Quad Cortex & Power Stage 700 Inspiration

[JHowell13]

Recently traded an amp for a Quad Cortex and Power stage 700 and am looking for inspiration pics of boards or small racks guys may be running.
I think I want to get a shallow 4U rack to mount the Power stage in and then a slide out drawer for the QC but then I also think a nice board would be cool too.
Anyone running this combo or a similar combo and want to share?

 

[JHowell13]

No QC users!? lol

 

[SFW]

I have my QC mounted to a Pedaltrain 2 with an expression pedal and my Shure wireless. I go to a Lanel LFR-212 cab. Very simple setup that gets the job done. Powering the board with a CIOKS DC7 and CIO-CRX CRUX for the QC.

 

[rob13v]

I have a QC, Fractal EV-2 & a Peterson Strobo-Mini on a Temple Solo18. Outputs 1/2 got to FOH, 3/4 go to a Powerstage 100S & then to onstage cabs. I built looms for quick setup, one just XLR, another w/1/4" & power. Back behind me I have a small rack that has a Shure QLXD for big stages, but on small stages I use an XVive 5.8ghz wireless system. I try to keep things modular so I can scale up/down as needed. I'm currently building a small Nano Cortex board so I give myself more of that.

 

[heath]

Just got the QC mini a few weeks back. Still in the learning/honeymoon phase, but so far, its really good. The built in models are great and the captures I have made or downloaded have been really good too. Stomps the helix in amp models but about the same in effects quality, and the captures are on par with the tonex.

I am direct 99% of the time through in ears or studio monitors at home. I do have a few powered speakers if I want to run w/d/w and a few good cabs with tube power amps if I want to run it live that way.

 

[JHowell13]

I have my QC mounted to a Pedaltrain 2 with an expression pedal and my Shure wireless. I go to a Lanel LFR-212 cab. Very simple setup that gets the job done. Powering the board with a CIOKS DC7 and CIO-CRX CRUX for the QC.
View attachment 449709

Very clean man!! How's that laney sound?

 

[JHowell13]

I have a QC, Fractal EV-2 & a Peterson Strobo-Mini on a Temple Solo18. Outputs 1/2 got to FOH, 3/4 go to a Powerstage 100S & then to onstage cabs. I built looms for quick setup, one just XLR, another w/1/4" & power. Back behind me I have a small rack that has a Shure QLXD for big stages, but on small stages I use an XVive 5.8ghz wireless system. I try to keep things modular so I can scale up/down as needed. I'm currently building a small Nano Cortex board so I give myself more of that.

Very cool man! Sounds awesome and easy to use this way.

 

[SFW]

Very clean man!! How's that laney sound?

The Laney has been a game changer for me. It thumps like a real guitar cab. I don't get that "I'm playing through a PA speaker" vibe with it. It feels like you're playing an amp through a cab on stage. And it works great at filling on stage sound so that when you step between the mains, the guitar doesn't disappear.

 

[Rayneman]

I use the QC on a Templeboard Duo 24 along with a Fractal Expression Pedal and a Shure GLX wireless. The board has power and in/output modules so everything is cleanly powered and routed to FOH, I don't use a poweramp, cab or monitor, just IEM.

 

[romanianreaper]

The Laney has been a game changer for me. It thumps like a real guitar cab. I don't get that "I'm playing through a PA speaker" vibe with it. It feels like you're playing an amp through a cab on stage. And it works great at filling on stage sound so that when you step between the mains, the guitar doesn't disappear.

If I get a Fractal AM4, I think I'll end up with one of those Laney cabs.

 

[rob13v]

I used to own a Friedman ASC-12 and a GR 110A cab. The Friedman was a 12" driver, 500w of power and weighed 80lbs. The GR was a 10" driver, 300w in a sub-20lb package. Both sounded GREAT! I used them with my FM3, FM9 AXE-FX III and the QC after I sold all the FAS stuff.

Then I sold both in favor of a small power amp. Now, if I'm playing someplace where I need a 4x12, 2x12, 1x12, 2x10, 4x10 etc I can do that (thank goodness for backline cabs!). The PowerStage 100S will do mono or stereo, the Harley Benton Thunder 99 will do the same in a pedal-sized enclosure.

Those Laney active cabs are awesome & sound great...I just thought a more modular approach was a better fit for me.

 

[romanianreaper]

I used to own a Friedman ASC-12 and a GR 110A cab. The Friedman was a 12" driver, 500w of power and weighed 80lbs. The GR was a 10" driver, 300w in a sub-20lb package. Both sounded GREAT! I used them with my FM3, FM9 AXE-FX III and the QC after I sold all the FAS stuff.

Then I sold both in favor of a small power amp. Now, if I'm playing someplace where I need a 4x12, 2x12, 1x12, 2x10, 4x10 etc I can do that (thank goodness for backline cabs!). The PowerStage 100S will do mono or stereo, the Harley Benton Thunder 99 will do the same in a pedal-sized enclosure.

Those Laney active cabs are awesome & sound great...I just thought a more modular approach was a better fit for me.

Yeah it is going to be interesting if I go back to modelling for gigging. I had the Friedman and a Matrix 1x12 cab and even got the Fender FRFR 1x12 and couldn't get a full sound that wasn't boxy. I've heard good things about those Laney FRFR cabs but could end up using my 1x12s with a power amp.

 

[vultures]

My go-rig is a QC, Powerstage 170 and Lehle Dual Expression. I bring a cab, use a backline or I have 2 Positive Grid FRFRs I can bring with me. They're crazy loud.

At home I have a Powerstage 700 that I can drive 6 Orange PPC412s in stereo with the QC.



I swapped the PS200 for the PS170 because the PS200 (and PS100S) have clipping issues and you can't turn it up past 90db +/-.. I also made this board before the Cioks Crux was available so I covered all the wires/adapters with a piece of kydex.

 

[rob13v]

I swapped the PS200 for the PS170 because the PS200 (and PS100S) have clipping issues and you can't turn it up past 90db +/-.. I also made this board before the Cioks Crux was available so I covered all the wires/adapters with a piece of kydex.

Man, I’ve been struggling with input clipping on the 100S forever! Is this what you mean? Thanks for sharing that!

 

[JHowell13]

My go-rig is a QC, Powerstage 170 and Lehle Dual Expression. I bring a cab, use a backline or I have 2 Positive Grid FRFRs I can bring with me. They're crazy loud.

At home I have a Powerstage 700 that I can drive 6 Orange PPC412s in stereo with the QC.



I swapped the PS200 for the PS170 because the PS200 (and PS100S) have clipping issues and you can't turn it up past 90db +/-.. I also made this board before the Cioks Crux was available so I covered all the wires/adapters with a piece of kydex.
View attachment 449871

Super clean man!! Have you heard any issues with the PS700? I’m new to the power amp world and newish to the QC so I wouldn’t know.

 

[vultures]

Man, I’ve been struggling with input clipping on the 100S forever! Is this what you mean? Thanks for sharing that!

When I was in the industry, Seymour Duncan sent us a bunch of PowerStage 200's to try out. We plugged in a QC, Kemper, Axe-FX, Preamp Pedal, just a normal boost pedal and finally just a guitar direct into it and the unit had input/preamp clipping. You couldn't get the knob a little more than halfway before the power amp clipped. You had to turn your QC/Kemper/Whatever way down, which in turn made the total output lower. We told them, they said they were aware of the issues. It's something to do with that active EQ/cab sim circuit. I've never had any of those issues with the 170, 700 and 700 bass.

[pure speculation here] I don't think Seymour Duncan designs/builds them, they probably just outsource. I would have liked to open the Powerstage 200 to see what makes it tick, but I ended up returning it and buying a used Powerstage 170. I've been planning on opening it up when it breaks down to see what makes it tick, grab specs on chips, boards, etc, but the damn thing won't die.

Super clean man!! Have you heard any issues with the PS700? I’m new to the power amp world and newish to the QC so I wouldn’t know.

No issues with the PS700. Once I left it on overnight and didn't notice until about 6pm the next day. It was a little warm. Still works fine. I got it specifically for my 16Ω cabs. The PS170 is 170W at 4Ω, 85W @ 8Ω and 42.5W at 16Ω. It sounds pretty wimpy on Marshall and Orange cabs unless you wire them for 4Ω. PS700 should be 700W @ 4Ω, 350W @ 8Ω and 175W @ 16Ω.