Attentuators.

[Witek]

Which attentuator is best?
I know lots of people here love the THD HotPlate, but I've heard many great things about the Marshall PowerBlock. I hear you can switch the ohmage in the powerblock to what you're using, whereas the hotplate has only one setting that you classify when you first buy it (8ohm 4ohm etc.)
Any others that are worth taking note of?
I want one to play in my apartament without killing my wallet.

[Palmetto Kid]

Hey Guy,
You might want to check out the Weber Mass units. I used to have one with a DI fuction and some eq. I liked it alot. They're also usually less bucks than the boutiques. Anybody else got a Weber?

[pbradt]

None. Not using an attenuator is best. Attenuators are tone-suckers. Best to use the right amp for the job.

[big mike]

I use the hot plate when needed. I also had a Z Airbrake which was great.

I had a weber MIniMass that I did not care for.

[riffmeister]

Originally Posted by Witek

Which attentuator is best?
I know lots of people here love the THD HotPlate, but I've heard many great things about the Marshall PowerBlock......

Are you trying to sell something here again, w/o reading the rules???




I like the Dr. Z Airbrake for live use (i.e., just a small amount of attenuation). Heavy attenuation is not my thing, so I'm prolly not of much help there.......

[AdmiralB]

I like the Marshall (it's Power Brake - Powerblock is a Crate amp). It's the only one I'm aware of that presents a constant impedance to the amp as you adjust the attenuation, and it has the two selectable impedances.

On the downside it doesn't have the line out or tone switches that the Hot Plates and MASS units do. And it's expensive.

As far as sound...the only other attenuators I've owned have been Hot Plates...I think the PB sounds as good as they did, down a notch or two. Beyond that, none of them sound too good.

[Witek]

riffmeister Are you trying to sell something here again, w/o reading the rules???

haha quiet you!

pbradt None. Not using an attenuator is best. Attenuators are tone-suckers. Best to use the right amp for the job.

I'd like to use my amp to it's full potential when jamming, but living in an apartment with neighbors (with a newborn) prohibits me from using it at home.

AdmiralB I like the Marshall (it's Power Brake - Powerblock is a Crate amp).

Opps my bad, always confuse the Dang tiny crate pocket heads.

[jbylake]

I have a THD on the way. I swore off attenuator's several years ago, when I fried an amp (Fender Twin, and I wasn't only pissed, I was devastated) with a Marshall Power Brake. I checked everything, correct impedence setting, the whole nine yards. My amp repairman also stated that in his opinion, the Marshall Power Brake did the dirty deed. Then I started hearing horror stories about Marshall Power Brake's and others cooking their amps. Mine (the power brake) was an older one, so maybe their new ones are o.k., but I'm not going to chance finding out. Up until recently, when I have found many friends and acquaintences using THD's Hot Plates, with no problems whatsoever (just make sure your impedence is always a correct match) I decided to give it a go again. I don't know why (maybe it's a technical issue, that I wouldn't understand, not having an electronics background) that THD doesn't make one with switchable loads. Maybe one of you electronic whiz kids can answer this one?

J.C. :BEER

[Jeff_H]

I like the attenuator Komet is building. It has 5 levels of attenuation, and sounds great on their site. $300, but may be well worth it. I'll need one at some point, and will go with Komet, Weber Mass or the THD. I'll have to dig into the specs again to see which is the LEAST tone sucking. Right now my money is on Komet.

[John Phillips]

Originally Posted by pbradt

None. Not using an attenuator is best. Attenuators are tone-suckers. Best to use the right amp for the job.

Just out of curiosity, have you ever tried a good one, for moderate volume reduction? Like, just one or at most two clicks, to bring your Bassman down to the same volume as your Deluxe? You may be surprised how little 'tone suck' you get.

Trying to turn a Super Lead into a practice amp? I agree with you.

Originally Posted by jbylake

I swore off attenuator's several years ago, when I fried an amp (Fender Twin, and I wasn't only pissed, I was devastated) with a Marshall Power Brake. I checked everything, correct impedence setting, the whole nine yards. My amp repairman also stated that in his opinion, the Marshall Power Brake did the dirty deed. Then I started hearing horror stories about Marshall Power Brake's and others cooking their amps. Mine (the power brake) was an older one, so maybe their new ones are o.k., but I'm not going to chance finding out. Up until recently, when I have found many friends and acquaintences using THD's Hot Plates, with no problems whatsoever (just make sure your impedence is always a correct match)

Exactly. The reason the Powerbrake fried your Twin was almost certainly because you didn't make sure the impedance was correctly matched. The Powerbrake (even on the 8-ohm setting, and it only has two - 8 and 16, there is no 4) is NOT suitable for a 4-ohm amp. This is because although it's a reasonable match for an 8-ohm amp and so should in theory be a safe mismatch from a 4-ohm one, its impedance curve diverges from that of a real speaker upwards at high frequencies. This then puts it outside the safe mismatch range for a 4-ohm amp... like a Fender Twin.

No attenuator, as far as I know - not even the ones made for specific impedances only, including the Hotplate - actually matches the impedance curve of a real speaker precisely, and not all of them diverge in the same way either. If you're going to use the wrong attenuator for your amp - or sometimes even the right one - you must know about this stuff or you're likely to fry something.

It isn't impossible that the Powerbrake was faulty, but in my experience not very likely. I've been using them for years, and the one I keep as my test load in my workshop has been run at well over its rated power many times with no damage, and only one amp I've ever used it with has failed under test (out of many hundreds), which I think says more about that particular amp than the Powerbrake.

[SlyStrat]

I tryed attenuators. Now I'd rather have a master volume amp.
I have a Metro PTP MV board with Sozos in a Marshall. Tone is way better than a stocker.

[CocoTone]

Originally Posted by Palmetto Kid

Hey Guy,
You might want to check out the Weber Mass units. I used to have one with a DI fuction and some eq. I liked it alot. They're also usually less bucks than the boutiques. Anybody else got a Weber?

I use a Mass 100 with my Supere Reverb to great effect. Tone is quite goo as long as you don't over attenuate. Works well with some amps, sounds like ass with others, so ya gotta try it first. If you have to over attenuate, then you've got too much amp for the gig.

CT.

[uberpict]

Using a Hotplate here and it works well until you attentuate down below -12db. High gain tones can sound thin and buzzy from the Fletcher-Munson effect (I presume) and playing dynamics are severely reduced. It's okay for bedroom practice but that's about it below -12db.

The Hotplate works really well for recording in small spaces at -8db or even -12db without damaging your hearing, no discernable loss in tone or dynamics. The bright and deep switches are needed at -12db or below but don't seem to be needed at -8db. I'm pretty satisfied with the Hotplate, the tone I'm getting is much better than just using the amp's master volume which always seems a little thin and buzzy being pre-amp distortion only.

[gooma]

The Sequis Richter Control is another great unit.

It worked better for me than a hotplate at extreme levels of attenuation, check it out here www.motherloadusa.com

Attenuators definately do have their place, they tend to work better IMO when knocking down the volume to a more managable level rather than taking a NMV 100 watter down to bedroom levels.

Certain attenuators seem to like different amps so it`d be a pretty good idea to try a few out. The hotplate worked really well with the Mojave Scorpion i had, they seemed to be really well matched.

good luck:BEER

[Dennis Rayburn]

Love my Ultimate Attenuator. I use it on gigs all the time, and at home in my basement as well.