DirectAmp
DirectAmp
Your Whole Rig. Under 2.5 Pounds. Straight to the PA.
A DIRECT MACHINE
This isn't a modeling amp cycling through presets. The DirectAmp is a complete tube-voiced preamp channel — your guitar runs through three classic amp voices, an active EQ, and a real tube-clipping stage, then straight out to the PA in stereo. Pick your voice, pick your speaker, pick your cab. The rig is yours, not a factory patch.
JMP — British Crunch
The bark and bite of a cranked British stack. JMP brings aggressive midrange and a tight, snarling grind that cuts through a full band. Feed it into the tube-clipping section and dig in — it responds like a real amp pushed hard, straight from your board to the house.
AC15 — Chime & Sparkle
Bright, jangly, and alive up top. AC15 delivers that unmistakable chiming shimmer behind decades of ringing cleans and edge-of-breakup rhythm. Back off your pick attack and it sparkles; lean in and it blooms into warm, musical overdrive.
FEND — American Warmth
Round, full, and endlessly usable. FEND is the classic American clean — deep lows, smooth highs, and the pedal-friendly foundation you build a board on. When you just want your guitar to sound like your guitar, this is the voice.
DIRECT IN - KEEP THE TONE
Every player who's ever plugged straight into the board knows the problem. Direct guitar sounds sterile — thin, brittle, and fizzy on the top end, with none of the push and body a real amp and cab give you. So you either haul a full rig and mic it, or you settle for a tone that sounds like a demo instead of a performance.
DirectAmp fixes it at the source. Your signal runs through a real tube-clipping preamp — genuine, dynamic tube overdrive that responds to your pick attack, not a digital approximation of it — and then through cabinet and speaker simulation that puts the air, the roll-off, and the body back into the sound. Choose your amp voice, your speaker, and your cab, and what lands at front-of-house is a fully-formed guitar tone, not a naked DI.
The Quilter Limiter is what makes it feel alive under your fingers. Instead of squashing everything flat, it rides overdrive and sag musically — milking long notes as they bloom and decay, so sustained chords breathe instead of choking. Dig in and it responds. Back off and it opens up. The dynamics stay intact all the way to the board.
The result is a direct signal that sounds like a mic'd amp in a good room — warm, dimensional, and ready for the mix — from a box that fits on your pedalboard.
SAME JOB - LESS GEAR
Half the footprint. And none of those direct boxes give you three amp voices, three speakers, three cabs, a real tube-clipping stage, and a second footswitchable Boost channel — in stereo, straight to the house.
This isn't a stripped-down DI that cuts corners to hit a price. This is Quilter — decades of building amplifiers that sound genuinely alive without a tube in sight — applied to the one box that turns your pedalboard into a complete rig. A real tube-voiced preamp, cabinet and speaker simulation you can mix and match, a 3-band active EQ feeding the clipping stage, the exclusive Quilter Limiter for musical sag and sustain, lush stereo reverb, a mono/stereo FX loop, XLR stereo out to front-of-house, a stereo headphone out that sounds like your rig, a built-in wireless receiver, and global 9V power that runs anywhere on earth.
2.17 pounds. $399. Fits in your gig bag. Show up with a pedalboard, plug into the house, and be the bad ass you always knew you were.
Hear It For Yourself
DirectAmp In Action
$399
or as low as $34/mo with Shop Pay
Your sound, every night — no matter the stage
Silent stages & in-ears
Worship, corporate, and touring rigs are going ampless. DirectAmp sends a full, mic'd-sounding guitar tone straight to the console and your IEMs — no amp on stage, no bleed, no compromise.
Backline you can't trust
Club amp is a coin flip. Fly-date backline is worse. Bring your own tone instead — the exact same sound to front-of-house every night, whatever's sitting on stage.
The board is the rig
Fly dates, subway gigs, no car. Your whole sound fits in a gig bag and plugs straight into the house — nothing to mic, nothing to lug.
2 a.m. and the house is asleep
The stereo headphone out runs your real rig — voice, cab, and reverb intact — so late-night practice sounds like the stage, not a buzzy DI.
What sets it apart
Analog
A real tube-clipping stage — not digital modeling of one
Stereo
True stereo XLR out & reverb — fill the room in stereo
2 Channels
Clean channel + footswitchable Boost with 3 voices of its own
Built by Quilter Labs
•
Amps that sound alive — no tubes to replace
Everything on the box
Stereo XLR Out
Stereo Headphone + Cab Sim
Mono Send / Stereo Return FX Loop
Built-in Wireless Receiver
Global 9V Power
Aux In + Master Mix
Take-it-anywhere by design
2.17 lbs
Runs on pedalboard power
Global AC adapter
Steel chassis
Your whole front end, in the front pocket of your gig bag.
A Complete Rig.
In One Signal Path.
Not a modeler scrolling presets. Your guitar runs through a real tube-voiced preamp — pick an amp voice, feed it a genuine tube-clipping stage, then choose your speaker and cab. What lands at the console is a fully-formed tone, not a naked DI.
JMP
British crunch
The bark and bite of a cranked British stack. Aggressive midrange and a tight, snarling grind that cuts through a full band — straight from your board to the house.
AC15
Chime & sparkle
Bright, jangly, alive up top. That unmistakable chiming shimmer behind decades of ringing cleans and edge-of-breakup rhythm. Back off and it sparkles; lean in and it blooms.
FEND
American warmth
Round, full, endlessly usable. Deep lows, smooth highs, and the pedal-friendly clean foundation you build a board on. When you just want your guitar to sound like your guitar.
Then shape & place it
3-Band EQ
Limiter
Reverb
Boost Channel
3 Speakers
3 Cabs
4 Footswitches
Real knobs. Real switches. No screens, no menus, no firmware updates.
Quilter Labs
How DirectAmp Compares
Amp + Cab, straight to the PA — $399
| Quilter Labs DIRECTAMP | Strymon IRIDIUM | Universal Audio UAFX DREAM '65 | Boss IR-200 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $399 | ~$399 | $399 | ~$360 |
| Signal Path | ✓ 100% analog signal path ★ only the reverb is digital |
Digital modeling | Digital modeling | Digital modeling |
| Stereo Output | ✓ True stereo XLR ★ + stereo reverb |
✗ mono |
✗ mono |
✗ mono |
| Amp Voices | ✓ 3 voices JMP / AC15 / FEND |
✓ 3 amps ★ round / chime / clean |
✗ 1 amp '65 American combo |
✓ Many ★ amp library |
| Second Channel (Footswitchable Boost) | ✓ Boost channel ★ 3 boost voices, clean or dirty |
✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Speaker & Cab Options | ✓ 3 speakers × 3 cabs mix & match |
✓ Built-in cabs + IR loading |
✓ Built-in cabs | ✓ Built-in cabs + IR loading |
| Custom IR Loading | ✗ curated cabs only |
✓ 3 slots ★ | ✓ Downloadable ★ | ✓ 128 user IRs ★ |
| Reverb | ✓ Spring, stereo ★ | ✓ Room 3 types |
✓ Spring + vibrato |
✓ Multiple |
| Effects Loop | ✓ Mono send / stereo return ★ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ send/return |
| Stage & Practice | ||||
| Headphone Out | ✓ Stereo + cab sim ★ | ✓ hum reported ungrounded |
✗ no headphone out |
✓ |
| Built-in Wireless Receiver | ✓ Play-along, no cables ★ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Aux / Backing-Track In | ✓ Aux in + master mix | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Weight | ✓ 2.17 lbs | ~1.4 lbs | ~1.5 lbs | ~2.6 lbs |
| Global 9V Power | ✓ World adapter incl. ★ | ✓ 9V | ✓ 9V | ✓ 9V |
| Controls | ✓ Real knobs & switches ★ no menus |
✓ Knobs | App-assisted limited on-unit |
Menu / screen processor-style |
Starting Points
DirectAmp Settings Guide
Four rigs for four common gigs. These are starting points, not rules — your guitar, your room, and the console at the other end all get a vote. Set the switches first, then dial the knobs to taste.
v1 starting points. Switch positions are our recommendation; knob positions are a place to land, then adjust to taste. Found something better? Tell us in the DirectAmp community and we'll add it.
01
Worship & Silent Stage
Ampless, in-ears, straight to the consoleClean, full, and pedal-friendly — a neutral platform that sits perfectly in a dense in-ear mix and takes your drives and delays without fighting them. Run it in stereo to the board so your ambient washes bloom.
VoiceFEND
SpeakerV30
CabFRFR
Q-BoostFlat
Gain
10 o'clock
Bass
12 o'clock
Mid
12 o'clock
Treble
12 o'clock
Limiter
10 o'clock
Reverb
9:30 o'clock
Tip: Keep Gain low and let your pedalboard drive the dirt. The FRFR cab keeps things transparent so your reverbs and delays stay pristine in the IEM mix.
02
Jazz Gig
Warm archtop tone, quiet room, DI to the boardRound, woody, and clean with just enough air. A closed-back voicing tightens the lows so a hollowbody stays focused instead of boomy, and a touch of spring reverb adds the room a small jazz stage never has.
VoiceFEND
SpeakerJensen
CabClosed
Q-BoostFat
Gain
9:30 o'clock
Bass
12 o'clock
Mid
1:30 o'clock
Treble
10 o'clock
Limiter
12 o'clock
Reverb
10:30 o'clock
Tip: Roll Treble back and lean on the Mids — that's where an archtop's warmth lives. Fat Q-Boost thickens single-note lines without muddying chords.
03
Rock Club
Loud stage, full band, cut through the mixBritish grind with authority. JMP into a closed-back Celestion is the classic loud-rock recipe — tight lows, pushed mids, and a snarl that cuts. Set your rhythm on the clean channel and kick the Boost for solos.
VoiceJMP
SpeakerCL-80
CabClosed
Q-BoostBright
Gain
2 o'clock
Bass
12 o'clock
Mid
2 o'clock
Treble
12:30 o'clock
Limiter
1:30 o'clock
Boost
2 o'clock
Tip: Don't scoop the mids — that's what makes you disappear in a live band. Push them. Set the Boost channel for a volume-and-grit lift you stomp on for leads.
04
Studio DI
Direct to interface, re-amp-ready, mix-friendlyA balanced, mix-ready tone that drops into a track without surgery. Chime with controlled highs and an open-back bloom — record it in stereo for a wide, produced guitar sound straight off the box.
VoiceAC15
SpeakerCL-80
CabOpen
Q-BoostFlat
Gain
11 o'clock
Bass
11 o'clock
Mid
12 o'clock
Treble
12 o'clock
Limiter
12 o'clock
Reverb
8 o'clock
Tip: Print it in stereo and keep Reverb low or off — it's easier to add ambience in the mix than to remove it. Open cab gives you natural air that sits well under vocals.