The Steel Guitar Forum

the manual that came with my amp shows the rear panel having 2 speaker outputs. the top being "EXT SPEAKER 8 ohms" and the bottom being "INT SPEAKER 4 ohms". However the back panel on my amp shows this. The internal speaker is plugged into the bottom output.



I played my amp on a gig last night, and it may have just been the room, but I had the master volume all the way up and the gain at 8. xlr out to the board. band mates were having a hard time hearing my amp (no monitors). I think my 200 watt steel king is a lot louder, and I know my 100 Watt twin is louder (I've never had the twin above 4 on the volume). I am going to do some comparing loudness against the steel king here at home today, but i found it strange that I had the amp cranked so high.
The tone of the amp is spectacular. It really comes close to that 3-dimentional tone that I have only heard out of a tube amp. And it's clear as day, you can really hear every note coming out of the amp. IMO its very close to a tube tone at a fraction of the weight. Totally worth it. I will be leaving my fender twin at home from now on. and the amp is quiet, no hum no crackling…
I ran a black box before the amp, and used a wet reverb pedal, strymon el cap (long delays), and mxr carbon copy (slapback) in the effects loop. very happy with this amp, tho a little concerned with the volume issue.

Both mine are as your picture shows. I have not had occasion to see how the volume is live. I would contact Chris Parks at Quilter and see what he thinks.

Another thought...how do you have your limiter set?

I used mine with the band last night and there was more than enough volume with master at 8 and volume at 5. I run my limiter set straight up and never heard a bit of distortion and I do get on it during some tunes. This was the first time the guys had seen this amp and they really liked the tone which they thought was much cleaner than the Nashville 1000 I had been using for a while.

What volume pedal are you using and has your volume changed since getting the amp?

using a hilton pedal and no limiter. going to do some more research this afternoon and see what I can find.

If the amp is equipped with the EPS15-C speaker, the correct output should be 4ohms. It appears that the speaker is plugged into the incorrect jack. From what I see from the photo, a single speaker should be run into the 4-0hm output(top) but if you wish to use an extension cab, you would utilize both jacks but the speakers would then need to be 8ohms output each which together would equal a 4-ohm load.

the steel king is definitely louder. I have been comparing the two. both have all controls at noon. master volumes also at noon.
i get the same volume with the gain of the quilter on 5 (12:00) as the steel king on 3 (10:00). no difference in volume when the speaker in the quitter is plugged into the 8 or 4 ohm jack. i am wondering if there is an 8 ohm speaker in my amp and therefore only putting out half the power ?? I will email the peeps at quilter tomorrow.

I really doubt that the company put in the wrong speaker. I don't think that's the issue.What guitar are you using and have tried another guitar with same results?

no i don't think they put the wrong speaker in, but maybe the amp comes stock with an 8 ohm speaker so that you can plug an extension speaker in for 2x power ?? I don't know, it's not a huge big deal, but the steel king is noticeably louder. it could be the cabinet or just the speaker itself in the fender that is a powerhouse. I also noticed when comparing the mark bass amp with the steel king using the same speaker, the steel king seemed a bit louder. Maybe class D amps just aren't as loud as class AB. we all know that tube amps are louder than their actual wattage.
All that being said, the tone of the Quilter trumps the steel king IMO. Its a much nicer amp to play thru (and carry), and I'm finding the carbon copy delay pedal sounds great in the effects loop of the amp as well. I have had issues with analog delay in both my steel king and in the twin.

Karen Sarkisian wrote:
no difference in volume when the speaker in the quitter is plugged into the 8 or 4 ohm jack.

That there is no difference in volume from plugging speaker jack into 4 or 8 is odd.

There should be an increase of volume noticed using 4 ohms if the speaker in the amp is in fact 4 ohms.

According to Quilter specs, the internal speaker is a 4 ohm Eminence 15 rated for 200 watts.

What Godfrey said, you should realize more volume with the speaker plugged into the correct output. The current generation of class D amps, that I've used, have had the ability to go loud and clean and pretty much keep up with everything (including stupid volume levels) with very adequate headroom. I'm using a 200 watt Fender class D which is loud and clean (and light). It doesn't make sense, given the reviews on this amp, that it should be functioning in the way you describe. I'd contact the builder.

calling Quilter today. will report back.

This one falls into the category of Oops!
Simply remove the label. It wasn't supposed to be on there.
Sorry about that gang.

Oh, and you should be using the 4 ohm jack which is in fact on the bottom. You could use either and no harm will come but it is best to use the bottom one.

Put the channel selector switch on both and you will see a nice increase in output. In that position,you can use both volumes to control how loud you want it.

My Steelaire is labeled the same way, I guess I will have to make up a proper label just in case I let someone borrow it.

Dick Wood wrote:Put the channel selector switch on both and you will see a nice increase in output. In that position,you can use both volumes to control how loud you want it.

interesting, will check it out

yes its louder for sure this way. Chris could you comment on the loudness issue ?

Karen,

I had the same low volume issue with the Steelaire that you have. No significant difference between speaker output jacks either. The jacks had the same odd labeling too. Linking the inputs and using both gains was louder and IMHO fuller sounding. I have to say that my Deluxe Reverb and Nash 112 seem louder.... and I'll leave the big tube amps out of it.

I didn't have a long trial period from the store that sold it to me, so I returned it. I would be interested to hear if there is an issue with some of these.

thanks Mike. I was starting to think I was crazy. Hopefully someone from Quilter will chime in on this. I love the tone of the amp, but really don't want to be hauling around two of them for bigger gigs….

It is a complicated answer to explain why you will not necessarily hear a louder signal between one jack and the other. Suffice to say, the extension is truly meant to be an extension jack. Not necessarily a primary output.
Okay as far as a "loudness" issue goes there are many factors at play so it is really tough for me to diagnose offhand given I don't really know all the variables at play.
But I will happily try to help you through it.
Some obvious things that could affect overall power begin with output impedance of the amplifier pickup, buffers used, pedals, setting on the amp, effects in the FX loop chain, and on and on... There are now many hundreds of folks using Steelaires to good effect many in high profile gigs and truthfully I usually hear the opposite complaint... (i.e. it is TOO LOUD)
That said, I will happily walk anyone through any issue. (714)773-2853 (This is my personal cell phone. Call me anytime... Well... Within reason. I am PST.)
As far as the sticker, there is no need to make another one. Just take the one that is on the amp off. It wasn't supposed to be there in the first place. The screen printing underneath is correct.
Really sorry about that gang. We try our best not to make mistakes like this and on all our other products this sticker is used except the Steelaire so we had a bit of an autopilot moment that got the best of us. So like I mentioned before, just take the sticker off.

Karen, some quick suggestions and troubleshooting...
1) Unplug your FX loop temporarily or shut it off with the FX loop switch.
2) Set your Master at full. (All the way to the right.)
3) Turn your limiter off for now (All the way to the left.)
4) Set mode to CH1
5) Start with your gain all the way down and turn it up until you get to a volume that is stage friendly.
Quick questions...
1) Were you able to achieve the volume required?
If so, plug your effects back in or turn them back on.
Did the master volume change?
If not, set the amp to Gain 1 + 2 mode and turn both gains up sequentially until you achieve what you are after.

Let me know what you find. (In fact, if you prefer go ahead and email me as I don't seem to be getting a notification when folks reply to this post.)

I'd say that mistake is a LOT more than "oops". That is a HUGE error. How could that have slipped by any decent Quality Control? It makes me wonder how many OTHER "oops" are in the amp, if one so obvious is overlooked.

Steven, if, as Chris says, every other amp in the line is the other way, that's a pretty easy thing to overlook. Hell, the label might have only gotten applied by the one shipping it, noticing that it just didn't look right.

thanks for chiming in Chris. I sent you an email.
Karen

Quilter hit it out of the park with that amp.

Chris Parks wrote: Let me know what you find.

Karen....how'd you make out?