Quilter SuperBlock US Cab Sims & Amp Voicings

[Fear the Reaper]

I just picked up a Quilter Superblock US from another forum member. I have it paired with a Raezer's Edge 6" mini cab.

This minimalist setup has been along time coming. Many tube amps including Fender Twin and JC 120 in my past. Now this.

Read a little about the various setting on both the cab simulations and classic Fender Amplifiers, Blonde, Tweed and Blackface.

I have had it several weeks now it's early days. However, intitally the differences in the various settings for both mini toggle switches are difficult for me to decern. BTW I no longer hear certain frequencies and have a whooshing noise in both ears.

I am just curious what others have experienced with this device. Or is it the equivalent of a dog whistle such that only certain guitarists can hear it?

[marcwhy]

Great rig!
The middle setting ('57) sounded the best with my guitars; I heard differences between the settings, although not "huge" diffs.

Enjoy!

[Gitterbug]

I agree with Marcwhy. The differences between voicings are narrow. My go-to voicing is the 57 Tweed, simply because the pronounced midrange makes it the loudest. I'm freshly back from a jazz camp where the Saturday night jam session relied on a SuperBlock US paired with a TOOB 10S for guitar. In the cavernous club setting, this rig was more than enough and really shone.

The cab sims don't apply to speakers directly hooked up to the amp.

[Little Jay]

As it just so happens I did my first amp-less recording session with it this weekend (thru the XLR- line out) and I was very happy with the result. I used the 57 amp setting and the NORMAL cab sim. With my pedal board in front of it and with my Gibson ES-333 it sounded very natural thru my Shure inears.

the resulst were better and more natural sounding than with my Joyo American Sound I used before.

I have also played it thru several of my amp’s speakers and I like it as a 25 watt amp as well: sounds and responds great, very tube-amp like (played clean at least).

[Fear the Reaper]

I am hearing something. But the changes seems very slight. I will have to listen more carefully. My preference is the Blaclkface 65 and the normal.

Great rig!
The middle setting ('57) sounded the best with my guitars; I heard differences between the settings, although not "huge" diffs.

Enjoy!

[Fear the Reaper]

Interesting. I didn't realize this or expect this to be the case. So essentially your cab speaker directly to the amp and it's "natural" sound is what is heard regardless of the cab sim selection.

As per Quilter's user manual.
"Cab Sim: Operates on the signal going to the H-phones and Line-out jack."

The cab sims don't apply to speakers directly hooked up to the amp.

[ccroft]

Think of cabinet simulation like this: the output going to the speaker doesn't need it since going to a speaker in a cab. Quilter uses some sort of magic sauce between speaker and power amp that mimics how it works in a tube amp.

The signal from XLR or phones doesn't have it since there isn't a speaker cabinet. Quilter uses cab sim to, well, simulate it. Mesa Boogie does the same for their direct outs.

[Fear the Reaper]

After playing around with the 3 amps, much as with others, the 57' sound the best to my ears.

Gitterbug: Spot on and well said about the pronounced mids making it sound louder.

My current setup. Mechanical pencils and ink pen for scale. They are approximately 5-5.5" in length.

[Fear the Reaper]

Just turned 65 years old. Never thought the day would come when I would embrace or have lived long enough that this type of technology was available. So cool!!

After playing around with the 3 amps, much as with others, the 57' sound the best to my ears.

Gitterbug: Spot on and well said about the pronounced mids make it sound louder.

My current setup. Mechanical pencils and ink pen for scale. They are approximately 5-5.5" in length.

[Gitterbug]

Just turned 65 years old. Never thought the day would come when I would embrace or have lived long enough that this type of technology was available. So cool!!

Young man, rejoice! I'm 76. Got my crazy Toob speaker cab idea in 2007, newly retired, but had to wait another ten years for decent, size and weight compatible Class D guitar amps to emerge. Small bass amps were a decade ahead, showing the shape of things to come. My one-man enterprise started trading in 2017 when I was 70. The SuperBlocks really changed the horizon. Soon 600 cabs made, of which well over 200 are 6.5" Metros launched in early 2020, a few months ahead of Quilter's little wonders. Why oh why did all this happen so late in life?

[itsmyname]

After playing around with the 3 amps, much as with others, the 57' sound the best to my ears.

Gitterbug: Spot on and well said about the pronounced mids making it sound louder.

My current setup. Mechanical pencils and ink pen for scale. They are approximately 5-5.5" in length.

use the same '57 on mine, to my ears it's what I prefer with the archtop.

[docsteve]

I find myself coming back to the 57 setting, too. However, differences are small indeed - to my ears, the 61 is the most linear, the 57 has a mid hump and the 65 a mid scoop. Nothing that a good eq can’t cure.

[Fear the Reaper]

Total agreement with your ears!

I find myself coming back to the 57 setting, too. However, differences are small indeed - to my ears, the 61 is the most linear, the 57 has a mid hump and the 65 a mid scoop. Nothing that a good eq can’t cure.

[izepeze]

I have also played it thru several of my amp’s speakers and I like it as a 25 watt amp as well: sounds and responds great, very tube-amp like (played clean at least).

Hi, I am planning on getting a SB US soon, but don't have the monies to get a cabinet for it yet. I have a Blues Jr. is it safe to power the speaker of the blues jr using the superblock (ie using it as a speaker cabinet)? habe you done something like that? I am concerned about the wattage diff since the BJ head is 15W and the SB US is 25W. Ohms of the speaker match (8).

Thanks!

[sgosnell]

That should be safe, as long as you don't crank the SBUS to full volume, full gain, with a boost pedal in front of it and all the EQ knobs maxed. That's the only way you'll get 25 watts out. At reasonable volumes, nothing bad should happen. Plus, the speaker power rating should be more than that of the amp.

[Little Jay]

Hi, I am planning on getting a SB US soon, but don't have the monies to get a cabinet for it yet. I have a Blues Jr. is it safe to power the speaker of the blues jr using the superblock (ie using it as a speaker cabinet)? habe you done something like that? I am concerned about the wattage diff since the BJ head is 15W and the SB US is 25W. Ohms of the speaker match (8).

Thanks!

I think the speaker rating of the BJ’s Emminence speaker is close to 50 watts… (I even thinks it’s the same speaker they use in the 40 watts Blues Deluxe?)

[Little Jay]

Btw, I soldered several cables with different connections for my Superblock US to hook it up to the speakers of all my amps and I take it as a backup for if those amps fail on a gig. It actually sounds great through all of them, but especially through the Jensen P10R of my DIY Champ it sounds great!!

[omphalopsychos]

I find myself coming back to the 57 setting, too. However, differences are small indeed - to my ears, the 61 is the most linear, the 57 has a mid hump and the 65 a mid scoop. Nothing that a good eq can’t cure.

To be more precise, none of them are "linear" (i.e. uniform response at all frequencies). The 57 is closest to having a flat response. It's interesting that you hear a mid hump from a flat response. It's likely because guitar amps and speakers tend to be scooped in the mids, so by comparison a flat response might sound subjectively like a mid boost. The 61 has a significant scoop in the low mids. The 65 has more low mids but less upper mids than the 61.



Source: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/07...f?v=1675796115

This is from the aviator combo, which has the same tone stack as the SBUS.

For more info on the tone stack, this video is very interesting.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

To be more precise, none of them are "linear" (i.e. uniform response at all frequencies). The 57 is closest to having a flat response. It's interesting that you hear a mid hump from a flat response. It's likely because guitar amps and speakers tend to be scooped in the mids, so by comparison a flat response might sound subjectively like a mid boost. The 61 has a significant scoop in the low mids. The 65 has more low mids but less upper mids than the 61.

There's something a little wonky about this graph. First, there's no indication of what is being measured. Second, it shows whatever output is being measured to be between 118 to 130 dB between 100Hz and 2kHz at all 3 amp sim settings. The peak on that graph is 133 dB on the blonde setting and 132 on the other two! I'd be amazed if a Cub could hit 120dB with little enough distortion to be listenable even with a pure sine wave test tone, let alone driven by a complex guitar signal. I'll give Quilter a call and ask what signal is being shown in that graph.

There's very little info available on the maximum SPL available from common amps. The best I know of is this guy's work with a Super Reverb. Cranked to the max, he got it up to 122.9 dB driven by very hard hitting on a Les Paul. If an Aviator Cub will do that, I'm on my way to pick one up.

[John A.]

There's something a little wonky about this graph. First, there's no indication of what is being measured. Second, it shows whatever output is being measured to be between 118 to 130 dB between 100Hz and 2kHz at all 3 amp sim settings. The peak on that graph is 133 dB on the blonde setting and 132 on the other two! I'd be amazed if a Cub could hit 120dB with little enough distortion to be listenable even with a pure sine wave test tone, let alone driven by a complex guitar signal. I'll give Quilter a call and ask what signal is being shown in that graph.

There's very little info available on the maximum SPL available from common amps. The best I know of is this guy's work with a Super Reverb. Cranked to the max, he got it up to 122.9 dB driven by very hard hitting on a Les Paul. If an Aviator Cub will do that, I'm on my way to pick one up.

I have an Aviator Cub, and I suppose I could try to measure its maximum dB. Using a phone app dB meter, is there a standard way to do this (e.g., is there a standard distance from the amp? on axis or off?, etc.). I've only used it on a couple of relatively quiet outings so far, and don't yet have a sense of how loud it is in the real world. I've cranked it up pretty far at home (not all the way), but in general I find it hard to distinguish degrees of loudness beyond a relatively low point on any amp outside of a band context.

[omphalopsychos]

I think you're right that the DB values are suspect. Even though the scale is a little bizarre, I imagine that the freq responses are proportionally accurate.

[monkmiles]

I hear and feel distinct differences between the three voices. I like the 57 best and the 61 least. The 61 just seems too bright and thin to me. I really like brownface amps so I thought I was going to like this blonde voicing too but really do not. I also find I like to get the gain knob up a bit on all 3 voices to get a fuller tone. Basically I need to up the limiter and the gain to get a tube-like feel myself.

When it comes to going direct, I've been very happy with it. You can use it in the 65 voice for a clean base

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

I have an Aviator Cub, and I suppose I could try to measure its maximum dB. Using a phone app dB meter, is there a standard way to do this (e.g., is there a standard distance from the amp? on axis or off?, etc.). I've only used it on a couple of relatively quiet outings so far, and don't yet have a sense of how loud it is in the real world. I've cranked it up pretty far at home (not all the way), but in general I find it hard to distinguish degrees of loudness beyond a relatively low point on any amp outside of a band context.

The standard way to measure acoustic output is with the mic 1 meter from the sound source on axis.

Most people don't realize how loud 100 dB is. Most typical consumer audio systems can't reach an average of 95 dB. Jet planes generate about 120 dB on takeoff. Snowmobiles hit about 110 dB and the loudest emergency vehicle sirens may hit 130 dB. It's hard to imagine that a 50 Watt Aviator Cub could possibly top 120 dB at any frequency let alone hit 132.

[rpjazzguitar]

The standard way to measure acoustic output is with the mic 1 meter from the sound source on axis.

Most people don't realize how loud 100 dB is. Most typical consumer audio systems can't reach an average of 95 dB. Jet planes generate about 120 dB on takeoff. Snowmobiles hit about 110 dB and the loudest emergency vehicle sirens may hit 130 dB. It's hard to imagine that a 50 Watt Aviator Cub could possibly top 120 dB at any frequency let alone hit 132.

I thought I just learned that db is a ratio. I'm aware that loudness is usually reported in db, and what I'm asking is, relative to what? If I understand the usual scale, it's relative to the threshold of human hearing. But, this graph suggests a different reference point or, alternatively, BS.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

I thought I just learned that db is a ratio. I'm aware that loudness is usually reported in db, and what I'm asking is, relative to what? If I understand the usual scale, it's relative to the threshold of human hearing. But, this graph suggests a different reference point or, alternatively, BS.

The standard reference for sound pressure in air is 20 microPascals, which is about 2 / 10 billion atmospheres. This is approximately the pressure of a 1000 Hz tone that’s barely audible to a human with normal hearing. SPL is measured as an absolute air pressure level and expressed as the ratio (in decibel equivalents) of the measured pressure to the reference pressure. One dB = 10 X the common logarithm of the ratio of measured sound pressure in microPascals to the reference pressure (which is 20 microPascals by convention).