attenuators: help!

jed

@Trotter ; Hi mate, sorry to reserect an old thread, did you find an attenuator that worked with your Marshalls? i've been using a Jettenuator and whilst its ok would prefer something with more power handling capabilities. Would be interested in what you settled for........

Trotter

@jed ;I have actually toured a Marshall power brake constantly since this post. Have never had any issues at sensible stage volumes. Have not solved the issue of home recording apart from using software based modelling instead. 

In short, agree with the comments above re the Power Brake, has worked flawlessly for hundreds of gigs now. not great for home use but that's not really what it is designed for. Hope that helps  

jed

@Trotter Thankyou for the quick reply mate, i keep seeing people say the power brake works really well with big marshalls, and i suppose it should eh, they knew what they wanted it for!! but ive overlooked it because its deemed old technology by a few....
 i think you've helped make my mind up......now to find one  

ICBM

jed said:

@Trotter Thankyou for the quick reply mate, i keep seeing people say the power brake works really well with big marshalls, and i suppose it should eh, they knew what they wanted it for!! but ive overlooked it because its deemed old technology by a few... 

Old technology, like a valve amp?

If anything it's actually a rather sophisticated one in many ways - it uses a multi-tap auto-transformer to match the amp to the load and the speaker in differing ratios.

It's a shame Marshall stopped making it - they deemed it too expensive to produce, apparently. I've never understood that logic - it sold fairly well and I think would have continued to even at a higher price.

You can usually pick them up fairly easily, they must have made thousands of them.

jed

@ICBM HA, exactly! Kinda like the Strat and Les Paul, if it ain't broke .......lol
I've managed to track down a PB100 and looking forward to giving it some gas with my SLP, loads of good reviews and comments from Marshall users across the web, 
thankyou for your input  

TimmyO

Trotter said:

Have been toying with the idea of an attenuator for a little while but there are so many different options i'm getting a little snowblind. 

The main feature that I think I need is variable impedance (does this exist?) as the amps/cabs I use range from 4ohms to 16ohms and various combinations thereof. 

I have noticed some attenuators are also offering load box/speaker emulation which would be very handy for home recording, however my question is does this compromise the attenuator's functionality/quality? 

I'm completely green to this. Last time I tried an attenuator was when the Marshall power brakers first came out and honestly I thought that they sounded awful at the time. To be fair this was reduced down to bedroom volumes. I'm looking mainly to tame a 100watt plexi or bluesbreaker down to a useable stage level at the point of breakup. 

so have any of you guys used anything that you think ticks the boxes? what would you consider the industry standard to be and why? 

Any help or advice gratefully received.

thanks all

Mark 

The one (Two Notes Torpedo Reload)  I have for sale in the classifieds will match impedance, and act as a loadbox for silent recording, or anything in between :-)