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#16
03-02-2015, 04:40 PM
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I may have to try that with my Super Reverb. With earplugs. And an empty house. When the neighbors are out.
 
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"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." -Zig Ziglar Acoustics 2013 Guild F30 Standard 2012 Yamaha LL16 2007 Seagull S12 1991 Yairi DY 50 Electrics Epiphone Les Paul Standard Fender Am. Standard Telecaster Gibson ES-335 Gibson Firebird 
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#17
03-02-2015, 06:10 PM
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Quote:
Thrilled for you with the new amp. Just curious, have you guys never used Power Soak boxes? I'd not heard of them till this past year, and it relly is nice with my tube amps because when I run the speaker through the Power Soak, it lets me run the master as hot as I want and drive the tubes, but pull the volume down to manageable levels. Well built ones get hot (they are after all soaking up power), and my amp gets very similar tone to when I used to have to raise the roof. Is there a downside or resistance to using them?
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Baby #1.1 Baby #1.2 Baby #02 Baby #03 Baby #04 Baby #05 Larry's songs... …Just because you've argued someone into silence doesn't mean you have convinced them…
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#18
03-02-2015, 08:11 PM
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My little Tweed doesn't really get loud enough to need a power soak. The Super, however, is a beast. I've started looking at them, and once you get to the ones that can handle about 50W the prices start to climb fast. The Super has a nice sound at lower volume though, and I can drive it harder with pedals for more warmth and distortion at a decent indoor volume if I want.
If I had a bigger amp that relied on power tube distortion for best sound (like a JTM45 or pre-JCM series Marshall, etc) I would definitely get one. I kind of wish my bandmate would get one for his Mesa though. Even at the 5W setting, it's still a brute.
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"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." -Zig Ziglar Acoustics 2013 Guild F30 Standard 2012 Yamaha LL16 2007 Seagull S12 1991 Yairi DY 50 Electrics Epiphone Les Paul Standard Fender Am. Standard Telecaster Gibson ES-335 Gibson Firebird
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#19
03-02-2015, 09:38 PM
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@larry;
About the only thing I've heard about "powersoaks" is that, when driving the tubes so hard (not to mention the rest of the amplifier), it can chew right through tubes fairly quickly and may shorten the life of the transformers, etc. I remember that Tom Scholz made one, back in the 80's, that was supposedly very good. I don't doubt that, as Scholz was a bit of a modern-day Les Paul, what with all his Rockman gear... I used to use one of the early Rockman gizmos as my ONLY outboard signal processing device when doing home recordings on my little PortaStudio 144 and 244... used it with a mic for vocals and acoustic guitar, and all the various settings with an electric. Worked amazingly well, and I never even knew that the "gain control" dial on the back of it would increase or decrease the internal compressor...
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"Home is where I hang my hat, but home is so much more than that. Home is where the ones and the things I hold dear are near... And I always find my way back home." "Home" (working title) J.S, Sherman
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#20
03-02-2015, 10:53 PM
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Quote:
Yes, I suppose if you had a power soak which was generically pre-set, rather than one which is impedance matched and adjustable, and you were trying to use a 100 watt amp with the master volume 11 in an apartment at night, it might put quite a strain on the tubes. Aren't there are amps where caps don't even kick in until the volume reaches a certain level? I guess my concern would be if I'm running the master volume on my Blues Jr at 6 rather than 2 in a small venue with the power soak, is it going to chew through tubes any faster than running the master at 6 in a larger venue? Just curious. I've not heard it will shorten transformer life. Though both settings produce 'tube' overdrive, I get a totally different overdrive sound with the master at 5-6 and the gain at 5-6 rather than with the master at 2 and the gain wide open to 11.
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Baby #1.1 Baby #1.2 Baby #02 Baby #03 Baby #04 Baby #05 Larry's songs... …Just because you've argued someone into silence doesn't mean you have convinced them…
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#21
03-03-2015, 09:05 AM
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Glen, a beautiful amp.
As for a power soak, more power used, more strain on the tubes and output transformer. These are not for bedroom use. I use a 2 watt for low volumes. If one is looking for more breakup at lower gain, I would experiment with lower gain preamp tubes. Just my opinion for what it is worth. -- Darwin
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Stay Tuned
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#22
03-03-2015, 09:25 AM
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I guess the real issue for me with the HRD was that the volume pot was extremely sensitive from 1 to about 4 but there was no significant change from 4 to 10. It was almost like 4 was the "real" 10...and in an amp that powerful, that was a problem for me. One tiny bump on the volume between 1 and 4 resulted in a huge spike in output, either too loud or too quiet, but the same bump between 4 and 10....virtually no change.
And the drive channel was absolute garbage in my opinion. The gain structure was noisy and didn't sound good at all. An attentuator is a great option for the HRD, but I think I was just after something else which the DRRI has.
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