d_sic3 Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 Has anyone here tried this? The tone block got some good reviews from a lot of players, I just didn't see anyone using the HD500 or I may have overlooked that topic. Either way, I hope someone in this forum can help me. I am also open to other suggestions as far as power amp is concerned. I just didn't feel the HD500 + Powered speaker (using Alto SXM112A) or Mixer direct route. For me it doesn't really sound like a guitar amp (again open for suggestions). Hoping to get inputs from everyone here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joel_brown Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 I personally prefer tubes in my power amps but a lot of people have got great tones from solid state amps using the PODHD. I think it really comes down to tweaking the PODHD for what you're playing it through. That's kind'a the Pro and Con about it. It has the flexibility to be used in a LOT of different situations but that means it has a LOT of different tweaks available with it too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d_sic3 Posted December 8, 2014 Author Share Posted December 8, 2014 Agree! It takes a lot of patience and time.. I'm still trying to figure it out.. Thanks for the insights! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomtheguitarguy Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 The Quilter Toneblock works great with the HD500/HD500X. It's a clean power source that shows off the modeling effects of the HD500, as well as the Axe-FX, Eleven Rack, and other modelers. Makes for a really light and portable rig - just plug into an available speaker cab.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d_sic3 Posted December 9, 2014 Author Share Posted December 9, 2014 Good to know that man...I'm also looking into the crate power block as I have somebody here selling it for half the price of the quilter. Any thoughts? :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radatats Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 so the bigger question is what speaker cab are you using? What is your end goal? If you already have a good cab and just want an amp for it then there are plenty of good SS amps you can use and they are all good. Most folks though will choose a tube amp if playing through a guitar cab simply because a guitar speaker won't reproduce the full range flat response type tone you are getting from your POD. Then again with the right settings the POD will be just fine with a SS or tube amp and a decent speaker cab. Bottom line, the Quilter is good and so is the Crate. If you are just looking for a pedal board amp the the EHX 44 Magnum is good too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomtheguitarguy Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 Well, I'm a bit biased, but the ToneBlock sounds much better to me than the Crate - much warmer and responsive... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d_sic3 Posted December 18, 2014 Author Share Posted December 18, 2014 so the bigger question is what speaker cab are you using? What is your end goal? If you already have a good cab and just want an amp for it then there are plenty of good SS amps you can use and they are all good. Most folks though will choose a tube amp if playing through a guitar cab simply because a guitar speaker won't reproduce the full range flat response type tone you are getting from your POD. Then again with the right settings the POD will be just fine with a SS or tube amp and a decent speaker cab. Bottom line, the Quilter is good and so is the Crate. If you are just looking for a pedal board amp the the EHX 44 Magnum is good too. Thanks Radatats. From what I understand, the POD can be versatile enough to be used with any of the combination you gave. I may just be too lazy to tweak it so that it will sound good with my Alto. To answer your question, I wanted to get the mesa 2x12 cab. The end goal is to have that real amp tone/feel. Can the magnum be used on a club gig? I have a very loud drummer. I also use a lot of cleans.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d_sic3 Posted December 18, 2014 Author Share Posted December 18, 2014 Well, I'm a bit biased, but the ToneBlock sounds much better to me than the Crate - much warmer and responsive... Thanks Tom.. Appreciate the response. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidb7170 Posted December 19, 2014 Share Posted December 19, 2014 I used the Crate for several years with my XTL, X3L, HD500, and my current HD500X. It did the job quite well, but the amp was my first Class D (digital) amp, and I found it had a certain raspy-ness with full range speakers. turned out it was digital "artifacts" that really did not "like" HF drivers or FRFR speakers. I found I had to use a guitar speaker that rolled off at around 4 or 5 kHz. I settled on the Eminence Tonker 12" 150 Watt speaker. My problem with that was for the acoustic sims on my JTV, I lost the highs, and did not hear the same tone that was going out to FOH via the XLR's to the board... I switched to Eminence "full range" Beta-12LTA's, and got better sound, but the fizz was back with the Crate artifacts. I then tried a powered monitor from Carvin, but didn't care for it, seemed thin. My next round was to get a Crown XL1000 power amp -- also Class D, but properly filtered to get rid of the artifacts. The Beta-12LTA's did "ok" with the new amp, but I decided to buy a couple of Yorkville passive neo monitors from our soundman, who was changing over to powered Yorkville's for his system. I've been very happy with that combo for about a year now. Wouldn't mind a shot at the Quilter or maybe the EHX Magnum 44 for band practice or gigs in some of the very small bars. How do they do with the digital artifacts? I believe they are also Class D. One thing I've noticed different about the Class D amps is I have to pick one with about 2X the power rating of what I want to end up with, as they sound good, but don't seem to have the "oomph" of the same wattage old school tube amps... They cut out when you actually get to their rated power -- no head room.... A LOT lighter and less temperamental, though, if you keep it within it's power range. I look at the XLS1000 and FRFR monitors as the blank slate and run my 500X in studio output mode to get the amp colorations and distortions, etc. Curious. Thanks. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d_sic3 Posted December 19, 2014 Author Share Posted December 19, 2014 I used the Crate for several years with my XTL, X3L, HD500, and my current HD500X. It did the job quite well, but the amp was my first Class D (digital) amp, and I found it had a certain raspy-ness with full range speakers. turned out it was digital "artifacts" that really did not "like" HF drivers or FRFR speakers. I found I had to use a guitar speaker that rolled off at around 4 or 5 kHz. I settled on the Eminence Tonker 12" 150 Watt speaker. My problem with that was for the acoustic sims on my JTV, I lost the highs, and did not hear the same tone that was going out to FOH via the XLR's to the board... I switched to Eminence "full range" Beta-12LTA's, and got better sound, but the fizz was back with the Crate artifacts. I then tried a powered monitor from Carvin, but didn't care for it, seemed thin. My next round was to get a Crown XL1000 power amp -- also Class D, but properly filtered to get rid of the artifacts. The Beta-12LTA's did "ok" with the new amp, but I decided to buy a couple of Yorkville passive neo monitors from our soundman, who was changing over to powered Yorkville's for his system. I've been very happy with that combo for about a year now. Wouldn't mind a shot at the Quilter or maybe the EHX Magnum 44 for band practice or gigs in some of the very small bars. How do they do with the digital artifacts? I believe they are also Class D. One thing I've noticed different about the Class D amps is I have to pick one with about 2X the power rating of what I want to end up with, as they sound good, but don't seem to have the "oomph" of the same wattage old school tube amps... They cut out when you actually get to their rated power -- no head room.... A LOT lighter and less temperamental, though, if you keep it within it's power range. I look at the XLS1000 and FRFR monitors as the blank slate and run my 500X in studio output mode to get the amp colorations and distortions, etc. Curious. Thanks. Dave Thanks Dave. That was really informational. So you are currently using the Crate and the Beta-12LTA's right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidb7170 Posted December 19, 2014 Share Posted December 19, 2014 I'm currently using the Crown XL1000 amp and the Yorkville NX35 monitors -- one speaker if it's a normal job, 2 if the venue is really loud and I need extra power to hear over the crowd noise -- I have to do that for a couple of outside festivals we play... I do carry the Crate PowerBlock as a backup for failure of the Crown amp, but never have had to use it. With my current setup, I run the Crown amp in bridged mode for 700 Watts (real world 300 Watts) with 8 Ohms (1 speaker), or 1000 Watts (500 Watts real world) with 4 Ohms (2 peakers). The power rating of the Yorkville NX35 is 350 Watts.... The Crown amp with its softside RoadRunner case is less than 15 lbs, and the speakers are around 28 lbs, each. Really lightens the load compared to tube amps. My late 70's Fender Twin with 2 JBL E120 speakers in its flight case is about 150 lbs.... Haven't had it out in over 15 years.... Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d_sic3 Posted December 29, 2014 Author Share Posted December 29, 2014 I'm currently using the Crown XL1000 amp and the Yorkville NX35 monitors -- one speaker if it's a normal job, 2 if the venue is really loud and I need extra power to hear over the crowd noise -- I have to do that for a couple of outside festivals we play... I do carry the Crate PowerBlock as a backup for failure of the Crown amp, but never have had to use it. With my current setup, I run the Crown amp in bridged mode for 700 Watts (real world 300 Watts) with 8 Ohms (1 speaker), or 1000 Watts (500 Watts real world) with 4 Ohms (2 peakers). The power rating of the Yorkville NX35 is 350 Watts.... The Crown amp with its softside RoadRunner case is less than 15 lbs, and the speakers are around 28 lbs, each. Really lightens the load compared to tube amps. My late 70's Fender Twin with 2 JBL E120 speakers in its flight case is about 150 lbs.... Haven't had it out in over 15 years.... Dave Thanks Dave. This is good info. Can 2 guitarists use one crown power amp and feed it into two different 2x12's or two passive speakers? Would like to use it with the other guitarist on the band to lighten up the load. I am also looking into using guitar speakers instead of the passive FRFR. Do you think using the Eminence Governor or the V30's will sound good? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidb7170 Posted December 29, 2014 Share Posted December 29, 2014 Yes you can run each side independently. I'm attaching a jpeg, we'll see if it works. the output you'll get will depend on the speaker ohm ratings. Most are 8 ohm, but some are 16. With 2 speakers per side, I'd choose 8 ohm speakers to give a paralleled load of 4 ohms. Make sure the total wattage rating of your speakers are adequate. You will appear to get about half the wattage of the amp rating. I spoke about that above with SS amps compared to tube amps (at least in my experience). Speaker choices are all a matter of taste and adjustment. I finally went with FRFR speakers because I found using full models in Studio mode, the modeled amps & speakers through midrange heavy guitar speakers over-accentuated the mids, and found it hard to compensate... YMMV. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidb7170 Posted December 29, 2014 Share Posted December 29, 2014 Ok the file didn't attach -- will try again. This has always been a problem... Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d_sic3 Posted December 30, 2014 Author Share Posted December 30, 2014 Yes you can run each side independently. I'm attaching a jpeg, we'll see if it works. the output you'll get will depend on the speaker ohm ratings. Most are 8 ohm, but some are 16. With 2 speakers per side, I'd choose 8 ohm speakers to give a paralleled load of 4 ohms. Make sure the total wattage rating of your speakers are adequate. You will appear to get about half the wattage of the amp rating. I spoke about that above with SS amps compared to tube amps (at least in my experience). Speaker choices are all a matter of taste and adjustment. I finally went with FRFR speakers because I found using full models in Studio mode, the modeled amps & speakers through midrange heavy guitar speakers over-accentuated the mids, and found it hard to compensate... YMMV. Dave So, the max rating in each 2x12 should be 500 watts right? Sorry, I'm not really good at this.. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidb7170 Posted December 30, 2014 Share Posted December 30, 2014 Yeah, that'd do, but the amp is rated at 350 Watts each side into 4 Ohm load. Would mean you'd need each 8 Ohm speaker to have a max rating of 175 Watts... The Tonker is rated 150 Watts, 2 of those would give your cabinet 300 Watts (if not the Tonker, then some other in that range -- again taste in speakers varies). Your 2 - 12's would need to be able to handle ~ 350 Watts peak, if you run full bore open. Most speakers are rated at "RMS" or "Program" with "Peak" at about 2X "Program" -- meaning short bursts of peak power.... Speakers are a bit of a "dark art".... My Tonkers are rated 150 Watts each, my Beta 12LTA's are rated 225 Watts each.... Those are "Program" ratings. Theses speakers retail under $100 each.... Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d_sic3 Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 Yeah, that'd do, but the amp is rated at 350 Watts each side into 4 Ohm load. Would mean you'd need each 8 Ohm speaker to have a max rating of 175 Watts... The Tonker is rated 150 Watts, 2 of those would give your cabinet 300 Watts (if not the Tonker, then some other in that range -- again taste in speakers varies). Your 2 - 12's would need to be able to handle ~ 350 Watts peak, if you run full bore open. Most speakers are rated at "RMS" or "Program" with "Peak" at about 2X "Program" -- meaning short bursts of peak power.... Speakers are a bit of a "dark art".... My Tonkers are rated 150 Watts each, my Beta 12LTA's are rated 225 Watts each.... Those are "Program" ratings. Theses speakers retail under $100 each.... Dave This is great! Thanks Dave.. Apologies, it took a long time for me to reply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skinnywebb Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 The Quilter Tone Block is a great amp, lite, good tone, and feels like a tube amp. I even made a demo of the it where I play a few different styles and do a comprehensive comparison between the Quilter and one of my favorite tube amps: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidb7170 Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 Well, I just ordered a Quilter Tone Block 200.... Going to see if it'll work out for me. I like the concept, and we'll see if it plays better with FRFR speakers than the Class D Crate Power block does. I found I had to use guitar speakers that roll off around 4 kHz to avoid the ragged digital artifacts. One thing I noted at the Quilter Forums was that the 200 Watt rating they claim is from their amp actual internal rating of 400 Watts... Kind of validates my practice of buying a solid state amp with 2X the power I actually want to end up with... I'll comment more after I get the thing and run it for a while.... Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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