Attenuators

[Jarvis]

Any of you lads use one ? What's the sound like. Reason I ask is I am awaiting delivery of a Laney VC and there is a guy on eBay making a sound box. Basically an attenuator. So I was thinking of purchasing one to play my amp driven at low volumes.

 

[cybermgk]

Used a TubeJuice (no longer made) and a Weber MiniMass. The Tube Juice was/is just a resistor based LPad attenuator, with a treble boost and built-in fan. Very good as LPad types go, definately need the treble boost as with it off, it lops off too many highs imho. The Wber MiniMass I highly recommend. Uses a speaker motor for the attenuation. Much more organic and natural sounding. He builds them to your order (and does sell some with favorite options on EBay sometimes). Figure 90-120 depending on what you want. The MiniMass only has a 25w and 50w version. The Weber Mass goes up from there. If you want to crank the amp and attenuate to really low volumes, then count on getting twice the wattage of your amp in the attenuator. The Weber's sound awesome imho. The only real difference with the MiniMass (and the treble boost engaged) is the tonal shift by your perceptions, because the speaker isn't pushing as much air at attenuated volumes, so it feels/percieved different than with the amp cranked and no attenuation. There is very little tone coloration.

Last,

 

[blamo]

I use a Dr Z airbrake.

it works well. you do lose a little bit of highs when it's cranked at bedroom vol though. if you're cranking it for bedroom use, then tone is less of a concern vs recording or performing. I'd definitely recommend it.

 

[Bandit79]

I use a THD Hotplate for my 75 and 100 watters. It does its job nicely. It does "squash" the tone a bit though, especially in the -12db and -16db settings. It has Noise Reduction, 2 switches for High and Low channels, and an XLR output.

My opinion on attenuators are that they are good for amps that are too loud for the Gig/Venue you are playing at. If you need low volumes at home, get a low wattage amp. My 100w non master volume stack is still loud as balls with the attenuator.

 

[hbucker]

My friend has an Arracom that makes his AC-30 sound great. The same attenuator made my PV Classic 100 sound worse on all settings.

The moral of that story for me is that attenuators are not the answer for all amps. Try one on yours but be sure you can return it in case you don't like the results.

 

[Penny Dreadful]

I really lucked out that it was purple!

 

[eddy999]

A lot of the cheap 'volume box' type 'attenuators' sold on eBay are just potentiometers that are run in the effects loop of the amp. You're better off just using the master volume on the amp (which I believe the VC series have?) than using something like that. I used to own a Weber Mini Mass, however I ended up actually preferring to use the master volumes on my amps anyway so ended up getting rid of it.

 

[jeffm]

Check out the Power Plug Attenuator on eBay. I got one, and for 90 bucks, it does a nice job.

 

[Pickslide]

I have played an Ultimate Attenuator and Alex's Attenuators. The Alex's are great for getting the guitar all the way down to conversation levels and even lower. Great product. The UA was very good too, but I like the Alex's better.

 

[dwagar]

I use a Hotplate on my Marshall's. Bit I agree with Bandit79 above, for home and small gigs/jams, I have a 20W Valve Senior.

 

[jerrypilot]

I get the best results from attenuators with simple non master volume amps ; tried it with a Marshall VM head and the results were disappointing .

 

[Pinkie]

I use a Marshall powerbrake and it does pretty good on most amps.

 

[Riffraff12571]

I agree with a few posters here, great for shaving a few dbs off the top for gigging purposes at -4 to -8db, some tone change at -12db and horrible at -16db. When I need to attenuate that much I set my Hot Plate to load and reamp with a SS power amp. It sounds 100X better. I find that's the best way to go when -12db isn't enough. Here's a clip of my 2266 Vintage Modern connected that way.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kbe3mAJGSw]2266 VINTAGE MODERN - Judas Priest Rock Forever - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Gridlock]

I have a Dr Z Air Brake also. I was a little dissapointed in the amount of volume reduction at bedroom noise levels. I was hoping to be able to at least get the master on my JCM800 up to 5 at the max bed room setting when I lived in a condo. It was still too loud. It works much better controling band volume levels than bedroom levels. I still use the Dr Z with all three of my Marshalls, it does help the volume but it does take away some of the tone from all the amps at the higher attenuation levels.

 

[Superlizard]

I used to do the attenuator route... now my HotPlate is used as a dummy load in my slaving rig.

Attenuators are decent if you only attenuate a little; any more than that and your tone gets squashed.