I love my Quilter Mini 101 amp head. It’s nearly exactly what I wanted. Mounted on a pedalboard and paired with speakers and cabinet I ordered from EarCandy it is a light weight, versatile rig perfect for a retired guy like myself. But there were a few things that would have made it better. Guess what? Quilter introduced new products at the most recent NAMM that have improved upon what I have, including some options I might still want.
You can read about and see pictures of the 101 Reverb at this link.
The first new product is the Mini 101 Reverb. I was forced to purchase a TC Electronics HOF mini reverb pedal to made up for the fact that the one glaring omission from the 101 mini head was reverb. Well, fixed. The new 101 Reverb head costs about $100 more, about the same as the reverb pedal. I would have gotten the Reverb had it been available when I made my purchase.
The next new product from Quilter is the Quilter Labs Frontliner 2x8W Extension Cabinet. This is a 2 x 8 lightweight cabinet designed to hold any of the quilter Tone Block or Mini heads in the back so you can use it as if it were a combo amp. Very cool. It’s a little bigger and heavier than the 2 x 6.5 inch speaker cabinet I bought from EarCandy but the fact that you can slide your amp head into the back and carry it around makes it very convenient. Of course, when your amp head is in back, it is oriented so you have access to the controls and inputs from the top. The current price for the 2×8 Cabinet is just under $700.
The last new product from Quilter which I’m excited about is the Quilter Labs Micro Block 45 Pedal Sized 45 Watt Guitar Power Amp. It is going for about $150. It’s got simple controls, enough power but not a lot of power and is small in size. Talk about a micro rig! I could see making a truly small pedal board with this supplying the amp power. Maybe a 1 x 6.5 inch speaker cabinet would make a good combo. Sure, it would be more for practice but I’ve been impressed with how loud my mini 101 is which allegedly goes only to 50 or 100 watts depending on which setting you use. I rarely crank the master volume above 10 watts – it’s currently set on 2 watts.
