New little Quilter amp

[Mudpup]

This looks interesting...... 

https://www.quilterlabs.com/index.php/product/interbass

[Al Krow]

45 Watts at 4 ohms though? 

I'm struggling to think what gap this would be filling. 

If they could ever get this up to 200W and keep to pedal board size. 

How could you see this being used? 

[dannybuoy]

Main uses would be as a stage monitor when your sound is mainly provided by the PA, or for recording.

Shame they didn't use an XLR out for the DI rather than a balanced jack, and they missed a trick by having a headphone out but no aux in.

Edited August 30, 2019 by dannybuoy

[chris_b]

This looks like it's being aimed at the home market.

[BassManGraham]

This looks interesting, as I love my Quilter Bassblock 800, so worth a try, just wonder what price point will be? But no XLR D.I.out? With Sansamp, MXR and Trace Elliot Transit B, preamp boxes, not sure this will be joining my bass stable. 45W at 4 ohm for stage monitor seems  a tad underpowered for my band ( or rather drummer) 

[Al Krow]

1 hour ago, dannybuoy said:

Main uses would be as a stage monitor when your sound is mainly provided by the PA, or for recording.

Shame they didn't use an XLR out for the DI rather than a balanced jack, and they missed a trick by having a headphone out but no aux in.

Agree with your second sentence, but not your first. 45 watts at 4 ohms wouldn't be heard on stage in competition with a drummer - a point I see that BassManG has also made above.

1 hour ago, chris_b said:

This looks like it's being aimed at the home market.

But as what?

It's not a practice amp without a cab and there are better headphone amps out there e.g. the TC Spectradrive.

I'm still struggling to see how this is going to be used / what the point of it is!

[Dan Dare]

It's really a pre/DI with a small power amp for low level practice. Phil Jones does something similar.

[Osiris]

It's nice to see that this has already turned into one of those classic There's something new on the market, let's all rip it apart before anyone has even got their hands on one type threads! *Facepalm. 

According to the online blurb the Interbass contains "... the best features of the Bass Block signal path...". Anyone who has tried the Quilter BB, and I have, will tell you just how loud it is even at the ostensibly unusable 40 watt setting. The blurb mentions this being "enough volume for practice and small gigs". And with that Bass Block DNA, I have no doubt it will be, especially if you have an efficient speaker. Not only that, if it is voiced the same as the BB it will be a great vintage sounding little amp with a real valve like response, especially when gain is pushed and the limiter kicks in. 

The line out is balanced, while an XLR socket would have been welcome, a TRS to XLR cable cheaply remedies this. With bass gear getting smaller and smaller, I suspect that we'll be seeing more balanced quarter inch balanced outputs in future. Other than some online whinging it hasn't proved a fatal design flaw on the Helix Stomp, for example. And no doubt the effects loop return can be used as an auxiliary input.

If the Interbass turns out to be a baby Bass Block, and it looks as though that is indeed the case, then I think that this will prove to be a very useful tool and I could see myself getting one. 

 

[Cuzzie]

With @Osiris on this one - fine for home, DI out, Power a small cab for in stage monitor if not in ears, home practice, low volume rehearsal small amps, electronic drum kit.

This does a whole bunch, would pair nicely with a Barefaced One10

[Dan Dare]

1 hour ago, Osiris said:

It's nice to see that this has already turned into one of those classic There's something new on the market, let's all rip it apart before anyone has even got their hands on one type threads! *Facepalm. 

"Rip it apart"? Hardly. Comments above are sensible/reasonable. Yes, it's compact, but there are mini-heads out there with DI outs (TE Elf, for example, which sports an XLR out) that offer giggable output levels already.Are you a Quliter rep?

[Reaper]

1 hour ago, Osiris said:

It's nice to see that this has already turned into one of those classic There's something new on the market, let's all rip it apart before anyone has even got their hands on one type threads! *Facepalm. 

As someone new to BC, must admit I find it very refreshing when folk actually engage brains and ask sensible questions about new gear, and don't simply jump on the "wow look there's something new and shiny, let's all rush out and get it!" bandwagon.

Asking a question of how it's going to find practical use is hardly ripping a product apart, is it? 

Not all new product launches are a great success. Dunno if you're old enough to remember this one? 

1 hour ago, Cuzzie said:

With @Osiris on this one - fine for home, DI out, Power a small cab for in stage monitor if not in ears, home practice, low volume rehearsal small amps, electronic drum kit.

This does a whole bunch, would pair nicely with a Barefaced One10

As a couple of other posts have rightly pointed out this won't work as a stage monitor power unit if you're playing with a drummer, it has far too low power output and I'm guessing that anyone who has a BF One10 is likely to already have got themselves a decent amp to pair it with, but I could be wrong, otherwise a BF One10 is a big extra expense to be getting to make this a usable bit of kit. Just get a practice amp or a headphone amp with aux in.

Edited August 31, 2019 by Reaper

[ped]

Looks quite cool, but it always upsets me when something like this, which is so neat and tiny, has a PSU about the same size  

[Osiris]

38 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

"Rip it apart"? Hardly. Comments above are sensible/reasonable. Yes, it's compact, but there are mini-heads out there with DI outs (TE Elf, for example, which sports an XLR out) that offer giggable output levels already.Are you a Quliter rep?

No, I'm not a Quilter rep, but I am trying to offer a balanced view of the product. The rip it apart comment was meant somewhat tongue in cheek but was in response to the comment;

45 Watts at 4 ohms though? 

I'm struggling to think what gap this would be filling. 

Even though the product description clearly states the intended uses for it. 

Fair comment about the Elf having an XLR, but a TRS to XLR cable is still a simple solution. 

@Reaper I assume you're being ironic with the engage brain comment, particularly as you then made the assumption that I must be incapable of making an objective assessment of the unit based on the comment "... something new and shiny, let's all rush out and get it!" bandwagon." 

Bandwagons aren't my thing, but I do believe in being fair and objective. If you know something about the Interbass that I don't, based on your experiences with it I'd be interested to hear about it. 

[Reaper]

Not being ironic at all. Just observing that asking a question about how something can be used is hardly ripping something apart, is it? With @Dan Dare on that!

And for me @ped has hit the nail on the head with his comment about this having a tiny PSU. My experience is a watt is a watt, and this is delivering just 45 of them at 4 ohms. 

Btw - FWIW I thought you made some very good points in the rest of your earlier post, after you had had a dig at your fellow BC'ers for engaging their brains! 😉

 

[Reaper]

10 minutes ago, Osiris said:

Even though the product description clearly states the intended uses for it. 

A product can make all the claims about itself that it likes.

You, or your other half, ever bought a beauty or hair loss product? 😄

[ped]

2 minutes ago, Reaper said:

And for me @ped has hit the nail on the head with his comment about this having a tiny PSU. My experience is a watt is a watt, and this is delivering just 45 of them at 4 ohms. 

I was more saying how it seems kind of an own goal to make such a tiny pedal/amp and then have a PSU about the same size; sort of makes it less compact than you first assume.

[Reaper]

Just now, ped said:

I was more saying how it seems kind of an own goal to make such a tiny pedal/amp and then have a PSU about the same size; sort of makes it less compact than you first assume.

Ah yes, thanks for clarifying - I had misunderstood your comment and that's a very good point. I hadn't spotted that there was a matching size PSU and that does unfortunately make this a lot less compact as you say.

[Osiris]

 

2 minutes ago, Reaper said:

Btw - FWIW I thought you made some very good points in the rest of your earlier post, after you had had a dig at your fellow BC'ers for engaging their brains! 

 

I'm inherently sarcastic, a bit of a pi55 taker and an occasional wind up merchant, so I'm happy to hold my hands up if I say something that sometimes gets interpreted in a way that it isn't necessarily intended. So yeah, I see how that can be read as a bit of an over reaction, even though that wasn't my intention. No offense meant to anyone 😀

But I do also believe that it's wise to reserve judgement on something until you've had first hand experience of it. As I said, the Quilter Bass Block is very loud at its 40 watt setting, so while I'm not saying that the new amp can keep up with a drummer, it wouldn't surprise me that it could keep up with one when paired with an efficient speaker. But again, we'd need to try it in anger to know either way. 

[Reaper]

38 minutes ago, Osiris said:

I'm inherently sarcastic, a bit of a pi55 taker and an occasional wind up merchant, so I'm happy to hold my hands up if I say something that sometimes gets interpreted in a way that it isn't necessarily intended. So yeah, I see how that can be read as a bit of an over reaction, even though that wasn't my intention. No offense meant to anyone 😀

But I do also believe that it's wise to reserve judgement on something until you've had first hand experience of it. As I said, the Quilter Bass Block is very loud at its 40 watt setting, so while I'm not saying that the new amp can keep up with a drummer, it wouldn't surprise me that it could keep up with one when paired with an efficient speaker. But again, we'd need to try it in anger to know either way. 

Ah fair enough - no harm no foul. I didn't know you well enough to realise you were just having a larf.

Interested in your second point about the QBB "at 40W setting" being very loud. But exactly how do you know it's delivering 40W at a particular setting? Are you measuring the output? A lot of amps are non linear in their response and get to a loud volume pretty quickly and then further increases of the vol knob have relatively limited effect. My guess is that QBB would be displaying a similar characteristic?

I appreciate this all combines with the need to roughly double wattage to get a 3dB increase in volume and the quality and efficiency of cabs etc. 

Edited August 31, 2019 by Reaper

[Osiris]

That's cool, no harm done here either 😀

The output on the Bass Block fascia is marked in wattage values, I've no idea how accurate these are so there could have been some variation either way but at the mark for 40 watts, around 10 o'clock ish on the volume control, through a pair of Barefaced One10's, it was really loud, perhaps too loud for in house use. The Bass Block also appears to have a linear output too, it wasn't running out of stream beyond the midday setting. Assuming the 45 watt power section of the new amp is comparable then I think we may be pleasantly surprised. Of course, we may also not be, but my head isn't so far up my own exhaust that I can't happily admit to being wrong. 😀

[dannybuoy]

13 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Agree with your second sentence, but not your first. 45 watts at 4 ohms wouldn't be heard on stage in competition with a drummer - a point I see that BassManG has also made above.

I've done a rehearsal with a loud guitarist and drummer with a crappy 60W Behringer combo before, and could hear myself fine. I'm sure with a decent cab it would be plenty audible enough for personal monitoring. We won't know for sure until someone does a field report!

[Al Krow]

19 minutes ago, dannybuoy said:

I've done a rehearsal with a loud guitarist and drummer with a crappy 60W Behringer combo before, and could hear myself fine. I'm sure with a decent cab it would be plenty audible enough for personal monitoring. We won't know for sure until someone does a field report!

Very true!

5 hours ago, Osiris said:

If the Interbass turns out to be a baby Bass Block, and it looks as though that is indeed the case, then I think that this will prove to be a very useful tool and I could see myself getting one. 

Osiris possibly volunteering to take one for the team...so we can maybe get his thoughts post facto.

I personally find it much easier to hear my amp & cab in a rehearsal than I do on stage** with my band and FOH PA plus monitors blaring for all the band members. No doubt the 'right' answer for that is to move to IEMs, but that's a whole 'nother topic! 😉

I've always valued having a bit of headroom with my amps and my D class head isn't exactly heavy and I can always turn it down! Trouble with just having 45W on tap is that if you find you need more oomph, you're out of rope.

Have to 'fess that if I wanted something smaller than my DG M900 as a power amp I'd be thinking Baby Sumo. If I wanted a headphone amp (and I didn't have my Stomp) I'd be looking at the TC Spectradrive which is very well featured and has aux in. But hey, that's just one BC'ers view.

 

**actually tbf that's less true with the F112 cab which was as clear as a whistle.

Edited August 31, 2019 by Al Krow

[Jack]

I love the idea. Like many of us I regularly use pedal preamps and one with a built-in power amp is surely better than not. I'm with our illustrious leader though, the power supply is too big. And at 24V 3A, there's pretty much no chance it'll run on whatever power supply is currently on your board.

 

The TE Elf has already been mentioned, and there's that new TINY TC head too. They both tale IEC leads, have XLR outputs, much more usable amplifier sections, and probably aren't much bigger or heavier by the time you add the PSU in.

[Cuzzie]

Proof is in the pudding, but regards being heard, I am sure you would be, and I can imagine it would be Quilter to PA, Bass through PA and monitors (iEM’s if you have them), and possible extra bass can for that ‘feel’ of the note.

Nice pre amp, nice EQ - it’s a winner.

Wonder if there is a rogue PSU out there that may do the job!

[Merton]

On 30/08/2019 at 22:11, dannybuoy said:

Shame they didn't use an XLR out for the DI rather than a balanced jack, and they missed a trick by having a headphone out but no aux in.

My thoughts exactly. Initially looked like an awesome bit of kit but those two things make it a deal breaker for me.