Anyone using power soaks/attenuators/hotplates?

[beachjammer]

Hey all,
I"m looking for something to make my 50 watt rectoverb more user friendly at home. I've kinda steered away from these types of devices because I used to have to of the Marshall power soaks and IMO they sucked. Seems like the technology might be getting better though. So before I spent a chunk of change on one of these I thought I'd see what you all were using and what you though. Let me know what kind of rig you're using it with as well so I can compare with what I have.

Thanks!

[jgcable]

Hey all,
I"m looking for something to make my 50 watt rectoverb more user friendly at home. I've kinda steered away from these types of devices because I used to have to of the Marshall power soaks and IMO they sucked. Seems like the technology might be getting better though. So before I spent a chunk of change on one of these I thought I'd see what you all were using and what you though. Let me know what kind of rig you're using it with as well so I can compare with what I have.

Thanks!

Here is my take on attenuators and I did give a few the go around for quite a while.
Attenuators are great to tone down your tube amp for live use or recording.
Attentuators suck the life out of your amp if you use them to attenuate down to a user friendly home or bedroom level.
Bottom line... if you attenuate too much your amp will sound like ass but it will be usuable at home. The sweet spot on most of the attenuators that I tried were entirely too loud for home use if you are using a tube amp that is 50w or more.

[Firebird V]

Could not have said that any better. If you decide to go with one anyway I had the THD for a while and I did like it with the SLO. It did change the tone however and I sold it.

Does anyone here use the Yellow Jackets?

[kmanick]

I use a the Hotplate and I think it's great.
it does change the tone but just re-eq.
I love mine.

[akoch]

THD hotplate and Weber Mass here. Both do the job.

[Bengal65]

I'm looking into the Weber Mass using the speaker load feature. I haven't decided yet which way to go. Go to the Weber site and they explain the difference between using the speaker method or resistors. http://www.tedweber.com/atten.htm

[beachjammer]

I've heard other people mention the weber. I think that I'll check on that one because the THD is more money than I want to sink into one. Course I'm scarred plugging just anything into my rectoverb. I'd hate to blow the transformer in that thing! I'll do some more checking and I'd appreciate any other input.

Thanks!

[Dave L]

I´ve been using a Marshall Powerbrake for a couple of years... it gets the job done, but attenuating down to conversation levels sounds like crap... on the other hand I don´t think any attenuator will pull that off.

I´ve tried the Yellow Jackets as well, but even though they pull the power down to about 50% from EL34´s they don´t tame the volume all that much. It still takes some serious volume to get the amp singing.

[Chad]

When I want lower volume at home, I've been playing through my Cube 30 more and more. Even a 20 watt tube amp is really loud at home.

[omwdc]

i can pretty much not recommend the rockman unit - sounds ok but not great to me

[Racerx2k]

I agree with Chad. Snatch up a Cube. Even a 15 should suffice. They sound pretty nice for around-home practice.