For most of my guitar playing time, I considered tube amps to be the only choice for top tier tone. However, three factors have arisen recently that have renewed my interest in non-tube amplifiers, which led me to purchasing a Quilter SuperBlock US. Before we get into the review, it’s worth discussing how a longtime tube snob like me decided to try a solid-state amp again.
Why Quilter, Now?
1. The Shift Towards Lighter and More Compact Amplifiers
The SuperBlock US is not digital modeling amplifier, but it competes with compact digital modeling amps. When even mighty Fender is rolling out the Tonemaster series—digital renditions of their most famous amplifiers—you must take notice. The amp landscape is shifting, with an emphasis on portability and convenience.
2. Tube Shortage
The global supply chain situation with vacuum tubes has hit home. For one, I can no longer buy trusted Mesa Boogie EL-84s, which have been my standby tubes for years. And, tube prices have gone through the roof for all tube types. It’s frustrating to think that I have to pay double for tubes that a year ago would have cost me much less, and this has finally pushed me towards seeking alternatives.
3. The Reality of How Much Amp is Necessary
One of my priorities at Guitarkind is to review gear in the context that I use it, which for me, like many of you, is in the home. While I have and have loved 50 Watt tube amps, I have to ask if I have truly have a need for them.
Quilter SuperBlock US
The Quilter is a “pedal amp”, meaning that its size and weight is roughly equivalent to a decent sized effects pedal. In person, it’s even smaller than I expected. The SuperBlock’s dimensions are H 4.25” (10.8cm) x W 6.5” (16.5 cm) x D 1.5” (2.5cm), which equates to only ¼ inch wider than my Fulltone Fulldrive 2 pedal! When Quilter says pedal sized amp, they mean it! The magic of Class D amplification makes this possible. But how can so small a thing sound like a real amp?
My primary questions when deciding to try out the SuperBlock were:
- Does it sound convincing? (read: does it sound like a “real” amp?)
- Are there tradeoffs in tone? Is the convenience of a pedal-sized amplifier worth it?
- Does it sound small? The SuperBlock looks diminutive; does it sound like that too?
SuperBlock Unboxing
The SuperBlock presents as well thought out, and no-nonsense. The amp is packaged in a tidy box with graphics that are a representation of the amp itself. It’s nicely packed, and setup takes seconds. Unlike modeling amps like the Yamaha THR10 II, there’s no app to download, because the SuperBlock isn’t a digital modeling amp. Rather, the Quilter’s sound comes from analog circuitry, Class D amplification, and careful voicing by Pat Quilter, the founder of Quilter amps. Quilter also has patents for some of the circuitry used in Quilter amps, which employ complex preamp circuits.
SuperBlock US Features
The SuperBlock is an example of elegant simplicity. Everything the SuperBlock is well thought out, and the controls are uncomplicated, and effective. It’s as easy to use as any analog pedal. The inclusion of the external Effects loop is an extremely useful feature (why doesn’t every amp have this?). When you see an external effects loop, you know that the amp designer is considering people who care about their tone, and the signal losses that accompany long pedal chains on the front end of the amp.
For recording, the SuperBlock features an XLR out, which can connect directly to your DAW. There are also three Cab sims available via a toggle switch. It’s obvious that Quilter gave thought to how people would use the SuperBlock, and what features they would value.
SuperBlock US Sounds
The SuperBlock comes in two flavors, the SuperBlock US and SuperBlock UK. Since I am a fan of American-style amps, I chose to go with the US version. The user manual includes info for both the US and UK versions, which is great because in this case more information is welcome. The chief difference between the US and UK versions are the three amp “voicings.” The UK version mimics three classic British amps, while the US SuperBlock stays stateside. Care to guess the brand of amps that the Quilter’s voicings are based on?
The Superblock US voicings are based on three classic Fender amps, and are accessed by the Voice toggle switch:
- Position 1: 1961 “Blonde” sound
- Position 2: Late 1950s “Tweed” sound
- Position 3: Classic 1965 “Blackface” sound
SuperBlock US Clean Tones
For this review, I chose to run the SuperBlock through Mesa Boogie 1×10 cabinet with an Eminence 50-Watt, 8 ohm speaker. I used a Tele, Strat, and my spruce-topped Hamer Newport hollowbody.
I’m the type of player who doesn’t need too many sounds. When I’m evaluating an amp, I’m primarily looking to see if I can get a good clean tone with low effort. Put another way, I’m not a person who enjoys endlessly twisting knobs on fussy amplifiers. At one point I thought I might try out a Kemper Profiler, until it occurred to me that I have no need for hundreds of amp models under my fingers. I just need a few good sounds: A nice clean, a nice overdrive, and a clean with a touch of “hair” on it when I dig into a note.
First Impressions
When I plugged into the SuperBlock US for the first time, I was eager to see if the amp sounded “real”. Could it hang with my tube amps? I’ll cut to the chase: Yes, the SuperBlock sounds like a real amp. I did not get the sense that I was playing through a digital simulation (because, of course, I wasn’t! The SuperBlock is an analog design). The SuperBlock is a real amp, and unlike some practice amps, doesn’t sound like a toy version of the real thing.
SuperBlock Tones
Though I don’t need a lot of distinct sounds, I value the ability to be able to achieve different shades of a few primary sounds. One of the biggest surprises with the SuperBlock is how much tone-shaping is available. Of course, when knob-turning on amps, we all want to dial in a sound that we like, which has the effect of making different amps sound like the same amp. This is why I love the idea of three separate and distinct voicings; the amp sounds different enough that they inspire you to tweak your tone in multiple ways.
Tone Shaping
With the SuperBlock’s Voice settings and tone knobs, there are are many possibilities available. Toggling the voicings while maintaining the same tone control settings results in different sounds on each voicing, which is a testament to the distinct quality of each voicing. At one point I thought the rich mids I was hearing was the ‘57 (Tweed) voice, only to find out that I was playing the ‘65 voice with the mids bumped up. What I had then, was the sparkly top end of the ‘65, along with Tweed-style midrange!
I took a quick look at the manual, which explains what the “Limiter” knob, stating that it acts like a ‘governor’ to hold back the signal peaks. This was the solution I was looking for. Turning the limiter up to about 50% smoothed out the pick attack, and made the amp sound, and feel, more natural. The limiter acts like a compressor, but the effect isn’t exactly the same as some compressors I have used. Whatever it is, Quilter was wise to include the Limiter control. It’s a subtle, but meaningful, effect that adds refinement to the SuperBlock.
One of the qualities I like about tube amps is the tendency to smooth out the transients, in particular the pick attack of a guitar on a string. Although the SuperBlock initially sounded clear and natural overall, I was hearing more pick attack peakiness than I like, and I wondered if that was inherent to solid state designs, or the SuperBlock in particular.
While I initially gravitated to the ‘57 setting for its thicker midrange, I found myself enjoying the ‘65 a lot when I learned how to dial it in. As I said in the opening, I don’t need a lot of sounds, but the versatility of the Quilter is very welcome, because it means you can continue to find compelling new tones with a variety of guitar, voicing, and tone control settings.
Hollowbody Sounds
As great as the Quilter sounded with the Tele, I had assumed it would work well with humbuckers, and I was right. I made some adjustments compared to my preferred ‘65 sound with the Tele, and arrived at different, but equally good results. With the hollowbody, I found the ‘57 voice bumped up the midrange in a pleasing way. Again, that’s one of the great things about the Superblock: It’s relatively easy to dial in different tones on different guitars. Happily, I found that the SuperBlock displayed clarity and notable string separation in all of the Voice settings, regardless of the guitar I used.
SuperBlock US Distorted Tones
The SuperBlock US is aimed at recreating three classic guitar amps of the 50s and 60s, and as such isn’t intended to deliver crushing distortion tones out of the box. Since I was playing mostly clean, I hadn’t used the Gain knob much yet. As I mentioned previously, I was getting great clean tones with the guitar volume backed off and the gain around 6. Turning the gain up increased warmth and sustain, and I was able to get smooth overdriven tones for rhythm, and lightly overdriven lead tones.
To get into overdrive territory, you need to turn the gain up past 7 or so. According to the manual, settings from 0-3 are Clean tones, while breakup should begin between 3-7. However, to my surprise, what I found was that turning the gain up between 3-7 didn’t audibly distort my signal when I backed off of the guitar’s volume. Instead, it added body and warmth, especially when played with a light touch. My formula for warm single coil tones with the SuperBlock is gain above 5, | Limiter at 4, | Guitar volume around 5-7. These settings had me enjoying a warm and clear tone with my Tele, which was minimally distorted. I could then vary the distortion level by adjusting the guitar volume and my picking attack.
I tend to be sensitive to spiky distortion sounds, and I found that since the SuperBlock is sensitive to input volume, I was able to minimize it by backing off the guitar volume, without losing clarity. The Limiter knob did its thing here as well, subtly leveling things out in a gratifying way. Even with humbuckers, there’s not a lot of gain on tap here… but again, that’s why we have pedals.
How Does the SuperBlock Sound with Pedals?
Quilter intended the SuperBlock to be a great pedal platform. Why do I know this? Because, quite simply, it is. Since my preferred tones are clean and edge-of-breakup, I chose a couple of pedals as I would use them, one solid state, and one tube. I also threw in a big-box Fulltone ‘69 Fuzz with NKT275 transistors, circa 2003.
I was unexpectedly impressed with the SuperBlock’s sound with pedals. In short, my pedals never sounded better. The consistent impression I got was of transparency, clarity and definition. I felt like I was able to hear the individual character of each pedal. I tested a number of pedals, but I’ll highlight these three.
Fulltone Fulldrive 2 Custom Shop
The Fulltone Fulldrive is a classic OD, and it sounded absolutely great with the Quilter. The Fulldrive has multiple settings, including Standard and Mosfet modes, as well as Vintage and “FM” voicings. I was able to easily hear the differences between them, and accessed all sorts of shades of overdrive by varying the combinations of guitar volume, pedal output volume, and SuperBlock Gain and Limiter controls. Additionally, I found that the Midrange control on the Quilter had an influence on how much treble was present, even with the Treble control set moderately.
Mesa/Boogie Bottle Rocket
I have an old Mesa Bottle Rocket tube distortion pedal, and of course I had to see how it sounded with the Quilter. Before I took delivery of the Quilter, I had plans to run the Bottle Rocket, thinking I would need to “warm up” the solid state sound I was expecting from the SuperBlock. This, of course, was not the case! Nevertheless, what I found was that although the tube pedal added a smidge of smoothness, it really wasn’t necessary. And, you sacrifice a little bit of punch. I’m going to keep experimenting with this pedal to see if I can find a sweet spot that makes a noticeable difference, but the takeaway here is that the Quilter’s tone is sufficiently warm on its own.
Fulltone ’69 Fuzz
I feel that the ‘69 pedal is as good a representative fuzz as any, and man, did this pedal sound great. I could easily dial in big-bottomed fuzz, fuzzy overdrive, moderate overdrive, and everything in between. That splatty, neck pickup fuzz sound with humbuckers was available too.
Reverb
Although I’m not a reverb addict, I typically like some ‘verb in my tone. The SuperBlock’s reverb, while maybe not quite as warm as real tube spring reverb, is pretty nice. It has a big range, and settings above about 5 or so start to sound drenched. I found myself setting the reverb in the 2-4 range, which gives a convincing, spacious, and satisfying reverb. The Quilter’s reverb quality is further evidence that digital is at the point where it is virtually indistinguishable from traditional designs.
SuperBlock vs. Tubes
As I was exploring the SuperBlock’s sounds, I could not help but compare it to some of the tube amps I have owned, current and past. As you may have guessed based on my comments on the Boogie tube pedal, I did not find myself missing the characteristic warmth of my tube amps. Because of the effectiveness and the interactivity of the SuperBlock’s tone controls, I was able to dial up tones with great clarity, but also felt right. The Limiter control is a game changer in that it can approximate the feel of a tube amp by lending that slight bit of “squishiness” to the attack of the note. And it’s not as if you have to crank the Limiter all the time, either; depending on how clean the tone was and if there was a pedal involved, I experimented with the Limiter’s range, and found tones to like throughout its range of adjustment.
Conclusion
The fact that this much versatility is packed into an amp the size of a distortion pedal still blows my mind, but there you have it. Truth be told, I have had the amp for about a week now, and I haven’t explored the ‘61 voicing in depth (I’ll add a follow-up on the ‘61 voicing to the review). The Quilter sounds warm and transparent, and is compatible with a wide range of speakers. It offers solid-state reliability with all of the benefits and none of the downside.
In terms of gigging, the SuperBlock offers enough juice for smaller stages, while being completely usable for playing at home. The SuperBlock even offers a 9V power option for extra-low volume applications, which is yet another indication of the thoughtfulness of this design. I thought SuperBlock might be pretty good, but am happy to say that it surpassed my expectations—and I’m not yet done exploring its capabilities.
