Re: Opinions: Attenuator vs. Blackheart/Valve Jr.??

Matthew D'Ortona wrote:

Hello Everyone,

Here's the scoop: I have a Boogie MarkIV and '94 Series (PR266) Evil Twin Reverb. Both great amps, but I need to run them at a lower volume (so I don't wake the kids) w/o sacrificing tone (Heard this before eh?).

Ditto for home recording. FWIW, I don't run them any louder than 2-3, which is "gig level" and plenty loud. I have a old Scholz Power Soak which works reasonably well (i.e. cuts the output),

I've heard some bad things about those units. They are simple resistive loads, which often don't work well long term on a guitar output (hence the name "tranny toaster" and warnings like this one that came on my Marshall JMP 2204: http://tinyurl.com/2drrsa ). But beyond that, I think that's the unit that can have issues with dirty contacts on a rotary switch. I'd make darned sure the contacts are clean by running through the steps every so often (with the amp off, of course).


but the Weber Mass/MiniMass attenuators caught my attention too. At present, it's between one of the Mass attenuators vs. one of the 5 watt Blackheart amps or the Epi Valve Jr. Will the speaker motor attenuator give me that much more than the resistive load attenuator (i.e. Scholz) in terms of improved attenuation/tone trade-off?

I'd hope so! But how much, I couldn't say.

I usually attenuate between -8 to -12db which is 2-3 clicks (less than half-way) below full power on the Scholz unit. Money-wise, it's a wash, so that's not an issue and the 5 watt amps certainly sound good, but I need another amp like a fish needs a bicycle! Any thoughts and/or opinions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

Matt D'Ortona

I run an attenuator on a Valve Junior when I want lower volumes! But when you start with 5W, you can get by with a simple speaker L-pad.
.

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