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My taste has been gradually changing away from the basic Fender scooped sound and moving towards something flatter with more mid range focus. For the second time I have given up on the Quilter Superblock US for being too thin and bright. I'm now looking for a replacement and being in Canada I am unable to find some of the options (no BAM200's in the entire country) so I've been going lower and looking at more alternatives. One thing I've been looking at is the ISP Stealth Ultra-Lite. Unlike the original ISP Stealth which was a dedicated power amp, it now has a preamp with basic bass and treble tone controls and I believe it can take a guitar level signal without any additional outboard processing.
The problem is that there is very little info on line and what is out there is strictly head banger stuff. It is however, referred to as a pedal platform which suggests that it is both fairly flat and has substantial amounts of clean headroom. Like the BAM200, it's hard to get here and it's fairly expensive so not really something I want to just roll the dice on. So I'm looking for info, Has anyone seen/tried one of these for real? Any thoughts?
(And even though the link says that access is denied it actually works perfectly)
Access to this page has been denied.
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03-29-2023 07:29 AM
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I had an earlier iteration of the ISP Stealth 180 watt power amp and found it to be too noisy for my liking. Sold it within a month. FYI… I have always liked the Quilter amps, although I prefer my black panel Princeton tube amp. This is, of course, all so very subjective. For me the ISP was similar to the Acoustic Image (which I found to sound flat and sterile), only noisier. Perhaps they have made improvements. My two cents….
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Just to be clear, mine didn’t have a preamp section built in like this new model. I used a Sarno V8 Octal Preamp in front of it. The ISP I had cost about $200. Happy hunting!
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I've heard better things about the Duncan Power Stage series than the ISP, but never tried neither. At a completely different price point, there's also the Henriksen head - I had one of the early generations one and it was as flat as it could be.
Another option could be just to use an eq before the Quilter. Something like a Zoom MS50g it's worth the money just for the graphic eq and the tuner - I bet you can dial the Quilter to sound to your taste.
My current setup is a Barber Barb Eq in blackface mode (should sound similar to the Quilter) and a little boost in the 400hz area (3db) helps a lot (as it does with real Fender amps).
Just a thought.
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Regarding the BAM200, what about the competitors Warwick Gnome or the Elf from Trace Elliot?
Also not available?
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Or a secondhand G+K MB200 head?
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The Elf is available but I have been cautioned about the sound of the fan.
Originally Posted by bluenote61
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I suspect it’s a bit short on clean headroom. First, the power rating is typically inflated - it actually makes 45W RMS (at unspecified distortion) into 8 Ohms. The spec would be correctly stated as 180 watts peak into 4 Ohms, if they weren’t throwing marketing hype around. Originally Posted by Jim Soloway
It’s an analog class A/B SS amplifier, pure and simple - and it’s powered by a 19 volt wall wart, so there’s little reserve in the power supply to keep big chords clean. The reviews are almost certainly all from rockers, since they all describe complex pedalboards through big, multi driver cabs and talk about being loud enough to keep up with guitarists and bass players with huge tube amps. Those 4x12 cabinets are much more efficient than the typical small 8 Ohm cabs most of us use, and I’d bet that there’s serious O/D and distortion in use by everyone who’s posted a personal review on line. I can’t find a pro review of any kind that does more than parrot the manufacturer’s words.
The Duncans are also limited in clean headroom. I have a Microblock (rated as a 45 watt amp by Quilter) as backup, and I’ve used it on a few gigs. It’s fine for low volume use through an efficient speaker, but headroom it ain’t got. It did make a joyful, bluesy noise through my Boogie Thiele with EVM in it - but clean it was not. These little amps are not made for jazz players, although at low volumes most I’ve heard sound decent (and pretty much the same, only differing in how their tone controls work and interact).
These tiny and inexpensive amps are all compromises trying to sound like the big iron. They’re good enough for much of what most of us play most of the time. The compromises get smaller as cost and complexity rise - the Blu 6 is $1k, and you get what you pay for. Clean headroom comes at high cost compared to decibels of dubious quality.
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To be clear, I loved my Elf and never even heard the fan except when leaning over it to turn it on at home before picking up my guitar. But it’s audible (barely) in very quiet rooms and might be picked up by a microphone close to it if recording that way in close quarters. Originally Posted by Jim Soloway
I only sold it because I had too many amps - Little Jazz, Blu, SB, Microblock, DVM EG250, etc etc. I think it’s a great amp for gigging - big, full tone and very clean headroom. But it’s probably not the best choice for intimately recording soft solo guitar by mic’ing a small speaker with it close by. And it’s not cheap.
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Jim had one for a while and compared it with: Originally Posted by Gitterbug
CARVIN BX250
I sold my MB200 but kept the Carvin (warmer sound more tweakable parameters)
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You know when that was happening I liked the brighter tone of the MB200 but these days I'm not so sure. The one I really wish I had kept was my DV Mark Micro-Jazz head. Originally Posted by medblues
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NY guitarist Greg Ruggiero is known as the "small amp guy" - he's gone through them all. Taurus is his current fave, and he tells me there's a new model in the pipeline (with input from his wishlist.)
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Nice. Originally Posted by Gitterbug
I am also interesting in these amps.
I contacted the manufacturer and I think I will buy something.
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Do you know which one he is using? A lot of them seem to have drive channel and lead channels which seems a bit overkill for his small amp needs. Originally Posted by Gitterbug
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I had a Duncan Powerstage 700. It was excellent sounding. I never worried about clean headroom.
I found an excellent price with a used one. It had a strange problem. I called and talked to the Duncan repair person. He was very nice and we chatted a long time.
I decided to return the used one but I would have no problem buying a new one. It really sounded good. It is on my to purchase list.
I person believe (and I could be wrong) cheap class a/b ss poweramps are not going to sound as good as the class d stuff. It could be many other factors but that is my experience (and the experience is also dated).
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It's Taurus 1.VT, a smallish floor amp. BTW, Greg has tried ISP and says it's "terrible". But he has a very particular tone taste. Originally Posted by SandChannel
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I had an ISP a long time ago and I wouldn't say it was terrible. ISP a company that formed after the founder sold off his former company - Rocktron. They probably don't have jazz in mind when designing their products, but they work great for 80s Hard Rock / Metal tones. The Stealth and the ISP Theta preamp do a killer Van Halen tone through a 212 or 412. Originally Posted by Gitterbug
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Definitely considering it but the reason I sold it was because I didn't like the preamps I was trying. It may be time to rethink that one. Originally Posted by Hammertone
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That’s also my experience, at least for clean jazz guitar tones of any flavor - thunky, airy, woody etc. They do distortion well for rock, metal, etc. But they don’t do the smooth, even order harmonic distortion that good low power tube amps deliver in spades when their output tubes are pushed to clipping. Originally Posted by st.bede
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Have you looked at the MILKMAN line of floor-amps ?
Milkman The Amp 50-Watt Hybrid Guitar Amp Head Pedal | Reverb
Demeter Amps also have an interesting unit :
TGA-1-180D The Mighty Minnie | Demeter Amplification
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That Demeter mini amp sounds great
Have a listen to 'telecaster clean chords' On that page
Blue in Green
It's money tho ....I
The Sonny Landreth video is great too
Beautiful distorted playing a ton of different sounds in there
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You got that right - it's $1300 USD. I'm sure it sounds great - I've never heard a Demeter I didn't like. But when you top $1k USD, you have some very fine alternatives that rival the Demeter plus a cab. But the Minnie is certainly a great choice for jazz guitar. Originally Posted by pingu
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I am going to buy Taurus Stomp-Head 8.Clone classic.This seems to be the amp I've been looking for years.
Weight: 1,35kg
Taurus Stomp Head SH8, Stomp-Head SH8, Floor guitar amplifier SH8, Taurus SH8Qube
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This is probably what Greg Ruggiero is getting as well. And Yours Truly & Son, quite likely.
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