I love my Quilter Steelaire!

[Mike Perlowin]

Roger, for me the advantage is having what amounts to a built in pedabro sound with the Q-zone pedal. The pedal doesn't sound any different than it would if it was in line, it's the convenience of having it there on the hand switch, plus the lack of a need for a battery or a power supply.

The same convenience would apply to any 9 volt unit. Some pedals require 18 volts. They won't work with the loop.

[Roger Rettig]

Ah, okay. Thanks, Mike.

[Mike Perlowin]

I might add that one of the techs at Quilter told me not to run my Telonics volume pedal through the volume pedal loop. Something about it's being active that makes it incompatible with that loop. So, since I run the volume pedal in line, I have an second loop, un-powered which I can use for other effects if I want.

I tested this with a few pedals. It works just the way it's supposed to. I've not actually used it yet though.

[GaryL]

Running an active pedal thru the volume pedal "loop" will overdrive the amp. I have a Quilter Steelaire combo amp and it is fantastic. The best I have ever used in 35+ yrs of playing. I recently bought a Quilter rackmount and am playing it through two 12" Telonics cabs with the speakers from my old Nashville 112's. Incredible sound, and my pick over the single 15". (Hilton volume pedal.)

[David Wren]

I love my Steelaire... use it on all of my larger gigs.

Great full tone, and string separation. Years ago when I first got it, the extreme "clean" sound of it, was almost too sterile sounding. Experimenting with it I found that always setting my "master" volume one half click past what the "gain" volume was set at gave the amp a really nice "almost" tube warmth.

For really loud stages I add an external Webb cabinet as well, a 4 ohm JBL E140 speaker in it. Sounds fantastic.

.... and it's great when it is time to pack up

[George Kimery]

Dale, you have got to watch the low mid on this amp.
My settings will vary a little at different venues, but they are pretty close to yours. I may have bass up a little more, but I back the low mid down to one or two.

Although the amp reverb is very good, it cannot compete with my Wet Reverb pedal. Besides being a great reverb, for some reason it also improves the overall sound. I run it in the effects loop. Also, you should try the 3 cord hookup if you are using a passive volume pedal.You might or might not !like it better.

[Tony Glassman]

I had a Steelaire Rackmount and really liked it. Initially it took a while to find a tone I liked, but I eventually discovered that cutting the low-mid down to "2" really opened up its tonal palette.

The tone contols produce very distinct incremental changes for each parameter, making fine changes easy. I loved the 3 knob 'verb too. The amp sounded great through either a 2 x TT-12 cab or a single 15 BW.

Eventually got a good deal on a Telonics TCA-500 which I liked even a bit more, so I sold the Quilter as I couldn't justify having 2 boutique amps. Still, the Steelaire is a great amp, that I would've been happy to use otherwise.

[GaryL]

Tony, you were right about the low mid setting. I keep it "low:" 1 to 3 on the dial. That specific control seems to clear things up. I am using the rack-mount that you sold me. The High-mid control puts the "bite" into the sound. My favorite set-up is the Quilter amp through my Hilton pedal into two 12" Telonics speaker cabinets loaded with the speakers from my Nashville 112's. Good string separation, and magnificent response, bass and treble. I have given up using delay almost entirely with this rig. The reverb unit is great as-is.

[Dale Rottacker]

Dale, you have got to watch the low mid on this amp.
My settings will vary a little at different venues, but they are pretty close to yours. I may have bass up a little more, but I back the low mid down to one or two.

Although the amp reverb is very good, it cannot compete with my Wet Reverb pedal. Besides being a great reverb, for some reason it also improves the overall sound. I run it in the effects loop. Also, you should try the 3 cord hookup if you are using a passive volume pedal.You might or might not !like it better.

Thank George... I’ve cut the Mid/Lo as suggested and that did seem to improve what I was getting... I wonder if the difference is in the speakers, I’m using 2-15’s, and I’ll probably end up with the TT-15 and replace the BW with that... I’m using a Telonics Multi Taper... I used the 3 cable hookup with my Revelation, but that doesn’t seem like the way to go with the Quilter unless I’m using my Goodrich or Sho~Bud pedal.

[George Kimery]

Dale, you are quite right about the volume pedals. I would only use the 3 cord hookup with passive pedals.
Not needed for Hilton or Te!onics pedals.

[Jack Stoner]

I tried cutting the Low MID down from 5 to 3 at my gig last night. Didn't really like it and went back to 5. Probably the difference in pickups and guitars. I'm using a D-10 Franklin with Lawrence 710 pickups and a Hilton VP. I also have the speaker elevated on a stand.