I ordered a Quilter Tone Block a few weeks ago from Wembley Music Centre online, but turns out that as soon as my order was completed, they rang me telling me they needed to bring more stock in. (How convenient!) They said this could take anything from a few days to a week or two.
The Quilter would be used mainly for rehearsals and a backup for my Matamp at gigs because it's loud, light, powerful and perfect for using as a pedal platform. It sounds absolutely ideal. However weeks after my order and not a word from WMC. I'm getting itchy feet and beginning to reconsider...
Seeing as money is a constant ongoing issue, I remembered about the Crate Power Block which of course is no longer in production, but I've seen a couple on eBay and they're going for much cheaper price than the Quilter. I'd like to think I'm investing in a quality product befitting of my circumstances, but it would be nice to save some pennies as well!
Does anybody know if the Crate PB takes pedals well with it running on clean? Should I opt to get a Crate PB which would be less than half the price of the Quilter? Or should I wait and get my moneys worth with the Quilter?
Comments
they sounded flat brittle and lifeless to me
this was in pre- modeller Britain though so maybe they provide a flat environment for one of them
my ears say no
I should reiterate that my drive pedals will be on full whack 95% of the time. Would the clean signal or whatever of the Crate really effect them that much? It's an Amptweaker FatMetal with a Pharaoh Fuzz.
think of the clean signal like the Eq of an amp
put those pedals into a Fender twin and they will likely sound awful where as into a clean Marshall they will sound pretty decent
I've had a tight metal pro and various fuzzes and my opinion (and it is only that) is that the crate will make them sound flat with a lot of high end fizz.
i would hang on for the quilter or look at other alternatives. A good ss bass amp would be a small and portable alternative
best thing to do is get yourselves into a shop with your pedals and try stuff if possible
Guess I'll persevere with the Quilter. The EHX Magnum 44 (and the new Quilter Microblock 45) look nice but not sure they'd be powerful enough. Bear in mind we like to play obscenely loud.
Might pay a visit to Coda for a mess about and see if they got anything going cheap.
an Orange Bass Terror is surprisingly good too
Also keep in mind that lots of people have experienced the 44 Magnum going pop when run hard.
If size isn't totally critical then consider something like the Harley Benton or Palmer 1U 200w power amps. You will need something like a Joyo American Sound to act as a preamp, but that's going to give you huge power at lost cost and smallish size.
@monquixote I did check the Palmer power amp which looks like a steal. Is the Joyo American Sound based on a Fender Twin or something?
Thing is that my main drive tone (Amptweaker) is a preamp pedal - but the way my board is set up, it'd be a hassle to switch it around every time (I always run into the input of the Matamp, never the FX return). The Joyo American Sound or perhaps the AMT F-1 could act as the clean channel into the poweramp.
I also looked at the Matrix VB800 which looks fantastic but is even more expensive than the Quilter.
@digitalscream is a big fan of the F1
I notice that Wembley have the Pro Block in stock so you could always switch your order.
It sounds glorious to me, and it removes the need for lots of farting around with effects loop cabling. On top of that, it means that all the volume and EQ is at your feet rather than on an amp a few yards behind you, so there's even more convenience.
If you wanted, you could put your Amptweaker in the preamp loop of the F-1 - that way when you disengage the F1, it switches to the Amptweaker (basically the functionality of an A/B looper built in).
I can't give you their names and addresses, but there are quite a few people on here who have had them go bang and I have had enough EHX stuff fail on me to refuse to rely on it for a gig any more.
I don't really care if I can get my money back if it goes bang unless I can also get all the money back from the lost bookings at the venue where I lost the gig by having my amp blow up mid show.
I'd still rather just go into the amps input though rather than using it as a power amp so I wouldn't have to faff around rearranging my board mid-gig!
its an extra you might not have to use
The clean amp on that will sound closer to your Matamp than a straight poweramp
There was one going here quite cheap a few days ago as well....bugger.
Incidentally, you could have the F1 at the end of the chain and bypassed (that's the other mode of operation), and when you need to switch you can just turn it on.