Dollar for dollar this pedal is a great value. My ears aren't the best, but I think it sounds great. I use it to run an electric guitar into an acoustic amp. Pretty much leave the controls at noon. My amp has phantom power, so makes it even easier.

Great for silent stages, this is what I originally purchased it for! Meshes well with pedalboards. Perfect to keep in gig bag, especially when your 30 year old amp quits during soundcheck before a gig. It was so handy to have and saved me that night! It never leaves my gig bag now!

This thing is so transparent! Everything on it works just like an amplifier. The game knob really kicks in at around 2:00 so stand back!

Quilter creates the most useable sounds of any company I know. This is the most basic of tools that does so many things no matter what the instrument. Hats Off.

The Quilter Phantom block should be an essential piece of equipment for every electric (non pre-amped) guitarist who plays out in a variety of venues.
It is the perfect blend of simplicity, minimal controls (which is good) and ease of operation and allows the non pre-amped guitars to achieve their full potential when going ito a sound board.

Love it.

I bought this specifically for desk top home use to go directly into my Audio interface.
it Immediately warmed up my Tele and Strat. It handles My PRS Mira amazingly well -- no mud.

Pairing it with a NSP Cory Wong Plug in -- VOILA !!

It's musicality is impressive and it's being analog is still a plus for me.
Bass... Yup..

This is a great tool for Home recording -- it even translates High End Overdrive pedals very well --

This is one of the easiest and most impactful Purchases I have made in a LONG time.

I've been disappointed so far; sounds murky through my PA. I'd hoped to use the Phantom Block to travel light, as an alternative to an amp for small gigs, but I have not gotten usable tones. Giving two stars in the hope that I will find some use for it.

I was looking for DI box with adjustable gain/vol for a passive acoustic guitar occasionally impersonating an electric. This fit the bill. Demo option made it a no brainier. For this it works great. For a live setup, the gain will give you a decent tube-ish break up (3 o'clock). 5 gets you full fuzz. The tone will cut a lot of highs but never gets full muddy. The can aim is OK. Not a noticeable difference on or off, but that may depends on the speaker you are listening to. While it's not geared for bass, I figured I could give it a try. With it set to FRFR, it's no different than any other DI box, but set to tone to 0 and the gain at 2 and you have a great sounding clean DI with some dirt if you want. Smaller than your typical DI box too so it fits in any gig bag. Solid build. Great backup option or, with a few pedals, a perfect ampless setup that won't break the bank and require a lot of programming. Only knock I see is no pass thru so you couldn't really hook an amp up to it, but not a huge deal. If this had a bult in reverb on it, it would be perfect.

Used this DI for a gig without amps. No sound from the stage and even the drums were electronic. Better than just having a DI from my pedalboard. Loved the ability to add gain and volume to my sound.

I have Quilter 101 and 201 guitar amps I use with a couple different miked 1x12 cabs with Celestions. Bought this to try a compact/silent stage setup with our six-piece classic rock band. Got a pleasing tone right out of the box with all controls at noon and cab sim engaged, and some light tweaking dialed it in. On the tech side, rather surprised (but not really surprised) to find Quilter using a Burr-Brown op amp (OP1662) in the circuit. I've always had good experiences with QSC and Quilter and this box is no exception.

The heart of any silent stage rig. Sounds great by itself, and lends itself incredibly well to pedals & speaker simulators. I like it so much I use it with a dedicated powered monitor instead of lugging around a 50lb Vibrolux. Try it on bass too. ;)

I recently purchased the Quilter Phantom Block to use as a DI for recording electric guitar into my Tascam DP-03SD. Wow...I still can't believe how good it sounds and the simplicity it provides for recording purposes. I primarily record fairly clean jazz guitar type stuff and this just nails the tone perfectly. Very rich and full quality to the tone...I honestly can't imagine getting a better sound with any other interface...it is that perfect. I don't record with pedals in front of it, but tested it that way and it works perfectly for that purpose as well. I'm now curious to try it as a substitute for my tube and solid state amps in a live situation. This Phantom Block is a fantastic value and I highly recommend it!!

I was looking for what I thought would be common - a DI with just a little bit of level-matching gain. Well, not too many of those exist. And then I found the Phantom Block - this is exactly what I need, and a lot more. I'm not really looking for overdrive or amp-in-a-box, but those are here if you want them. The overall tone is very tube-amp-like, and I got my little bit of gain and then some. I like the phantom power option, and it's pretty quiet overall - really, you'll swear you're going through an amp. Yes, I do have a few amps myself, but I prefer direct into the board, and the Phantom Block is really all I need. And, sure I empathize with the other comments here about added function like reverb. But, really, get yourself a few pedals and/or a decent multi-effects unit, and one of these. I'd be amazed if the smile on your face receeds anytime soon.

I've been a fan of Quilter amps since their first Aviator line came out. This little item sort of fell below my radar initially, as I couldn't see why I'd have any need for one. I use their SuperBlock US into a PA speaker, so I already had a DI out. But after reading some reviews here at Sweetwater, I took a second look and purchased one. I've found four ways I will use it: As a backup for the SuperBlock; (it doesn't sound quite as good, but really surprisingly close) as a backup for my Baggs acoustic EQ pedal; (flip off the cab sim and an acoustic sounds very good) as a DI box alongside my Baggs unit; (which only has a 1/4" out) and finally as a standalone "micro amp" that will run for 100 hours on a 9V battery into my battery powered PA speaker. And finally I did initially purchase an excellent Radial passive DI box, but returned it because there was a huge signal drop; this unit fixes that, too. I do see this as sort of a Swiss Army tool that any guitarist could benefit by tossing one in their gig bag, even if it never got used. Great insurance! Big thanks to Ashton Vaudt for all of his advice and support!

I intend to use this mainly as a D.I. into my mixer when I practice. It gives you just enough gain and tone control and takes pedals well. I play on jam nights at a local club with a tiny stage but a good sound system. I can go from the Phantom Block right into the board and leave my amp at home. Perfect solution!

Excellent Interface. Does exactly what I expected. I run my pedals into the interface and then to the board. Sometimes ABY out to my amplifier, Quilter of course.

Okay, so here's the scoop as I see(or hear) it. I play at church, and they don't allow amps at all. So I tried plugging my pedalboard into their di and though it was a good di, the sound was horrible and adding distortion was like nails on a chalkboard!

So I knew I wanted something to emulate and amp and cabinet. This one is the cheapest that I could find. So I called upon my experience with running sound and in all the time I did so, I never once encountered a guitarist using the Quilter amps that didn't sound great.

So I pulled the trigger on this and just got to use it on the big sound system for the first time last night. WOW!!!

It sounds great, I takes pedals VERY well, and it saved me and allowed me to have my sound and pedalboard which means I'll be able to work comfortably.

I gave it 4 out of 5 stars because what I would like is to be able to load my own cabinet impulses for ultimate flexibility. But for the price that really isn't a big issue here.

Buy this thing and see your passion for carrying that big bad heavy amp start to melt away...

As always, my Sweetwater Sales Engineer, Mike Conyers, gave me sound advice on this pedal, and as always it clearly is everybit as functional as I was told. Thanks again to Mike and Sweetwater for giving me all the info I needed to make this purchase.

This pedal (if thats what you want to call it) is ABSOLUTELY amazing. Incredibly responsive, wildly versatile, and incredibly compact. I have no idea how Quilter does it but using this vs. a tube amp, you wont be able to tell the difference. It behaves just like a real 60lb tube amp, so dynamic and responsive it unreal! Takes pedals like a champ. The only thing i would change but it would obviously make it more expensive is having stereo outs or being able to load different IR's but if you want a simple plug and play amp/cab simulator dont look any further because you wont be able to find anything that can touch this, especially at this price point or even triple it!

My micropro 200 and aviator 8 never leave the house anymore. Playing in a six piece band in smaller venues means little room for for a backline. The cab simulation is great, and having gain control is huge. I love it.

I've been telling myself for a long time that nothing would ever replace my tube amps for live performance, but then I had an application where the Phantom Block could possibly come in handy, and I thought I could hold on to it for a backup DI or something. My expectations were pretty low to be honest... aaaand now I won't be lugging amps to a gigs any time in the near future!! I've been converted. Even when practicing at home, I've taken to plugging this in to a powered monitor rather than running through a guitar amp!

I gig regularly. Electric guitar and bass. Wanted to "scale down" as I was growing weary of lugging all my gear everywhere. I bought this little pedal in hopes it would be the answer.
From a large casino electric guitar gig to an upscale club playing bass it ABSOLUTELY served my needs. I may never bring an amp again. It sounds rich and full. From hard rock to country I was pleasantly surprised. Id recommend this little pedal for sure!

Built very sturdy, cab sim sounds real, seriously great piece of gear.

This is a must buy item. I purchased it to be an interface to my PA. True amp like feel and sound. Quilter quality and that great Quilter tone. What a great back up to carry. Very pleased with this product.

As a D.I. for my puedo guitar this pedal is clear and delivers a hot signal to the PA. For my basses it can go from clean to grind easily. One issue is the graphics. There is no telling what the polarity of the 9v external connector is. Thanks to Sweetwater, I learned it is center negative.

I just recently got into audio-interfacing(Alesis Multimix 4 USB) my guitar to the computer(Windows 10) and online jamming(Reaper, NinJam, JamKazam). Mic'ng my amp didn't really cut it for monitoring and balancing the blend in my headphones. So, I finally saw the need for DI boxes and ran across the Phantom Block from Quilter during my research. What makes it different from most other DI boxes is that it seemed perfectly suited for guitar with its Volume, Tone, & Gain controls. I'd been considering Quilter for replacing my Guitar Amp(Tech21 Trademark 60) should the need ever arise and the low-priced Phantom Block seemed a good candidate for trying out their products. I can't say anything about A/B testing this DI Box against any others out there on the market. All I can say is that for entry-level work on a budget, it a great bang-for-the-buck solution and fits my current needs. I'm basically looking for good clean full tone. I'm ok with clean boost and mild overdrive, but no distortion. For Recording and Audio-Interfacing, this Quilter Phantom Block delivers exactly what I was looking for.

I have tried dozens of different ways to go direct to FOH. Everything I have tried has some sort of issues. If it's digital and inexpensive there's a latency issue. If it's digital of good quality you really have to process and meticulously sculpt your tone, but it can be done. Other analog solutions can be easy to get a decent tone from but every one I have tried sounds like it has a gate on it that just clamps the notes and won't let them sing out and sustain.
I've been looking at the Phantom Block ever since the day it was released. I wish I hadn't waited so long.
This thing is awesome. Great tone, singing sustain, simple controls, small footprint and sounds very "amp-like".
If you want a simple way to go direct, buy one. You'll be glad you did.

Finally a perfect solution to going direct. Quick and easy. Sounds great most importantly. I love today's technology!!

I enjoy home recording. Mostly, I do it for my own enjoyment, recording songs for friends and family. I have several quilter products (Pro Block, Tone Block 201, 101 Reverb, Micro Pro M2). Suffice it to say, I like the Quilter sound. No - they are NOT tube amps, but they are all ANALOG and in many ways behave similar to tubes. When I saw that the Phantom Block was coming out, I admittedly was somewhat excited. I have always wanted a dedicated recording interface by this company. And - wa la - here it is.

It is a small device, no bigger than your standard boss pedal, actually a bit smaller. It has the option for using a 9v battery or an external power supply (including phantom power from a board). The Master controls your overall volume. Obviously, the tone controls tone (it isn't drastic - it's actually VERY usable), and the Gain control goes from a warm clean to a tube-like overdrive. This is a perfect device for a pedalboard by the way. There is a switch for choosing a battery or external/phantom power; and a switch for choosing between a speaker simulation or full range frequency response (for multi-effects users). The controls are simple and leave you what would seem limited choices, but the Gain control alone gives you a great deal of variability.

I think the only thing I would change, or add, to this device is a REVERB option. That would complete it for me, but that is just my preference. I have a number of great reverb pedals and, again, this thing takes pedals well. I like Quilter's reverbs on the 101R and the Micro Pro. It's lush, without being muddy. So, that option would keep me from adding any pedals to most of my projects. But again, that is preference. It's really a great device just like it is.

All in all this is a great device and I would recommend it to any recording guitar/bass/keys player who wants an analog, warm interface. Let me clarify though, this is NOT digital and NOT meant to go direct to your computer by itself. You will still need an analog to digital interface (which Sweetwater sells a lot of). I don't see this as a problem though. It's not what the Phantom Block is about. Go get one - or rather, call your Sweetwater sales engineer and order it!!!