Quilter Aviator Mach 3 - Head only - Experience?

[Jim Cohen]

Anyone familiar with this 2-channel unit? Thinking about getting one for fly dates when the venue can't source a decent amp for me (or maybe anyway, just to keep stage volume down. Would use for both steel and Tele.

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Quilter-La ... or&index=4

Thoughts or experience?

Thanks in advance,
J'beau

[Larry Dering]

I would love to hear one or try it with steel. One forum member Doug Beaumier is using the same in a combo amp and reports its great.

[Doug Beaumier]

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[Len Amaral]

Hi Jim:

I have the Aviator 2 channel head. I like it very much and use it with a variety of Stereo Steel speaker cabs. Plenty of power and only weighs a few pounds. It's a flexible amp also for guitar & steel.

[Jim Cohen]

Thanks for the replies, guys. To be clearer, I'm not looking to marry this with any cabinet. It's for fly dates, to go direct into the PA, with speaker cabinet modeling. Cuz if I was willing to bring a cab along, I might as well fly with a combo amp. So this is instead of any cabinet, just direct into the PA. Good idea? Bad idea?

[Doug Beaumier]

It should work fine. There is a balanced XLR Line Out on the rear panel. That would go to the board. And there is a Signal Out control on the front panel that regulates the level in the Line Out. So you set that level with the sound man and leave it there. (I usually set the Sig Out about halfway up). That gives the sound man a consistent level to the board, regardless of how loud or soft the player sets his speaker volume control (on the front panel).

[Jim Cohen]

That gives the sound man a consistent level to the board, regardless of how loud or soft the player sets his speaker volume control (on the front panel).

Well I guess I wouldn't use the speaker vol control since I'd have no speaker. I'll either be using a wedge or (eventually) in ears. So I'd rely on the sound tech to give me my sound back in my monitor, along with the other instruments & vox.
Any of you guys doing this at present?

[Dave Welch]

Doug has pretty much covered most of the good points and features of the Mach 3... it's a great amp.

For back and forth between Tele and steel, I had thought before about getting a couple of Tone Block 202's and building them into a rack. Fortunately before I did that this 2 channel head came along which is essentially two Tone Blocks in one unit (but also has tremolo added), is rack mountable (adapters available from Quilter) and costs a lot less than getting the two Tone Blocks. The speaker cabinet is just a conversion from a Nashville 400 amp. I might have gotten the Mach 3 combo but since I am already using a couple of other rack mount units I just added the head. The head comes as a regular amp head with rubber feet, but the feet can be removed and and then with the adapters will mount in a standard 19" 2u rack space.
So far this setup has worked out well for what I need.

[Alex Cattaneo]

Hey Jim, maybe consider a couple of Quilter Superblocks? That way you have one for guitar and one for Steel, and the FOH soundman gets to have both instruments on separate channels. I think that would be even lighter/smaller/cheaper than the Mach III head. Just a thought.

[Ken Morgan]

FWIW I use my Mach 3 pretty much exclusively now. Waiting for a Tommy Huff 112 to arrive, then steel and 6 guitar chores are covered…for a long time