Help looking for an attenuator.

[elfro89]

hey guys, I baught a 50 watt tube head and i want to boot its baws, but the volume is too much for the house, anyone know of any good attenuators around the £50-100 mark?  :doh:

 

[Superlizard]

I dunno bout the 50-100 pound mark, but I've been using THD HotPlates for about a decade now
and I highly recommend them.  WeberVST had a similar product called the "MASS" but I don't
know if they're available anymore (cheaper than HotPlates).  There's others too.

 

[AutoBat]

http://www.tedweber.com/atten.htm
I'd guess the MiniMASS is what you'd want, but shop around.

They make 'em @ 220-240, which is handy 'cause I'm assuming you're in the UK

 

[elfro89]

tanks for the responses guys i'll check'em oot.

 

[tfarny]

I have a minimass, it works well but not as well as just getting a 5 or less watt tube amp.

 

[elfro89]

I have a minimass, it works well but not as well as just getting a 5 or less watt tube amp.

sure, but I need the headroom for gigs as that's what it was bought for.  :laughing7:

 

[-CB-]

May I respectfully say - I"ve had less than stellar results with the Mass, from Weber, and have been asked to fix several that were fried when they should not have been.

May I also respectfully say, running the Yellow Jacket, and EL84 tubes is the bomb... an absolutely wonderful thing.  A 50w amp will give you about 10w that way, if you run both tubes.  I'll have to check, but there is a way to cheat, and run a single Yellow Jacket, leaving one output socket empty on the head, and get about 5w out - still plenty loud, but not outrageously so.

Vic has run his Champ with a drummer, and his Hot Rod Champ (2 x 6v6) is more than adequate for that at 18w

A few watts will give you a lot of loud.

 

[jackthehack]

May I respectfully say - I"ve had less than stellar results with the Mass, from Weber, and have been asked to fix several that were fried when they should not have been.

May I also respectfully say, running the Yellow Jacket, and EL84 tubes is the bomb... an absolutely wonderful thing.   A 50w amp will give you about 10w that way, if you run both tubes.  I'll have to check, but there is a way to cheat, and run a single Yellow Jacket, leaving one output socket empty on the head, and get about 5w out - still plenty loud, but not outrageously so.

Vic has run his Champ with a drummer, and his Hot Rod Champ (2 x 6v6) is more than adequate for that at 18w

A few watts will give you a lot of loud.

:icon_thumright: +1; I've tried both YellowJackets and Substi-Tubes with EL84 duets in dual 6L6 amps. This will change the voicing of the amp a bit; but to me it's been in a good way. As CB notes this will reduce the total output of the amp to 10-20 watts dependent upon the circuit. Question is whether this is STILL too loud for your home environment. Dimed out it will still make your ears ring in a small space...

 

[elfro89]

May I respectfully say - I"ve had less than stellar results with the Mass, from Weber, and have been asked to fix several that were fried when they should not have been.

May I also respectfully say, running the Yellow Jacket, and EL84 tubes is the bomb... an absolutely wonderful thing.   A 50w amp will give you about 10w that way, if you run both tubes.  I'll have to check, but there is a way to cheat, and run a single Yellow Jacket, leaving one output socket empty on the head, and get about 5w out - still plenty loud, but not outrageously so.

Vic has run his Champ with a drummer, and his Hot Rod Champ (2 x 6v6) is more than adequate for that at 18w

A few watts will give you a lot of loud.

That sounds bitchin man, i'll keep that in mind!  :icon_thumright:

 

[elfro89]

the yellow jacket idea is cool... But I need the clean headroom for larger venues and 10 watts won't give me that unfortunately I just need a way to push the amp at lower volumes for home and small gigs without it sounding thin.

In short... I want to boot its baws at lower volumes.

 

[NLD09]

what does boot its baws mean?

 

[elfro89]

what does boot its baws mean?

Its a scottish phrase meaning literally to kick it in the testicals, but in this case it would mean push the tubes hard.

 

[Superlizard]

the yellow jacket idea is cool... But I need the clean headroom for larger venues and 10 watts won't give me that unfortunately I just need a way to push the amp at lower volumes for home and small gigs without it sounding thin.

In short... I want to boot its baws at lower volumes.

I have a pair of YJs as well in one of my amps and there's not a lot of clean headroom goin' on... only some.

It's still a fuggin' loud 18 watts! (2x EL84s at ~9W apiece).

Come to think of it, I run YJs plus the HotPlate when I really need to keep it low without squashing
the tone too much (more you attenuate, the more squashed your tone gets).

I used to have one of those Z-Vex Nanohead amps (1.5 t00b watts IIRC) - even that was loud hooked
to a cab (about as loud as a loud TV).

T00bs just ain't for quiet places...

 

[jimh]

the yellow jacket idea is cool... But I need the clean headroom for larger venues and 10 watts won't give me that unfortunately I just need a way to push the amp at lower volumes for home and small gigs without it sounding thin.

In short... I want to boot its baws at lower volumes.

The beauty of yellowjackets is that you can just put them in and out when you like
Put them in for 10W at home, when you have a gig coming up, put the regular tubes back in for the full 50W. No rebiasing required, just drop them in.

 

[Superlizard]

Correcting what I assume to be an oversight (for posterity's sake):

Some ppl. are claiming Yellow Jackets will get you 10 watts.

Not so - a single EL84 t00b produces ~9 watts.

Paired up of course (they sell in pairs) will get you ~18 watts.

elfro89 states his amp is 50 watts - undoubtedly with a pair of powert00bs.

So, if he does the YJ route, he's going to be pushing 18 watts; which isn't
a whole bunch quieter than 50 watts.  As I've mentioned before, it's still
pretty fuggin' loud.  I run a Hotplate on top of that as well.

 

[OzziePete]

Correcting what I assume to be an oversight (for posterity's sake):

Some ppl. are claiming Yellow Jackets will get you 10 watts.

Not so - a single EL84 t00b produces ~9 watts.

Paired up of course (they sell in pairs) will get you ~18 watts.

elfro89 states his amp is 50 watts - undoubtedly with a pair of powert00bs.

So, if he does the YJ route, he's going to be pushing 18 watts; which isn't
a whole bunch quieter than 50 watts.  As I've mentioned before, it's still
pretty fuggin' loud.  I run a Hotplate on top of that as well.

Just to confirm this : I own an 18 w amp combo which has 2 x 6V6 power tubes, lots less potent than 6L6s, but it still kicks my butt volume-wise. So much so I bought an Iso Cab and ran a feed out of the combo into the Iso Cab and shoved the Cab into the wardrobe for good isolation and very much lower volume.

For the record, I'm not much of a fan of the attenuator . I think Weber's site carries a good summation about how to go about using an attenuator correctly. Throttling down the amp by a huge ratio (using an attentuator)  is one good way of an early demise for your power tubes it seems.

http://www.tedweber.com/atten.htm

 

[Superlizard]

Just to confirm this : I own an 18 w amp combo which has 2 x 6V6 power tubes, lots less potent than 6L6s, but it still kicks my butt volume-wise. So much so I bought an Iso Cab and ran a feed out of the combo into the Iso Cab and shoved the Cab into the wardrobe for good isolation and very much lower volume.

For the record, I'm not much of a fan of the attenuator .

I like attenuators, but only up to a certain point of attenuation... after that (higher attenuation) the tone becomes flat mush.

I've considered the iso cab route myself but never researched it fully.

Which iso cab are you using?

 

[OzziePete]

Just to confirm this : I own an 18 w amp combo which has 2 x 6V6 power tubes, lots less potent than 6L6s, but it still kicks my butt volume-wise. So much so I bought an Iso Cab and ran a feed out of the combo into the Iso Cab and shoved the Cab into the wardrobe for good isolation and very much lower volume.

For the record, I'm not much of a fan of the attenuator .

I like attenuators, but only up to a certain point of attenuation... after that (higher attenuation) the tone becomes flat mush.

I've considered the iso cab route myself but never researched it fully.

Which iso cab are you using?

Demeter Iso Cab, bought it unloaded and bought the identical speaker that is in the combo. Luckily the combo has an extension socket that silences the combo speaker when hooked up. The quality of the Demeter Iso Cab build was OK (solid as the proverbial brick outhouse) but frankly, the interior looked like it was done by an amateur who knew what they were doing, rather than a manufacturer of sound reinforcement equipment, if you get my idea? I'm only pushing 18 w so the roll of in volume is probably more dramatic than with a 50 w or above amp.