User:Scottiemdb/sandbox

Quilter Laboratories, LLC, commonly referred to simply as Quilter, is primarily a manufacturer of guitar amplifiers. It is headquartered in Costa Mesa, California. The company, previously named the Quilter Sound Company, was founded in Costa Mesa, California, by Patrick Quilter in 1968. Patrick Quilter designed some of the first commercially successful solid state guitar amplifiers like the "Duck" and "Big Bertha" which had some considerable success on the west coast of the United States mostly in the state of California. Quilter is most notable in recent years for developing a new technology allowing solid state guitar amplifiers to sound like tube amplifiers.

History
Quilter Laboratories, LLC saw it's earliest beginnings in the late 60's. Originally named "Quilter Sound Company" and founded to build guitar amplification products, the name was shortened to "QSC" and the company ultimately re-focused on professional power amplifiers. QSC Audio Products, LLC became a highly recognized and highly regarded manufacturer of professional audio products. In 2010, Patrick Quilter laid the groundwork to "re-start" his original dream with the help of several dedicated employees and a revolutionary technology.

Origins
The story began in 1968 when Patrick Quilter's younger brother Matt Quilter introduced him to a friend who needed a bass amplifier. He couldn't afford a brand name product but kicked off the negotiation with the time honored "How much have you got?" After thinking it through, Mr. Quilter realized that he could meet his needs and still make a few bucks. After re-doing the entire project twice, it worked and in the end he made about 3 cents an hour.

"Flushed with success" Mr. Quilter borrowed money from family and friends and kicked off "Quilter Sound Company" a company dedicated to building guitar and bass amplifiers as well as other personal professional audio equipment. Operating almost entirely on youthful optimism and precious little cash, they still managed to procure prominent placings in Hollywood hot spots. They managed to get strong positive comments from Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton of Cream, and Robbie Krieger of the Doors but none of them took the early Quilter amplifiers on tour with them. During this era, Patrick Quilter also formed a partnership with John and Barry Andrews, two brothers who proved to be instrumental in the forming and growth of the company.

Early efforts at manufacturing met with limited success. It was a boom and bust existence as they would be so busy selling amps they would forget to build them and when they ran in the back to build them they would forget to sell them. After establishing a deal with a Central California guitar maker, they would sell amps and guitars together. (A unique promotion for that day and age.) Their early trials and tribulations were enough to stop most young entrepreneurs in their tracks. Just as they began to make money, someone broke in and emptied their small business out taking nearly everything but the unwanted gauges of guitar strings. These early trials set the stage for the values the company would ultimately adopt and uphold. As the founders often said, "The thought of having to go and get a real job motivated us to work harder. "

Change in Focus
Although starting off as a guitar amp manufacturer, Quilter Sound Company turned it's attention first to power amplifiers and ultimately to loudspeakers and digital control, routing and monitoring systems as well. Changing their name to "QSC" in the 70's they took on a more professional tone and became master manufacturers. QSC Audio Products is well regarded today as a leading supplier of professional audio products globally.

Quilter Labs Today
In 2008 in the celebration of QSC's 40th anniversary, Pat released a new guitar amplifier in celebration for purchase by internal employees only. The "SlantMaster 50" was well received by friends and family alike and inspired Pat to recruit a small team of QSC employees who quietly detached themselves at the beginning of 2011  to re-form a small focused effort on next generation guitar amplifier technology.

This new company known as Quilter Laboratories, LLC was formed on 1/1/11 at precisely 1 second after midnight. Quilter Labs has developed a patent pending "3rd generation" technology which purportedly allows their products to be very light in weight while having an unusually powerful amplifier section all while very closely mimicking the actual sound of classic vintage tube guitar amplifiers.

Products
The core of its product line is the MicroPro guitar amplifier series. The series includes a "3rd generation" technology power amplifier section that allows the amplifier although comprised of solid state components that "sound very much like" a classic tube amp.

3rd Generation Technology
According to Quilter Labs, Gen 3 technology is a Class D amplifier section that has special modifications that produce a warm tube like sound. Quoting from Quilter Labs' website, "Gen 3 technology solves this problem by using Class D amplification with special modifications to produce a warm sound. Class D uses the semiconductors as switches, either ON or OFF, avoiding the resistive region where losses occur.  By using a switching rate way above the audio range, the ON/OFF ratio can be modulated to produce smooth audio with very low losses.  This allows an oversize, 400-watt Class D amp, that is driven to 100 watts per channel, thus leaving lots of "unused" power that produces even more overshoot and inherent liveliness into actual speakers than classic tube amps, with minimal waste heat.  Similar switchmode technology is used in the active power supply, which turns AC into well-regulated DC that lets the amp produce a smooth, buttery overdrive with no "off tune" artifacts caused by inadequate filtering in a passive supply."