Have you played a Quilter Aviator Cub UK?

As I play these more I find myself gravitating to the Cub (US model). I have loads of UK/UK-style amps. But I do not have what the Cub offers, that being "Tween/Blonde/Black" amps/tones.

The UK voicings are quite good, as one would expect from Quilter.

A while back I bought a Quilter Cub US from a friend. It was great; small, lightweight, no tubes, plenty loud, and 3 nice sounding channels/voicings. He also gave me an ABC pedal so I could combine any two or even all three channels. However, for how nice the amp sounds, I'm not very good at dialing in an amp, so some days I was happy with it, and other days it was a bit harder to get "my" sound, and with the ABC pedal there are too many options!

When he asked if I would sell it back to him, I thought about it, and then agreed. After a few weeks I regretted my decision, so I wanted to get a Cub again. Now, my friend has both the US and the UK Cubs, so I went there today to compare the UK to the US. He has WAY too many amps, so he offered to sell one of the Cubs to me if I wanted it. They both sound good, just different. I like the sound of the Special Design Eminence speaker in the UK cub, which according to Quilter is meant to be a 50 watt Greenback. I used to use Blues Juniors, and the best sounding Blues Junior I've ever heard had a Celestion Greenback in it. So, while the US Cub sounded more familiar to me (since I previously owned it), the UK Cub with that Greenback copy sounded more pleasing to my ear.

I came home with the UK Cub and another ABC pedal. On both Cubs, the single channels sound alright by themselves, but there's a nice jump in volume and fullness when you combine channels. We were not only combining channels, he also hooked up an ABY pedal so we could play through both Cubs sitting side by side at the same time. WOW... they can get really loud!

Having read this thread I started looking at these thinking maybe I could sell some stuff and get one. A local shop has a used UK version so I went and checked it out. It did sound nice, certainly the best solid state amp I've played (not that I've played a ton) but lacking the girth that I was hoping for. Overall it leaned toward the high end, even with the bass and mid set high. Maybe I'm expecting too much and I wouldn't mind having one but not worth the effort of scrounging the funds.

Well, I sold the UK Cub back to my friend. I really liked the JMP channel. I'm an OD pedal into a clean amp type of player, but I could be happy with the Marshall channel and my Strat's bridge humbucker for all of my dirty tones. I even liked the clean tones of the humbucker through that channel. But, I didn't care for the sound of my single coil pick-ups through that channel (too thin), and for some stuff I need a single coil, as a clean humbucker tone wouldn't fit. And, I didn't like the two AC channels at all.

Individual channels on the US Cub also sound thin to me, especially with single coils, but combining channels raises the volume and fattens the tone. My favorite was combining the Black and the Blond channels. However, I didn't care for combining channels on the UK Cub. Yes, the tone was fuller and louder, but there was something about the highs of the AC channels that I just didn't like at all.

I really want a Cub to work for me. The UK Cub's JMP channel is great both clean and dirty with my humbucker, but I don't like it with my Strat's single coils. The US Cub, when combining channels, gives me nice clean tones with single coils, and I can use pedals (and sometimes the humbucker) for dirty tones. IOW, IMO, the US Cub with pedals is a more versatile rig, while the UK Cub is better for a humbucker guitar straight into the amp rig. Maybe the answer (for me) is to get both Cubs and an ABY pedal for a two-amp rig!

Q: How many amps do you needs?


A: Just one more

Combining channels with a splitter cable, ABY pedal, or ABC pedal (to use all 3 channels at once) really makes the amp sound fuller and louder. One channel on its own could seem pretty thin-sounding. A lot of people have said that both the US and the UK Cubs sound too bright until the speaker is broken in.

Well, four months after the above post, I came home earlier today from Guitar Center with the Quilter Aviator Cub UK, so now I have both Cubs. I played this same amp at GC a while ago, but it just didn't feel right. I went back with my Fat Strat again today, and I loved it! And apparently, no one had any interest in this amp because it's been there for months and was on sale for $589 rather than the normal $699.

I'm probably only going to keep one of these, and I have a feeling that the UK Cub will be staying. I posted earlier in this thread that I suck at dialing in an amp, and it was extra hard with the Cub US, probably because I've never had an amp with active EQ before. However, today at GC I plugged my Strat into the Cub UK with a "Y" cable and combined the Marshall channel with a Vox channel, adjusted the gain and volume, and then tweaked the EQ controls without even thinking about it. I started playing, switching between clean and dirty tones by adjusting the amp's OD, and not once did I feel the need to touch the EQ controls as I was content with the tones I was getting. I'll have to spend some time playing both, and if the Cub UK continues to be easier to dial in, then my decision as to which amp to keep will be an easy one!

You know my advice.