Is Anyone using a Quilter Aviator Cub for lap steel guitar ?

[Pat Briggs]

Hi , I am interested in any comments you might have on the Quilter Aviator Cub. I am playing a Clinesmith frypan. Playing C6 tuning Hawaiian. Is the Quilter a good match for this style ? I have an opportunity to pick one up and wondering if it is recommended by those of you who might have some experience using one. Just going to be using it at home. Any comments / thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks, Pat

[Brad Bechtel]

It looks like a nice amp for the price ($750 USD). How loud do you need to be? 50 watts is overkill for my needs, but if you're playing in a loud band, it might be perfect for you.

[Pat Briggs]

Hi Brad, thanks for your reply. As I mentioned in my post I will just be playing at home, no band. I am just interested in the tone. 50 watts is probably overkill but my understanding is that the amp sounds good at low volumes . I am just trying to find out if players who play a similar style like the tone .
Thanks, Pat

[D Schubert]

I have several (too many?) Quilter amps, but not that one. All of the Quilter amps seem to have one thing in common - the gain, tone, and other pre-amp controls can be set to your liking - and then the master volume knob does not seem to affect any of that, only the loudness. Quite different than all the control interactions you find with many classic tube amps, and it's a desirable characteristic for me.

[Pat Briggs]

Thanks D, Schubert, that quality sounds good to me in the sense that I don’t need 50 watts for playing at home but I can get a good sound at low volumes .

[Mark Evans]

Not an Aviator, but I run a 101 Reverb (into a blockdock 10)with lap steels. 50 watts, but the master vol marks are essentially watt measures. I run it between 10-20 watts at home. Nice clean tones, malleable tone stack. I reckon the Aviator would be similar.

[Pat Briggs]

Hi Mark , thanks for your reply. I was looking at getting the blockdock 10 with a super block instead of the aviator cub but I’m new to all of this and the aviator seemed simpler as an all in one amp. Is there a benefit to getting the separate components ? For what it’s worth the blockdock with the super block runs a bit less money. What do you think would be better. Is it more complicated to use the blockdock with the super block vs the aviator cub ?Thanks, Pat

[Mark Evans]

Can’t give a concrete opinion - head/cab vs Aviator. When I was researching , there were various opinions by jazz and tele players (pro and con) regarding the Aviator. Do some googlin’
I dig the simplicity of the 101. You’d save a bit (maybe) going 50 watts 101 Reverb. It works great for me. Got mine used.
Let’s see what others say.

[Joseph Lazo]

No experience with the Aviator Cub, but for me it was between that amp and a Roland Blues Cube Hot. I went with the Roland and have been quite happy with it. Bought mine online for $500 new about 4 months ago. I wanted something that would do overdriven growl at neighbor-friendly volume. On the half-watt setting, this amp really delivers.

[Pete Martin]

I often play my Stringmasters through an early Quilter MicroPro and it sounds great. I've heard several guitarists and pedal steel players playing through Quilters and they all have that Quilter sound. I usually gig through a tube amp, but frankly don't miss it when I use the MicroPro.

Hope this helps...

[Joe Evans]

I have one. I’m pretty new to lap steel so I don’t know how my opinions might be useful. But it’s a great amp. I love that I can switch voices between tweed, blonde, and black. That’s useful.

It’s a very light amp which I love.

Side note: I was playing acoustic instruments through it too(banjo and mandolin). Even with proper preamp, I found that I didn’t love that sound. It also struggled to be loud enough without making tummy mandolin sound bad.