Attenuator / Power Soak for Tube Amp??

[PaulData]

I'm thinking of getting some sort of attenuator or 'power soak' device for my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp, to reduce the volume levels while driving the power tubes hotter. These typically go between your speaker outs and the speaker itself, and are often variable in resistance.
Does anyone here have any experience or advice regarding using these devices; brand names/models, schematics for DIY versions, etc??

[heylow]

I haven't used them myself, but I have heard nothing but great stuff about the THD units. The feature set on them looks great, too.

Personally, I'd start there. (Their tube converters are lots of fun for that kind of thing, too!)

Keep in mind that all attenuators will change the tone some and using one will not necessarily equal everything that we like about cranking an amp. I mean, its a little different.



[dt]

[sirflyguy2000]

The THD units have seen wide usage, and I have heard rigs with them and they sound great. I personally use a Marshall SE100 for my attenuation needs. It actually allows for not even hooking up a speaker, which is what I do. I use it with my Soldano-designed Yamaha T100 head. The Marshall was made using Groove Tube technology; I leaned this from the sticker inside the unit.

[zb0430]

Bad Cat makes a product called 'The Leash' that is supposed to be a great, transparent attenuator.

Note this:

Make sure you're not going crazy with the attenuator. It doesn't mean turn your amp up to 11 and attenuate to bedroom volume. You're going to kill tubes, or overheat your amp quicker than you can say 'tone'. Get it to your desired break up and power tube distortion, then attenuate from there to the desired volume.

Seems simple, but you'd be surprised how many people take the approach of "turn it up to 11, since it's so quiet", and attenuators and amps were never intended to do that...

[mojito]

I have a Weber Mini-Mass that tames my Gibson very well for recording or practice.
Weber makes great attenuators if you go to the site they'll also give a good explanantion of how they work and how you should use them.

[troubleman]

I sorta learned the hard way (buy and try) that no one attenuator works well for every amp. Some combinations work great together, some less so. Unfortunately I don't think there's any way of predicting.
I have a THD Hot-plate that works well for my Budda SD45 amp. I've a Marshall 2555 Jubilee 100 watt head that seems to prefer a Dr Z AirBrake to the Hot-Plate; the Budda - the HotPlate works much better. I have a Weber MiniMASS that lives in the back of my Fender Pro Jr combo. Fender should issue them with the amp as a stock part it works so well. I figured the Pro Jr is a 15-watt EL84-based amp, and so is my Budda Twinmaster. So I tried the Twinmaster with the MiniMASS.
Hated it..

Go figure

Just as an addendum - after 2 and maybe three levels of attenuation, every attenuator/amp combination (short of power-scaling, which is a different beast) starts to lose tonal quality. You're just not gonna get all of the corpulent goodness of a raging Marshall Super Lead at bedroom volumes with an attenuator alone.


pEAcE,

[JimLin]

I have the THD unit and use it with a THD amp (Flexi). In general, I like the unit ... helps keep my tone while taming the volume.

Troubleman is exactly right ... you can use 2 to 3 levels of attenuation (8 to 12 db reduction) and it sounds fine -- I find I can make adjustments to the amp to compensate for tonal changes. Any more than that and the tone starts to suffer. I use the attenuator along with the master volume to find the right volume/tone match.

[romo]

I have a Dr Z Airbrake. I used a Weber Minimass for a while because I picked it up really cheap. It didn't last too long because it really killed the high end of my amp so I sold it. I like the tone of the Z much better. Don't skimp and get a cheap one, buy something nice and you will be happier about the sound. The Z sounds pretty good until you get close to the max attenuation then you start getting some compression and distortion. Even then its not bad but changes the characteristics of the amp some.

Overall I think if you are using any kind of tube amp over 10 watts you should look into attenuators. They are really great tools for letting you take advantage of everything your amp has to offer. Why buy an expensive tube amp to just leave the volume down and settle on using pedals to simulate a cranked tube tone?

[trpullen]

My THD BiValve has a "Hot Plate" in it. Pretty cool technology.