimi Hendrix’s melodic songs were a huge inspiration when I first started playing.) I used to replay the demo version of Angel on repeat on my CD player and go to sleep with it (if you ever find the “Lifelines” box set, it’s totally worth it for the unreleased outtakes and demos alone)

    This is played on my Godin 5th Avenue, custom Vintage Vibes CC pickup, directly into the Quilter Interblock, with a TC Hall of Fame 2 Reverb in the effects loop (barely there, but a tiny ambience is always better than dry to me).

    Here’s the amp and cabinet
    Got the Quilter Interblock 45-feaa5b06-5d23-4e84-bcca-c7f4eb5d40e6-jpg
    Last edited by zcostilla; 07-27-2019 at 01:43 PM. Reason: Spelling