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Topic: Opinions on Quilter Steelaire? |
forrest klott
From:
Grand Rapids Mi USA
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Posted 27 Jan 2018 7:07 pm |
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I'm seriously considering pulling the trigger on the rack mount Steelaire, and I'd love to hear some feedback, pros or cons, from those using it in any of its configurations. I'd be especially interested in what others think of the overall sound, the reverb and from those with the rack version how well it works in conjunction with an effects unit like a Lexicon or TC Electronics.
Thanks in advance!
Skeeter |
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Tony Glassman
From:
The Great Northwest
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Posted 27 Jan 2018 8:11 pm
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I have a Steelaire Rackmount and I love it. The onboard reverb is excellent. It has tone & dwell knobs to really shape it.
The amp sounds great with both my Push-pull & LeGrande -very tube-like- with plenty of power. I'm running it through either a 15" BW or two TT-12s and I couldn't be more pleased.
The EQ section is very different than the Peavey and Walker Stereo Steel amps I had been using previously. The mid-range aadjustments are not parametric It's divided into low & hi mid controls. Once I figured that out, I got the exact tone I was looking for.
I'm running an Earthquake Dispatchmaster Delay through the FX loop. The optional leg mounted remote control haa channel switching/cascading, limiter, reverb and FX toggles. |
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Malcolm McMaster
From:
Beith Ayrshire Scotland
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Posted 27 Jan 2018 10:51 pm
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I have a Steelaire rack head, run it through either a Telonics 15 or Sica 12, tone is excellent but as several players on here have commented it is drastically underpowered, with a loudish band I have to crank it all the way up to compete, even with moderate volume it has to cranked up, my back up amp a MB200 leaves it standing volume wise. Have been waiting to see if Quilter bring out a mod to amp that will help but so far heard nothing from them.I wonder if this problem only affects some of the amps because I read on here of other players saying it would blow your head off, but again Quilter have not commented on this apparent difference. Only use mine for studio recording now and use the MB200 for live gigs.
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MSA Millenium SD10, GK MB200, Sica 12inch cab, Joyo American Sound Pedal/ Jay Ganz Straight Ahead amp, Telonics 15inch in Peavey cab, Digitech RP150, Peterson tuner.Hilton volume pedal.Scott Dixon seat and guitar flight case. |
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Tony Glassman
From:
The Great Northwest
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Posted 28 Jan 2018 12:35 am
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| Weird. Mine has lots of headroom. |
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Malcolm McMaster
From:
Beith Ayrshire Scotland
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Posted 28 Jan 2018 1:34 am
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Tony, at first I thought it may be the mod the Steelaire needs for UK and Europe, but if you look back at previous posts it would seem that it has affected quite a few in US. I did speak to Pat Quilter, who said he probably made the input gain on the low side, and I asked if they were considering a mod, but to date have received no further communication from them. I have a friend who runs a Pro 200 Tone Block into a Telonics 12 , and gets good results, but finds it best to add an eq pedal to give better tone control.
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MSA Millenium SD10, GK MB200, Sica 12inch cab, Joyo American Sound Pedal/ Jay Ganz Straight Ahead amp, Telonics 15inch in Peavey cab, Digitech RP150, Peterson tuner.Hilton volume pedal.Scott Dixon seat and guitar flight case. |
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Dave Diehl
From:
Mechanicsville, MD, USA
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Posted 28 Jan 2018 5:31 am
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| I'm with Tony! |
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Greg Cutshaw
From:
Corry, PA, USA
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Posted 28 Jan 2018 6:00 am
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I agree with Malcolm. The power section has lots of RMS watts but the amp's overall gain is very low making it hard to achieve high levels of dynamics or volume. I also discussed this with Pat Quilter who agreed that perhaps the amp should have been designed with more gain. Some of the earlier Quilter Steelaire amps had a lot of white noise. Mine did! This was corrected in later builds.
http://www.gregcutshaw.com/ |
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Marco Schouten
From:
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Posted 28 Jan 2018 6:27 am
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| Malcolm McMaster wrote: |
| Tony, at first I thought it may be the mod the Steelaire needs for UK and Europe, but if you look back at previous posts it would seem that it has affected quite a few in US. I did speak to Pat Quilter, who said he probably made the input gain on the low side, and I asked if they were considering a mod, but to date have received no further communication from them. I have a friend who runs a Pro 200 Tone Block into a Telonics 12 , and gets good results, but finds it best to add an eq pedal to give better tone control. |
I never heard about a mod being necessary for the EU. Can you tell about it? My Steelaire is one the the first 4 imported in the EU, I don't think it has any mod.
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JCH SD-10 with BL XR-16 pickup, Sho-Bud Volume Pedal, Evidence Audio Lyric HG cables, Quilter Steelaire combo |
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Malcolm McMaster
From:
Beith Ayrshire Scotland
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Posted 28 Jan 2018 6:56 am
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Marco, all UK/Euro amps have a mod to the power supply that stops noise from the 220 supply. It is done at factory.
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MSA Millenium SD10, GK MB200, Sica 12inch cab, Joyo American Sound Pedal/ Jay Ganz Straight Ahead amp, Telonics 15inch in Peavey cab, Digitech RP150, Peterson tuner.Hilton volume pedal.Scott Dixon seat and guitar flight case. |
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Les Cargill
From:
Oklahoma City, Ok, USA
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Posted 28 Jan 2018 8:03 am
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| Greg Cutshaw wrote: |
I agree with Malcolm. The power section has lots of RMS watts but the amp's overall gain is very low making it hard to achieve high levels of dynamics or volume. I also discussed this with Pat Quilter who agreed that perhaps the amp should have been designed with more gain. Some of the earlier Quilter Steelaire amps had a lot of white noise. Mine did! This was corrected in later builds.
http://www.gregcutshaw.com/ |
I just don't have gain problems with my Steelaire. I run my (passive) volume pedal in the pedal loop on the front of the amp. It all lines up great.
Then again - a reason I bought a Steelaire instead of a Twin is that I couldn't use a Twin with the volume pedal all the way to the floor. The initial 12AX7 would overload. So that put the price of a Black Box or active pedal in favor of the Steelaire; plus it was one less thing in the gig bag.
Turns out the tradition is to use the volume pedal to avoid too much input to that 12AX7 but I didn't know that at the time  |
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Bill Terry
From:
Bastrop, TX
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Posted 28 Jan 2018 9:11 am
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I've been playing through a Steelaire combo for several months, plenty of gain and power for me. I use a Goodrich passive pedal into a Boss delay and then into the front of the amp.
I had to mess with the gain settings a bit. It is pretty flexible with a lot of variation available. I finally ended up cascading Input 1 with Input 2 and driving input 1 pretty hot, but that was more of a 'feel' thing than volume thing. I like the way it responds to hard attack, very tube-like IMO. It's weird how so many guys have commented on the low power issue. I've played through Twins and Session 400s a lot and IMO this amp stays up with all of those.
I'm also a big fan of the on-board digital reverb. Like Tony mentioned, the Dwell and Tone knobs give you a ton of flexibility. I'm actually happier with this amp than I've been with any amp in a long time. My 0.02... |
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Tony Glassman
From:
The Great Northwest
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Posted 28 Jan 2018 11:33 am
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| Another aspect of the Steelaire is the responsiveness of the tone stack knobs. They are scaled from 0 to 10 with 20 detentes (half clicks) . Each "click" produces an audible change, which makes tone shaping more precise. |
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Malcolm McMaster
From:
Beith Ayrshire Scotland
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Posted 28 Jan 2018 12:53 pm
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Tony, agree the tone is excellent, just underpowered (well mine anyway), tried different pedals , active and Passive, different sets of leads, ran both inputs together, played about with various settings. It intrigues me how some of these amps can have great output and others don’t. I had emails going between Pat and myself, ( believe some US forum members also contacted him or Chris also) . The sum total of interst from Quilter was “ just Crank it up†which it already was. Extremely dissaponited with their response, Would I recomend getting one - NO , not until they start listening to their customers and act on the problem.
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MSA Millenium SD10, GK MB200, Sica 12inch cab, Joyo American Sound Pedal/ Jay Ganz Straight Ahead amp, Telonics 15inch in Peavey cab, Digitech RP150, Peterson tuner.Hilton volume pedal.Scott Dixon seat and guitar flight case. |
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Morton Kellas
From:
Chazy, NY, USA 1
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Posted 28 Jan 2018 1:00 pm
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| I love my Steelaire, very good sounding dependable light amp. I can't imagine ever needing more power. This is not the only amp I own, but it is the one that gets used the most. |
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Steve Spitz
From:
New Orleans, LA, USA
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Posted 28 Jan 2018 4:08 pm
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Apparently some had issues with headroom.
Not me. Mine was plenty loud for my needs. |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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George Kimery
From:
Limestone, TN, USA
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Posted 29 Jan 2018 7:01 pm Opinions on Quilter Steelaire
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| I have been using the rack mount version for about a year now and am very happy with it. The amp reverb is very good, but I prefer my Wet Reverb pedal. Volume is not a prob!em, generally speaking. I wish it had more headroom. When having to really crank it, my 120 volume pedal will bottom out. Unless you are in a really loud band, I think you will be OK with the volume it puts out. |
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Mike Perlowin
From:
Los Angeles CA
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Posted 29 Jan 2018 10:50 pm
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I like the powered effects loop. I have a Dunlop Q-zone pedal, which creates a dobro-like sound, hard-wired into mine. A flip,of a switch and voila: instant pedabro.
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Please visit my web site and Soundcloud page and listen to the music posted there.
http://www.mikeperlowin.com http://soundcloud.com/mike-perlowin |
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forrest klott
From:
Grand Rapids Mi USA
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Posted 31 Jan 2018 9:01 am
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Thank you all for the great input. It certainly goes a long way in helping my decision.
Skeeter |
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Malcolm McMaster
From:
Beith Ayrshire Scotland
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Posted 31 Jan 2018 9:58 am
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Forrest, if you plan on getting one can I suggest that you try it out personally before buying, a $1000 is a lot to pay for something that may not suit.
What a pity Quilter did not supply any input (if you will pardon the pun) .
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MSA Millenium SD10, GK MB200, Sica 12inch cab, Joyo American Sound Pedal/ Jay Ganz Straight Ahead amp, Telonics 15inch in Peavey cab, Digitech RP150, Peterson tuner.Hilton volume pedal.Scott Dixon seat and guitar flight case. |
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