THD Hotplate + 5150?

[1trussell]

Anyone here ever use a Hot Plate or other power attenuator with a 5150? I would love to be able to get the sound of the cranked amp, but it's pretty much too loud for God. Has anyone had any success with a THD in conjunction with a 5150?

[Dreamland_Rebel]

no personal experience but i highly reccommend it!

[1trussell]

My concern is that the 5150 is a 120 watt head and I'm not sure if most attenuators are rated for that. I remember when the Marshall Power Brake came out a while back. I didn't try one out because it was rated for 100 watt heads. Maybe I'll try contacting THD to see what they say.

[kmanick]

I had this very same question a while back
http://www.jcfonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53209

[1trussell]

Should have used the search function.

But, since the 5150 combo is a 60w amp and my head is a 120w, I'm wondering about the differences. It's mainly a volume issue with me. I've got the BBE 422a and a graphic eq I need to hook up. But I'm just concerned that it's just going to be way too loud for me to use (at least having it still sound nice).

[kmanick]

even at 60 watts the combo is freaking loud as hell.
It's a little more managable thru the Marshall cab with the 25 watt greenbacks. I run an MXR 10 EQ in the loop and it helps a ton, but this amp really comes alive when you turn it up to over 3 on the post gain,
and that is still pretty loud (but it sounds soooooooooo good!)

[1trussell]

Well, I got a response from Ed at THD and he said the Hot Plate is rated for 185 watts. So there's no power issue with it. Now, it's just an issue of whether the tone will suffer or not. The 5150 can be a touch finicky.

[Inearthed]

Didn't care for the 5150 + Hot Plate. Sounds better just lowering your volume, in my opinion.

[1trussell]

I think that's probably what I'm going to end up doing. I got some info that the Hot Plate might not sound the best with the 5150. That saves me a couple of bucks.

[horns666]

You know my opinion..

[1trussell]

And it is respected.

[donvandam]

What does the THD hotplate do?

[1trussell]

It's a power attenuator. It acts as a power soak so you can crank you amp's tubes without being at ridiculous volume. Your amp sees it as another cabinet, so there's no damage to the head. You just get more wear on the tubes running them hotter more often.

[donvandam]

Do you think they'd work with my JSX?

[cheezeslam]

I have this combination in my living room. I can push the lead channel up to 4 and still not bother the neighbors. The clean channel can run on seven or eight, which really makes the cleans sound nice. Definately a good investment if you want your 5150 to sound good and not break the windows.