Hot Plate, anyone?

[guitlouie]

So in my search for great sound, I have found and loved to death my first generation Mesa Boogie dual rec.  I find it to be a much more versatile amp than some give credit for, they are usually just associated with the heavier side of modern metal, and Nu-metal.  I on the other hand find it does much more than that, and after switching out the stock tubes with the more Marshall-esque EL-34's I am even more in love with the cranked up, ear bleeding, wall melting sound of this puppy run through my Fender Custom Shop Tone-Master cabinet.  Trouble is....I just can't always be that loud.  Enter the THD Hot-Plate.  I think.  Seems to me this is the exact situation this thing was designed for, but I can't find anyplace that will let me try one out.  Besides, unless I use it on my own amp, I doubt I will get an accurate depiction of what it is capable of.  So, I turn to you my friends.  I know that I have seen one on here pictured with somebody's rig, just can't remember who, possibly WMHOLP???  Anyway, if anyone here has any real world experience with this thing, and cares to share, I would love to hear your thoughts before I go blow another 300 bucks on something that my wife and kids will instantly recognize as something they will get absolutely no use out of! 

 

[onedrop]

Power scaling is 1000% better than any attenuation device out there, IMO.

http://www.londonpower.com/

They have power scaling kits for modding your amp (for less than $300). Read up on it and see if it's for you (they have a FAQ and a few articles kicking around the site).

Basically it scales back the power of the power amp without sacrificing power amp distortion/compression. Most attenuators sap your tone, but on the other hand they don't require any modifications to your amp.

 

[GoDrex]

I've heard good things about Weber MASS

https://taweber.powweb.com/weber/mass.htm

edit - actually if your amp is 100 watts you'd probably need a different model...
https://taweber.powweb.com/weber/mass150.htm

 

[Patrick from Davis]

This is another sticky subject.  Like who makes the best amp, or fuzz pedal, or widget of the week, there is a lot of favoritism and debate over attenuation.  The Hot Plate is a nice way to do this, it works.  I have a Marshall Power Break from a decade or so ago and it does the same thing, more or less.  The largest complaint is the tone sucking of these devices.  While this may truly be the case, it is nice to lose a little tone and still be able to play through the rig without getting to know the local police, or getting divorce papers.  Once again, it is best to try them all and decide for yourself at some local music shop.  If you just want something to drop the output from the cabinet and are not going to worry much more about it, then go for it.  It is a nice way to drop the volume without mods to the amp.  This is also why 0.5 to 5 watt amps are popular.  Have a raging preamp without the power amp letting the little green men on Mars hear your practice session.  But back to your question, the THD stuff is good stuff.  If you need it to quiet down, it will do it.  The family can get used to not hearing "Mesa" volumes, I am sure that they'll understand.
Patrick

 

[nathan a]

The family can get used to not hearing "Mesa" volumes, I am sure that they'll understand.

It will be hard for them at first, so wean them slowly.

 

[Crappy]

I run 2 THD Hot Plates with my 5 watt Blackheart heads. Without them they are loud enough to hear outside my house.

 

[guitlouie]

Hey guys, thank you as always for the responses.  First off, to clarify, I usually don't keep the Mesa in my house, I usually keep it at my band's practice space, which is in an industrial area where we can be loud as hell at any time of day or night, and nobody calls the cops or anything, so my intention here is more about times I would like to be quiter for reasons of recording, or when the bass player and I are just trying to work stuff out and need to talk.  But anyway.....

onedrop-that stuff looks interesting, and I'm glad you pointed it out to me, but I just am not sure I want to get that involved in modding my amp. 

GoDrex-Those Webers look promising, and slightly cheaper than the Hot Plate.  I'll definitely have to look into those.  Thanks.

Patrick from Davis-I would totally love to try out some of these, or even just one at a local shop, but for some reason the guys around here all seem to have the same idea, and that is that these devices are absolutely not to be allowed in the hands of customers unless purchased.  I don't really get it, but they all say the same thing.  I'm kind of stuck like that.

Crappy-Seems like you like them....that is encouraging.

 

[blue313]

A buddy of mine runs a Hot Plate on a Vox AC30 and it sounds pretty good.  The fan is a little annoying though how it quickly cycles up and down depending on your attack.

 

[DocNrock]

I've heard good things about the hotplate, as well.  Thinking about getting one myself.  The master volume on my JSX has never been above "2," and that is with no one else home.  :laughing7:

 

[Patrick from Davis]

They are really cool for turning the amp up to see what it does.  And live to hear another day...  I have a Fender Hotrod Deluxe I got ages ago when they were cheap (well they still are in a way) and 40 watts was more than I could deal with.  Same problem of just barely cracking the knob to get a usable volume, but a little too far and E-youch!  I got the Marshall power brake because that was the only thing I was aware of that would help out with that problem.  The most fun I have had with it really limiting the volume and cranking the clean channel way up at the preamp, having the master at a reasonable level, 6 or so on a scale to ten.  Very "Sultans of Swing" sounding through the neck pickup.  Not a chance of getting that sound without the attenuator.  I was annoyed with the noise the fan made, but I put a small cardboard box over the thing and pointed the fan out of the opening in the box.  All fixed.
Patrick

 

[nathan a]

I'm glad I went for the vox ac15 instead of ac30. Depending on how I set the preamp volume, I've had the master at 1/2 or even 3/4 the way up without blowing the roof off. Yum.

 

[dbw]

Weird... I've been considering a Hot Plate or Power Brake, myself.  A guy I work with was just telling me that he runs his amps, a Tiny Terror and a 100W Marshall, into a Power Brake.  I've never even heard my Carvin V3 dimed out at 100W... my neighbors would flip, even if it was just one chord, and I'd probably go deaf at my practice spot, which is a pretty small room.

 

[Patrick from Davis]

Well, the dogma is that the attenuators do suck tone.  But the flip side is you actually get to use a power level on your amp that would be off limits unless special circumstances.  In another thread Jack mentioned the THD yellow jackets tube inserts.  It is another way to drop the output of your amp, but some folks just don't want to go that route.  Like the power scaling route, it involves going into your amp.  While that sounds like fun to me, I can understand how it might not to some people.  Before I started to dig up all of the info online, I got my powerbrake to use with a 40 watt amp.  It has worked out well for me and it was a good purchase.  I did get it back when they were a little under $300, so I might have a skewed sense of worth about it.
Patrick

 

[Volitions Advocate]

The only disadvantage I can think of with the THD is that you need different models for different impedance setups.

so you can't switch out your cab without buying a new hotplate unless its the same impedance.

 

[rahimiiii]

I am just thinking that a lot of amps, especially something modern like Mesa Boogie 50/100 watt (dual rects) uses the preamp to get its tone so wouldn't a master volume (PPIMV) mod work without sucking too much tone? I got a 50 watt plexi that has a PPIMV mod that sounds as good at low as well as high volume. Maybe it sounds better at high volumes but at 10 the master volume is effectively out of the circuit. That's what I am guessing anyways... not sure how it all works out I just know my amp sounds pretty good at low volume....

Seems all this power scaling sounds more complicated than they really should be... and a hot plate costs too much. I heard that using a dummy speaker works to attenuate the power too...