Hello there.
I currently own a Victory V40 Dutchess and I’m just getting familiar with the Quad Cortex, so I’m trying to figure out what amplification setup will make the most sense long term.
I mainly play at home/in a dedicated room, but I can play relatively loud — loud enough that getting a proper “amp in the room” feel matters to me.
At the moment I’m running the Cortex into the FX return of the V40 and then into a 2x12 guitar cab.
I’m wondering whether it would be worth adding something like an Orange Pedal Baby as a dedicated solid-state power amp, or alternatively going FRFR.
My main question is:
Does a solid-state power amp like the Pedal Baby have a clearly noticeable advantage over the V40’s FX return when it comes to preserving the character of different Quad Cortex amp models/captures?
For example, if I switch between Fender, Mesa, Marshall, Soldano etc., will the Pedal Baby let those models sound and feel noticeably more distinct because it adds less of its own power-amp character?
Or is the V40 power section transparent enough, especially at home/moderately loud volumes, that the difference isn’t really significant? My current setup is 1.5/10 on V40 and 80/100 on Quad.
I’m also considering an FRFR setup, such as a Fender FR-12/FR-212, but I’m slightly worried about losing the physical “real cab / amp in the room” character and ending up with more of a mic’d-cab-through-a-monitor/PA experience.
I’m still learning the Cortex, so I’m mainly trying to understand which direction is worth investing in rather than buying gear unnecessarily.
Thank you all!
I plug my QC into an Orange Pedal Baby 100, out to either of my Mesa Boogie cabs: 4x12 traditional slant cab or 2x12 vertical slant cab. Sounds awesome. I can’t speak for the V40, though.
Pedal Baby 100 is a Class AB amp, which will give you the real push-pull feel and, in my experience, maintains the character of the QC’s modeling really well. It’s compact enough to carry in small gig bag and not expensive either. I love mine. Highly recommended.
EDIT: The only thing I would choose over the Orange Pedal Baby 100 at this point is a Fryette Power Station (PS-2A or PS-100), but the Orange does such a good job that I’m not interested in justifying a $900+ upgrade.
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I second this, I use the Pedal babby into a 412 as well, love the sound and feel.
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The Quilter solid state heads are a great option for modelers. Just going into the effects return. I found the pedal baby and Duncan Powerstage power amps to pretty lacking. It’s really hard if you plan to use these solid state power amps with a cab that’s 8 or 16 ohms. The rating for them is actually at 4ohms which is super deceiving tbh. The power gets cut in half with each upgrade you do to the ohms number (8 ohms is half the power of 4 ohms).
I used a Victory head for modeling (effects return) and it was cool, but those 40 watt heads have a bad low end response, especially without having a resonance control. I always felt like I was playing through a toy.
The quilter stuff has felt the best so far to me after having tried every option. You might need to try a couple to see which fits your amp models best. I ordered 5-6 different ones and shot then all out to find what I liked. Maybe my opinion would change on the Orange now, but it was a little weird feeling. It is nice they have a simple EQ control to adjust the tone slightly. I forget if this was true or not….but I think because of how it’s designed you couldn’t use it with different voltages in Europe, etc (if you get the North American model). I know you can with the Duncan and Quilter though. Also the weight of the Orange is just annoying enough for baggage when flying. Especially when you have to be super conscious of it for international flights. Something to check/consider if you’re touring a lot especially overseas.
Maybe because of the lowered power rating into a 16 ohm cab not having enough low end headroom. The higher wattage solid state power amps will be more ideal. Not for volume but actual headroom/response for the low end.
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Thank you all for the great feedback. I’ve spent about a week with the Quad Cortex + V40 + Koch KCC212 cab, trying to get the right sound feel under my fingers. I love Timmons/Mayer/Beck-style stuff, so edge-of-breakup response and touch dynamics are really important to me.
Cleans and lead tones are not that bad, but I still can’t get a nice edge-of-breakup sound, especially with a Strat. The low end feels muddy and a plastic without that crisp “ooaah” while the top end feels sterile.
I’ve already tried different I/O/input gain and impedance settings, various master-volume settings, amp models/captures gain staging approaches, but I still can’t get that natural feel that I get from a V40 and pedalboard.
What models are you using for that sound? I would suggest trying to Friedman clean amp (with a klon pedal model) or maybe one of the Victory Kraken amp models
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