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Post subject: Blues Jr and attenuators.
Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 8:54 pm
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I bought a new BJr 2 weeks ago and while I love the amp my wife isn't a fan (of my playing) so I'm forced to play at a very low volume, needless to say the BJr isn't happy this way, this amp has to be way to loud to get the tone I want.

So I went to return it yesterday and when I got to GC I decided before I return it I'd check my options.

We (my brother and I) played a BJr through a Hot Plate and we both thought it was awesome, however I'm not sure it was $325 awesome.

So I'm looking for others experience with attenuators, preferably with the BJr but in reality I want to hear about them with any tube amp you've tried, any make or model attenuators you know of.

I see a Weber MiniMax for $100 with a headphone option and this would be great, if the tone is like what I heard out of the Hot Plate.

Yes the Hot Plate did change the BJr's tone at max attenuation but that ain't all bad either because at the volume we played it at, with 4 of us in the room we could easily speak while one guy was wailing away on the guitar (a beautiful Gibson SG btw....)

It's just hard for me to justify $300+ more into this rig.

Thanks,

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Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 12:51 am
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Here is some information from the very informative and awesome folks at Eurotubes.com that might be helpful...

#6. "How can I get power tube distortion at low volumes?"

Answer: There are two answers to this one. #1 would be to use a much smaller amp that can be turned up all the way. #2 would be to use an attenuator. These are referred to as Hot Plates and Power Brakes and are available from lots of different manufacturers including THD, Marshall, Alessandro, Dr Z and of course Weber. The Weber attenuators are unique because they actually use a speaker motor and these are also one of the most economical.

#7. "I bought an attenuator and now I don't have a clean channel, what happened to it?"

Answer: Believe it or not, this is a VERY common question. A player will buy an attenuator, wire it up to his multi channel amp, switch to his drive channel, dime out the amp, attenuate down to a very low volume level and experience massive power tube and preamp tube distortion. In most cases a big smile will ensue and all is well! (Picture Snoopy dancing in the fields) At some point the player decides to switch to the clean channel and quickly finds that it's gone?!?! Well of course it's gone! The amp is playing at full volume so you will get power tube distortion no matter what channel you are in.

Attenuators were originally designed help players get to that "sweet spot" where you were just getting into preamp and power tube distortion which most of the time is too loud. You simply crank the amp up to where you like it and then attenuate down 2, 4 or 8db until you blended into the stage mix.

#8. "I like my attenuator but it just doesn't sound the same as when the amp is cranked up by it's self, why is this?"

Answer: Correct! An attenuator can only simulate two out of the four components that are involved when you crank up an amp. The four components are #1 preamp tube distortion, #2 power tube distortion, #3 speaker distortion and #4 the physical movement of air that your speakers produce at high volumes. So the two components missing are speaker distortion and the physical movement of air and these are VERY BIG components! Some attenuators have built in EQ to help modify the tone but if you are looking to get the exact tone and feel of your amp at higher volumes, you can't get all the way there from here...

Think about your car stereo and how the loudness button works, when you turn down the volume you loose that full sound and there is no punch to the music, the manufacturers know this so for lower volumes they give you the "loudness" button which miraculously brings back the fullness of the music by boosting the low frequencies. An attenuator drops your volume but does not discriminate when it comes to frequencies and has no loudness button. Ted Weber took his Mass Lite units a step further incorporating dual controls for Low/Mid and Mid/High. This helps quite a bit but if you want to get more of a full sound at lower volumes you will need to run parametric or at least a ten band EQ to get anywhere close and you will find a lot missing in the 60 to 140 cycle range.

The harder you work a speaker the better it sounds until you reach the point where the voice coil is out of travel so players using a 4/12 cab will find that when attenuated down to a low volume their sound will be particularly thin. If you want a better sound at lower volumes try running a single 12 where you can work the speaker a little, this will make a lot of difference over using four speakers that are barely working.

#9. "I like my attenuator but when I dig in the amp just doesn't respond like it does without the attenuator, why is this?"

Answer: Correct again! This is because an amp that is dimed out is out of headroom. Headroom refers to how much power the amp has left to hit peaks. If you turn the amp up to say half way and play with a moderate attack and then really dig into a note or slam a chord you will hear a volume difference because your amp has the reserve power or headroom to respond to your increased dynamic. When you're playing thru an attenuator and the amps is dimed out then there is no reserve power or headroom to respond when you dig into a note. The amp is compressed and flattened out.

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