Attenuator and why slave an amp?

[DustyCat]

I've had a tube amp for over a decade and now I'm finally thinking about getting an attenuator.

I was looking for a THD Hot plate when the Rivera RockCrusher came up and I started reading about how it has all these EXTRA features that the hot plate doesn't have.

What about slaving?

Says you can use it as a load in place of a speaker to send the balanced line out through an XLR or unbalanced 1/4" to slave another amp.

Slave another amp? That means get the same tone from one amp, and push it through another amp right?  :help:

I can only think of one reason why I would want to do that...because you want to push the tone of the first amp (which may not have very much volume/wattage) through the second one (maybe because it has higher volume/wattage and headroom (like a fender or a HiWatt)

And finally, anyone have experience with the Rock Crusher? Seems to have high reviews

 

[DustyCat]

Also, is it true that this thing will essentially melt your tubes faster since you'll have cranked them up to get that cranked up sound?

 

[stratamania]

If you want to do this one of the best ones you can use nowadays is the Suhr Reactive Load, most earlier ones are just resistive loads. A reactive load responds more like an actual speaker.

Slaving means you can use another amp such as a solid state amp to achieve the original tone at basically any volume. See this video using Matrix power amps. The slaving part starts at 5:30 link below the video as the forum software strips the timecode.

This video was made a few years prior to the Suhr Reactive Load, otherwise, Pete would probably be using that nowadays.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/ega9KUNxdX0?t=5m30s[/youtube]

https://youtu.be/ega9KUNxdX0?t=5m30s

As for tube wear, they will wear to the degree you push them regardless of going through a speaker or a load box. Push them harder than you would through a speaker they will see more use.

It seems you already did some research, but it is all out there if you look.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Reminds me a bit of the old Sholtz Rockman Power Soak of the early 80's.

 

[stratamania]

Reminds me a bit of the old Sholtz Rockman Power Soak of the early 80's.

I vaguely remember those but never used one so don't know the details.

 

[mayfly]

Reminds me a bit of the old Sholtz Rockman Power Soak of the early 80's.

I vaguely remember those but never used one so don't know the details.

I've actually got one!  Been using it as a dummy load for amp repair. 

 

[stratamania]

Reminds me a bit of the old Sholtz Rockman Power Soak of the early 80's.

I vaguely remember those but never used one so don't know the details.

I've actually got one!  Been using it as a dummy load for amp repair.

I am guessing it is a resistive load?

 

[mayfly]

Reminds me a bit of the old Sholtz Rockman Power Soak of the early 80's.

I vaguely remember those but never used one so don't know the details.

I've actually got one!  Been using it as a dummy load for amp repair.

I am guessing it is a resistive load?

Oh yes.  Lots of big resistors.

 

[stratamania]

Thanks Mayfly...

 

[timezon3]

I used to have a Weber Mass attenuator and didn't care for it.  I tried it on both my Weber 50W and my '68 Super Reverb.  Later, I installed PPIMVs in both, and in both cases, the PPIMV worked and sounded a lot better.  YMMV, but that's my experience with attenuators.

TZ

 

[Cagey]

I had one of the Scholtz Power Soak units, too. Worked as advertised, but not a particularly healthy thing for the amp long-term. Also, since it was a purely resistive (and constant) load, the sound of the "pushed" amp attenuated wasn't the same as the amp at full-tilt boogie (although, it was still quite useful).

Speakers are inductive loads, so their impedance is frequency-dependent. Also, since the voice coil is constantly moving, the inductance is constantly changing as well. It's impossible to replicate a load like that with a resistor network. If one is tempted to use an attenuator, the "reactive" units are the ones to have. They're typically heavier and more expensive, but will sound more like the actual amp as they interact with the output transformer more like a speaker.