Steelaire stops working today

Howard Steinberg · Post by **Howard Steinberg** » 22 Aug 2023 11:29 am

Hello to all. This morning my Quilter Steelaire went silent. The lights for gain, 1, mute, gain 2, went out and no sound was coming from the amp. I contacted customer service and it was suggested that the problem was with the mode switch. A suggestion for an authorized repair station was made but it's 1,000 miles from me. I'm thinking that diagnosis is probably correct.

I live in St. Petersburg FL. Does anyone know of a good tech who can work on this amp. Many thanks, BJ

Marco Schouten · Post by **Marco Schouten** » 22 Aug 2023 12:51 pm

I once had the same problem. It's very easy to unscrew just the amphead part and send it. It only weighs a little.

Garry Vanderlinde · Post by **Garry Vanderlinde** » 22 Aug 2023 7:58 pm

My Mode Switch went out twice! Many, many people have had the same switch go bad on the Steelaire.
They had a real big problem with the vendor(s)? who supplied the part I was told. It's really unfortunate for Quilter that they couldn't get a quality switch consistently made. I don't know if you can blame them or not? After the first mode switch went out on me, I was really disapointed when I found this youtube video of their repair service. It was a April Fools Day joke I later learned... (it's funny until it happens to you):twisted:
Quilter Amp Res-Q Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKCScqwLnF8

Howard Steinberg · Post by **Howard Steinberg** » 26 Aug 2023 4:27 am

I sent the chassis of the amp to Quilter Labs.
I’ve heard many good things as to how well Quilter has treated their customers who experienced this issue.

It’s a bit alarming to hear about this happening a second time. The last thing that anyone needs is an amp that has a history of crashing and the possibility of having it go down on a gig.

Thanks to the forum members who shared their experience with this issue.

Garry Vanderlinde · Post by **Garry Vanderlinde** » 26 Aug 2023 10:53 am

Howard Steinberg wrote: The last thing that anyone needs is an amp that has a history of crashing and the possibility of having it go down on a gig.

The people at Quilter are really great with customer assistance and I commend them for their prompt, courteous repair service.
Just don't think they can send you a replacement head by drone...ha-ha(see video).

I now carry one of these in my gig bag for emergencies.

Howard Steinberg · Post by **Howard Steinberg** » 28 Aug 2023 5:48 am

I think one of these amp pedals is in my future. Not sure about how I feel about using a quilter amp with the history of the steelaire problems. While I’ve heard all sorts of nice things about Quilters service and generosity, this sort of thing should never happen.

Howard Steinberg · Post by **Howard Steinberg** » 31 Aug 2023 6:25 am

I don’t want to be that guy, however, it would seem that there is some decent information here that Steelaire players may need. Quilter, to begin with doesn’t have a good service network in the Southern states. When my mode switch went, I heard about Quilter replacing these, gratis, even for out of warranty amps. Just letting people know that, based on my experience, this is,apparently, no longer the case. They did repair the amp very quickly and the company rep was very helpful. It cost $38., to ship the head to them and $106. To replace the switch and ship back to me, total $142. I’m grateful that that they took care of it so quickly.

The fact that this is a known problem leaves a bad taste. I’m not real happy but at least I’ll have my amp back much sooner than anticipated.