Power Attenuator?

[spineltap]

I own a Mesa Dual Rectifier Solo Head and G-Major multi effects unit. I have found it hard acquiring a good distortion tone, one which sounds similiar to studio recordings. I have heard about power attenuators which will allow you to crank up your amp head distortion/sound, which gives a nice full sound due to using tubes, but will allow you to control the overall volume of the sound coming out of the amp head. Does anyone use one or find it beneficial for home playing? Thanks.

[Shawn Lutz]

Re: Power Attenuator?

thats the whole idea, to anttenuate so you get power tube distortion at lover volume levels. check out the THD and Weber Mass...

[Madness]

Re: Power Attenuator?

I use a THD Hotplate in conjuction with my JCM900 and love it. I don't usually attentuate the signal past the -8db setting because it seems to start affecting the overall tone after that.
I also use it as a speaker load too. Sometimes when I want to direct record I'll run the signal from the DI on my amp into an amp/cab modeler, then I'll shut the amp modeling off so that just the cab modeling is on and run the signal from there into my recording device. In this instance I set the hotplate to "load" and it cuts the signal to my actual cab while still keeping a load on the amp. It's great because it allows me to record with my amp silently,late at night. [img]/images/graemlins/band.gif[/img]

[neilli]

Re: Power Attenuator?

From what I recall, there's a pretty comprehensive thread on attenuators in the Tech Q&A section, and the THD seemed to come out pretty favourably.....

[toejam]

Re: Power Attenuator?

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thats the whole idea, to anttenuate so you get power tube distortion at lover volume levels. check out the THD and Weber Mass...

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Exactly, power tube distortion! It's almost pointless on Mesa Rectos (or other high-gain amps) since they already rely on preamp tube distortion to get you more gain at low volumes.

[yabba]

Re: Power Attenuator?

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[ QUOTE ]
thats the whole idea, to anttenuate so you get power tube distortion at lover volume levels. check out the THD and Weber Mass...

[/ QUOTE ]
Exactly, power tube distortion! It's almost pointless on Mesa Rectos (or other high-gain amps) since they already rely on preamp tube distortion to get you more gain at low volumes.

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even on higher gain amps, you can get a fuller, warmer tone by running the power section a bit more, not even necessarily to the point of real power tube distortion, but just running it a bit hotter than you are would be without an attenuator at super low volumes

[Ace]

Re: Power Attenuator?

I've used them. I've never owned one, but we've had a few pass through the shop here and I've tried them out. And they do exactly what you would expect them to do!!