Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisN
Multiple wattage - that's what I meant by on-board attenuator in #1: "I want enough clean headroom with an on-board attenuator that allows early breakup using gain and a master volume to keep things quietly fun. Tube-driven reverb and tremolo would be nice. The only place I'm seeing these kinds of attributes are in the boutique builders (Milkman Half-Pint and Carr's Mercury/Skylark, for example)." Those babies are both in the $2500 range, but I'm aware there are way cheaper examples, including that Bugera V22 that I think sounds really good, so I should be in good shape on that issue.
Definitely want to get realistic breakup at lower volumes, though I'm reading that running tubes at lower power shortens their life, so that's a bummer.
I now also understand what you're saying about the lower volume supplemented by a pedal - that's kind of what motivated my original questions. I saw that Andy was impressed by the Supersonic's ability to get the sound w/o a pedal, as if that was a good thing. I wondered why, if a good amp could do, why anyone used pedals - why not just get a good amp? This thread has been eye-opening to me, to say the least.
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A couple of things:
I'd bet Andy was playing louder than one might expect.
You may want to read up on this point, but playing at a lower wattage setting is not the same thing as playing through an attenuator. Somewhat similar results, true, but two completely different things.
Running tubes at low power does not shorten their life. Now, some people find that their tubes wear out faster when they use an attenuator, but that's not due to the attenuator per se; the attenuator lets you slam the power tubes pretty much full blast, but tames the volume. The tubes are working at full capacity, so of course they burn out faster, but no faster than if you rented a hall, put on ear protectors, and played your 100W amp full blast every day.