Hi there.. Im Michael Tash and Im the editor for the day. I play the blues and Im a tube-snob, well, not exactly anymore. Since Nov, 2012, Ive retired my Pro Jr, my Tweed Deluxe, my Deluxe Reverb and my Blues Jr and replaced them with a solid state amp. Earlier that fall I saw some friends using the Quilter MicroPro 200 combo. These guys were more tube freaks than even I was. I looked into amps and found it very hard to believe what the website said - basically great tone, full response and lots of power out of a combo that weighs 17lbs. Mine arrived on a Tuesday. That weekend we had a variety of gigs - The 350 seat Hamilton Club in Washington, DC opening for Roomful of Blues, a long, narrow club in Philly called The Twister Tail and the 400+ seat Wolf Den in the Mohegan Sun Casino in CT. The first thing I did was set it up in my basement trying to match the tone of my Deluxe Reverb, using my Epiphone Slash Les Paul. The amp has 2 channels, gain, bass, mid, treble, presence, master, reverb (reverb and dwell controls), tremolo, limiter and a boost circuit. You can also choose the reverb path (Channel 1, Mix, Channel 2 Pre or Channel 2 Post EQ). After a couple of hours I got it pretty close. Channel 1 is pure clean volume. Channel 2 offers a couple of different voicings - Mini, Tweed, Classic and FullQ (The Quilter voicing). The tone controls on the MicroPro are very flexible and there is a lot of change by turning any of the knobs even just 1 click. I use the boost set to bright and I turn it up just enough to hear it - kind of like a bright switch. The trem and reverb are amazing. First lets talk about volume and bass response. You will not believe how loud, clean and full an 8 speaker sounds. This is the only amp Ive ever owned that our bass player has asked me to turn down on a gig. I mainly use channel 2. I set it to the FullQ voicing for most of my guitars. The amp breaks up so nicely - not only does it sound like a tube amp, it plays like one. The gain starts anywhere from 10 oclock to 12 oclock depending on which guitar Im using. Anything with P-90s sounds killer. I have the boost set to bright and at about 9 oclock, bass at about 12-1 oclock, mid at about 12-1 oclock, treb between 12 and 2 oclock depending on the guitar. I use the limiter to clean it up and turn it off via the footswitch when I need just a bit more gain. One of the most amazing things is the amount of bass that comes out of an 8 speaker in a tiny box. You can feel it punch you in the chest when you hit a low F. They also make a 10 and 12 version of the amp. Trust me, you dont need anything more than the 8! Im a big reverb fan. The reverb sounds like a vintage full-sized spring tank. I dont know how they do it, but Im glad they do. The trem is very black-face like, with the only downside being you lose some volume when the trem is on. I compensate by turning the limiter off when Im using trem. The gigs that weekend went well. The sound guys were amazed that all that sound was coming out of such a small speaker and were even more impressed with the direct out. We play all types of gigs from small clubs to large outdoor festivals. My favorite secret weapon with the amp is the direct out. The sound from the 8 speaker is amazing in itself. The direct-out sounds even better. Ive had many sound crews start off by looking at me crazy for preferring a direct-out to micing the speaker of a guitar amp and by the end of the set asking where they can get one. So… the question is what does it sound like, right? When I play it, it sounds like me. Its clean when you hit it light, breaks up nicely when you dig into it, and the range of killer tones that comes out of this tiny little box knock me out every gig. I own both the combo and the head version of the amp. Since the head weighs in at about 7lbs, its the perfect fly rig for me. This review was totally written from my personal experiences playing the blues with the amp for about 18 months. Heres a couple of video clips from this past week so you can hear for yourself.. youtu.be/pVbH8smlos0 youtu.be/JGJci2jTiOo Heres 1 more using a MicroPro head through a 3rd Power 2 x12 cabinet at the Gibson Showroom in Las Vegas last summer. youtu.be/QwiITar3PV0?list=UU6xNU33DTjytrsvfwNnxsXA You can check out what I do at badinfluenceband And yes, Im proud to be part of the Quitler family!
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 14:00:02 +0000
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