attenuators we like?

Sassafras · March 2015

I can't see how any type of attenuation or power scaling can sound good at volumes you can talk over. You need of bit of air moving to get the best from an amp.

It kind of annoys me when most of these systems are advertised as reducing volume you can "talk over". You lose all the dynamics at really low volume.

ICBM · March 2015

Sassafras said:

I can't see how any type of attenuation or power scaling can sound good at volumes you can talk over. You need of bit of air moving to get the best from an amp.
It kind of annoys me when most of these systems are advertised as reducing volume you can "talk over". You lose all the dynamics at really low volume.

That's true, which is why I think using a big amp unattenuated with some sort of overdrive generator in front of it can work better - you still get the big dynamic sound of the undamped power stage even if it's only at a whisper. Even then you aren't really getting any of the feedback (electrical not acoustic) from the speaker to the amp which you get when an amp is cranked up, even a bit.

Power scaling is better in that regard, which is probably why I think it sounds better at low volumes. At medium volumes I prefer the way attenuation makes the amp's power supply work harder.

There's also nothing to stop you using more than one method at once (eg pedal into MV amp into attenuator), in fact I think it tends to give the best results because you can use each method to a lesser degree, which tends not to strangle the sound as much as doing it all with one. It does become quite expensive quite quickly though...

p90fool · March 2015

The Jettenuator seems to work pretty well, at least on their own amps, unsurprisingly. It does take a touch of top end off and you lose 3db as soon as you plug it in, but I find it quite natural-sounding at gig volume.

It's ok at home too, for everything-on-ten silliness, though I tend only to use it for testing amps under stress when the neighbours are in.

Marktigere1 · March 2015

p90fool said:

The Jettenuator seems to work pretty well, at least on their own amps, unsurprisingly. It does take a touch of top end off and you lose 3db as soon as you plug it in, but I find it quite natural-sounding at gig volume.

Yes I like the Jettenuator as well.

Works great with my Blackheart BH15h as well as a JCA22.

Cheers

Misty · March 2015

Dr Z Airbrake has worked for me for the last five years. It is excellent with my Dr Z amps, and pretty good with my old silverface Deluxe Reverb as well. As has already been said, attenuate too much and the tone deteriorates for a number of reasons, but that's the same with any attenuator. The Airbrake is a good one, and is suitable for amps up to, if I remember correctly, 100 watts.

Aidanspaghetti · March 2015

I think I'm gonna go for a fryette power station. Sounds incredible from all the online chatter. Too many old marshal los not paying their rent!

lespaulcustom68 · March 2015

ICBM said:

hywelg said:

Hotplate works well down to -8dB with Fender type amps. -12dB at a push. Not much good with EL84 amps, OK'ish with old school Marshalls provided they are setup to run cleanish and you hit 'em with pedals.

Be careful with a Hotplate and a Marshall if you do it the 'standard' way with the power stage cranked - they don't like it, especially with the Deep and Bright switches on. You can fix it by deliberately mismatching so the amp is set to half the impedance of the Hotplate. However I would be wary of buying a new Hotplate at all now, since there have been problems with the later ones, and their warranty support is beyond hopeless. It does work very well with Fender and Mesa-type amps though.

The Marshall Powerbrake is still hard to beat for Marshall-type amps. It's a shame they discontinued it, although it's not rare second hand. It doesn't have the best reputation for sound quality, but I think wrongly so. It's also well-made despite its quite crude appearance.

The Airbrake is very good, and seems to work particularly well with non-negative-feedback amps (eg AC30) but has relatively low power handling - not enough for a 100W amp. I was much less impressed with the Brake Lite, which seemed severely overpriced and didn't sound as good either.

I tried an early MiniMass and was not impressed by either the build quality or the sound, but they may be different now, since they don't even look the same. I haven't tried any of the bigger ones.

The Motherload Elemental was the best I've tried for the widest range of amps, and has by far the best emulated DI sound of any device like this I've used, but also appears to be out of production.

The "Ultimate" you all know my opinions about now .

I haven't tried any of the more recent ones - I'm perfectly happy with my Powerbrake and a couple of own-made dummy loads, so I haven't really bothered to keep up to date.

So with a 16 ohm cab and 16 ohm hotplate its safer to run at 8 ohms on my super bass? I don't often crank it, but tend to use it with pedals in the front end and use some attenuation - its great for that application and I've used it as per manufacturers recommendations for about 12 months.

Would you recommend the same with the DSL - I've got a backup 50 watt head?

strtdv · March 2015

I just bought a Swart Night Light from this very forum, and so far it's ticking all the boxes.

IMO the two best settings are the "knock a few dB off an amp to make the sweet spot a bit quieter" which it does very well on both my Matamp and Laney Lionheart, and the "bedroom quiet with the kids sleeping in the next room" which it also does very well and somehow keeps dynamics.

The optical compression thing works, IMO it takes a bit too much volume off for live use, but works very well at home and gives the amp a "spongier" feel, almost like a valve rectifier working hard, and would be nice for recording at home.

I find the medium attenuation a bit useless, as it's not loud enough for live use and it doesn't sound as good somehow as the maximum attenuation setting to my ears, despite being almost as quiet.

It's suitable for amps up to 30 watts which may limit it's usefulness to some people, despite the fact that it sounds very good. I wouldn't want to run an AC30 at full tilt into it..

It also has the advantage of giving you a guitar level output which you can either run into a mixing desk as a post-power amp DI, or into a second guitar amp if you want to hear what a cranked AC15 into a Fender Twin sounds like (which I imagine would be a lot of fun)

I don't think Swart make a bad product to be honest, so I'm not surprised it's good

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