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Yessiree, people - the OD 202 is everything it's said to be and more. I took it to the club Sunday for our blues brunch show, and it's absolutely the equal of the 100W Boogie Mk 1 I used for decades. It has tone to spare, power to burn, and enough tubeness to keep most of us very happy. I used my Frankenpaul 7 because it has only a neck EMG, which is absolutely the cleanest pickup I've ever had. It's designed to let effects, amps, and engineers do their thing unimpeded by a pickup's personality (of which it has absolutely none). So what you're hearing in the video is purely the amp.
This is the OD channel with its gain at about 2 o'clock, the limiter at noon, and the channel volume at about 11 o'clock. Bass was at 2 o'clock, mid and treble at noon, and reverb at 10 o'clock. I had the output level (which goes to 200 W) set to 10 W. I first had it at about 50, and it was much too loud. But the tone was identical at any volume, so I just dialed back the output power and left the other settings alone. The only control over breakup was picking - no foot pedal, no channel switching. It was clean when stroked gently and progressively broke up with more deliberate picking. I had the OD dialed in to "smooth as glass", and the limiter let it sustain like a Dumble.
As promised in my NAD post, I got the club owner to video the show. Here's about 3 minutes in which you can compare it to my bandmate A C Steel's LP with humbuckers through our CS Princeton Reverb. I'm at the mic on the left with the burst LP, and the Quilter is behind me sitting on the Leslie. Our amps were mic'ed for the video. The OD head is in my BlockDock 12HD with a Celestion BN12-300S.
I LOVE this amp!!!Last edited by nevershouldhavesoldit; 04-02-2024 at 09:30 PM.
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04-02-2024 08:54 PM
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I think it sounds quite nice! But to be honest, I was really excited at first, thinking you were playing the goldtop - That is a lovely tone your friend is getting!
You might have been a bit low in the mix, would love you hear you crank up a bit and match your compatriot's volume and presence. At any rate, it does seem that Quilter is on to something. Will have to think about how to get my hands on one for a test drive. Thanks for posting!
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You’re absolutely right - both my mic and my guitar were low in the mix. The problem we have is that the club owner is both the sound man and the bass player in our blues band. So he “sets and forgets” the sound where he thinks it should be, with no sound check and no monitoring. Then he’s on stage and whatever we get we get.
Originally Posted by yebdox
He’s pretty close on the house mix, after so many years with the same players, equipment and stage settings. But this video was new sonic territory with an untested amp way back in the corner. Only I use IEMs, and my volume was high in the mix in my monitors. The problem with IEMs is that you can’t control the mix you’re getting, so I’m dependent on him to put what I ask for into it. There are systems that let each user control it from a phone or tablet app, but those are very expensive and not found in most small clubs. So we had no idea how this video would sound.
Steve gets great tone from any guitar. He’s a blues player through and through, and he has a wonderful touch. His vibrato technique is great and subtle, and he uses very fine strings starting with a 9 1/2 (!) for smooth subtle bending. He spent a long time getting B B’s hand position and motion for finger vibrato right, and it sounds beautiful. I’m primarily a jazz player, and I try to keep my sound and style separate from his so we contrast and put on a good show.
We were all pretty loose Sunday, and our harmonica player was with his family for Easter. We have a crowd of regulars, and we try out new tunes and versions every week. What you couldn’t see was the room full of Easter bunnies, revelers, kids, local police, and assorted miscreants enjoying a wild egg hunt through the club (which has a full bar, although no one in the band ever drinks on gigs).
It's 6:42 AM and we’re still in bed. I’ll add a segment later in which we got a little too loose and almost had to stop playing because we were laughing so hard.
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Can the OD202 sound identical to the regular Toneblock amp (101r)? In other words to you get the original clean jazz sounds plus the OD sounds?
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You were definitely a little low in the mix, I would've liked to hear it a little more clearly but everything sounded pretty good and fine playing. After listening to video clip I have to ask you what song it was you guys were doing and the artist?
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The OD202 clean channel on voice 1 is a warm, clean jazz tone that's almost exactly the same as the Tone Block 202's "full Q" voice (both with EQ set flat). Quillter says that the OD202 has "a bit more treble" in voice 1 than the TB does in the full Q voice, but from the bottom to the upper midrange, they're interchangeable to my ears and equally great for jazz. The BlockDock 12HD's Celestion 12" speaker (BN12-300S neo) doesn't have much output above 5k, so that treble difference is pretty much wiped out by the speaker's characteristics. Originally Posted by callouscallus
I've only played through a few 101s I came across for sale used at music shops or guitar shows, and they were all thinner and brighter than I like. I'm told that the 101 Mini has a different and vastly better EQ section, so that may be closer to the 202s. But the original 101s were not well suited to jazz with an archtop IMO.
Here's a demo I made while practicing with my Eastman 810CE7 through the OD 202 in the BlockDock:
Last edited by nevershouldhavesoldit; 04-03-2024 at 02:47 PM. Reason: typo
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That's an old Coco Montoya tune called Trading One Fool for Another. Originally Posted by DawgBone
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