Attenuator for ac15

ThePrettyDamned

Love my amp, but would like a touch more volume control at the bedroom range - it's a tiny bit hair trigger with the preamp gain wound up to compress a wee bit (about 8 out of 10 - definitely the sweet spot for me). It has a bit of hair if I rock the volume pedal forward and cleans up with a tiny bit of compression with the pedal back. Just enough headroom left in the preamp to give a solo boost, too, if I'm using a distortion pedal. 

I'm not looking for something to let me crank the bollocks off it - I'll keep the master volume engaged (it can be bypassed which is neat for rehearsal) but just something that'll give me a bit more control at the bottom of the range, so I can turn the master a little more freely rather than just touching it in.

Is there a cheap one that'll do just that? I'm looking at the jettenuator, or the harley benton, but not sure how they will sound on an AC15. 

ICBM

They should be fine - Vox-type amps seem to work best with purely resistive attenuators.

ThePrettyDamned

ICBM said:

They should be fine - Vox-type amps seem to work best with purely resistive attenuators.

Awesome. 

I have an 8 ohm 50 watt l pad in a tin I used to use with a 5 watt amp. Would this work, or is it not powerful enough? That'd be purely resistive (albeit with a shite taper) and sounded fine on my old Mooer little monster ac (voiced a bit like a top boost ac30), though did lose some treble. Perhaps I could build a 100 watt one and have a treble switch on it, but if my current one works... 

ICBM

It should be just about enough - probably safe if you're not thrashing the amp. Just keep any eye (or a finger...) on the temperature, if it gets too hot to touch it's too hot.

ThePrettyDamned

ICBM said:

It should be just about enough - probably safe if you're not thrashing the amp. Just keep any eye (or a finger...) on the temperature, if it gets too hot to touch it's too hot.

Okay, cool. I think I may have a go at making a 100 watt one and using some thermal paste just to be absolutely sure. They're not that expensive anyway.