Best attenuator

[ampmike]

Hey Guys ,finally got my wrecks in nice cabs now.built a nice 4/12 out of Baltic birch.But I think it's time to get a attenuator .any records tigons ,rock crusher ,Webber mass,bad cat ect ?thanks Mikey

[dorrisant]

The Ultimates are nice too... anything that has a reactive load would probably work best. I have an Ultimate and have tried several including the Rock Crusher, Bad Cat and Weber Mini Mass. I liked them all really. I am not a fan of the Hotplates though. Too much gets lost on the top end.

[Winder]

Don't get me started on HotPlates. Sent one in for service and after a year or so of badgering, finally chased down Andy Marshall on Facebook and he sent me unit. It must have been some broken piece of crap off the shelf, becuase it was worse than the one I originally sent. Finally decided it was ~$400 lost and chucked the bad replacement unit in the closet. Bought 100W "Output Tamer" from Reyes Audio (on eBay) ... basically a variable L-Pad or something along those lines. Silver soldered connections and very reasonable price. Works like a champ for me, and sounds much better than the HotPlate.

[geetarpicker]

The Fryette power station 2 works well with my original and clone Express amps. The ability to use a pedal board “post amplifier” is very cool using the loop on the PS2. The PS2 is actually a reamper with a tube power amp, vs a typical power attenuator. I was a sceptic of the PS2 due to the complexity, but it works quite well even if used for just basic volume reduction or much more.

[dorrisant]

Oh yeah... the Freyette. I almost forgot about that one. Yes, it sounded very good as well. That is one of the perks of running a repair biz... you get to see and play all kinds of equipment. I have several attenuators traced because of this.

[studiodunn]

Ive had most of them and think they all had pros and cons, but for me the Aracom was the best pure attenuators. The Fryette is an amazing piece of gear but reamping affects the feel a bit To me. Still sounds great by just plays a little fuller.

[M Fowler]

I want the UA Ox for all of it's great functions.

[ampmike]

Mark don't you have a bad cat unleashed ?Also thanks guys I hold you all in high regard when it comes to amps and gear. Thanks for all the advice. Now I'm gonna do some research on your choices and pick one ,thanks Mikey

[Roe]

Fryette PS or Alex/Scumback Attenuator here

[M Fowler]

Mark don't you have a bad cat unleashed ?Also thanks guys I hold you all in high regard when it comes to amps and gear. Thanks for all the advice. Now I'm gonna do some research on your choices and pick one ,thanks Mikey

Michael, yes I have a Bad Cat Unleash which I like but the UA Ox would be for recording purposes since it has so man features to do that.
Not cheap so I'm not in hurry to buy it just yet.

Mark

[brewdude]

I have an old Marshall Power Brake PB100.
They seem to have a bad reputation, and it wasn't cheap when I bought it, but I've been happy with mine for some 20 years or more. It still works as its supposed to and sounds fine until its turned down very low. And, it can run silent--I used to use an HK Red box to send a signal to a mixer and play/record along with tracks through monitors or headphones. It was very useful for the small apartment I lived in.
I tend to prefer using a VVR to scale the amps operating voltages these days, but sometimes a combination of VVR and attenuation works well for me.

[Reeltarded]

MY EXPERIENCES WITH LOADS AND ATTENUATORS

The caveat is I won't spent a grand on $70 worth of parts but I will spend $700. You have two choices but really only one. Infinite loads with some sort of power or simple attenuation.

Before I star, RG just described a few weeks ago in the general forum what to do about building an infinite load with a line out for pocket change that will be bullet-proof to whatever output capacity you need. THIS IS THE BEST ANSWER.

I use Palmers.

Ox Box: Have one down stairs. It doesn't do what you think it does. There is no loop to insert effects and you can do the same thing as it does with a wider selection of rack devices and $50 worth of resistors, a pot, and a cap. Why that machine was engineered is a confounding mystery.

Bad Cat Unleashed: I have two of those. The class D amps died in just a very short time. The attenuation still works fine, and you can use the multiple gain settings and the footswitch for two selectable volumes. If you can find a dead one for under $50 its fine. It barely warms up with any common amp hammering the shit out of it.

The Ultimate sounds ok, but let's be real... that shit is for people who wear Farrari pants and socks when they drive their Ferraris. It's tremongous and non-compliant with the size and shape of most things you'll ever play it with.

Hotplates are for cooking bacon in a Marriot.

Fryette is a problem looking for a place to hapoen.. I can have a separate attenuator and class D or mosfet handle the power and sound more like my amp plus you are screwed if one thing breaks. This is a MASSIVE TUBE BAD CAT UNLEASHED. It's a thing that you can make sound great and will cost you a car over 15-20 years servicing where you could have thrown the amp that costs less than tubes in the bin and bought power amps every five years and still come out cheaper with the original signal intact instead of enhanced.

What else did we have..

RGs 19 cent one ohm surplus resistor load with a $2 alpha pot in a $3 box from Steve with a cap you have laying around in your pile is the best idea for a thousand reasons. The first that is is strong, the second that it's cheap resource, third that you can fix it in 5 minutes, fourth that you can make it for any capacity you can fit in your space, fifth that you decide a budget for the amp that can be replaced in the future by cheaper and more powerful alternatives and the devices are not married.

All-in-one solutions are rarely solutions. I have a complex setup, bit it's all simple devices doing one thing somewhat efficiently. What could be better than simplicity to us, the obsessive, who will turn every knob they give us?



I am violently set on this idea and my choices about this issue. Man. The failures we welcome.. we just want to play some guitar. wtf...

[stephenl]

What do you guys think about VVR, PowerScaling, and other similar techniques. I've used it on several amps and like it better than other methods I've tried. I'm not a professional musician, just an average hack at both playing and building

A side benefit of using this method is that you extend the life of your power tubes significantly as compared to running the PA at full tilt into a load.

[norburybrook]

MY EXPERIENCES WITH LOADS AND ATTENUATORS


Before I star, RG just described a few weeks ago in the general forum what to do about building an infinite load with a line out for pocket change that will be bullet-proof to whatever output capacity you need. THIS IS THE BEST ANSWER.

RGs 19 cent one ohm surplus resistor load with a $2 alpha pot in a $3 box from Steve with a cap you have laying around in your pile is the best idea for a thousand reasons. The first that is is strong, the second that it's cheap resource, third that you can fix it in 5 minutes, fourth that you can make it for any capacity you can fit in your space, fifth that you decide a budget for the amp that can be replaced in the future by cheaper and more powerful alternatives and the devices are not married.

All-in-one solutions are rarely solutions. I have a complex setup, bit it's all simple devices doing one thing somewhat efficiently. What could be better than simplicity to us, the obsessive, who will turn every knob they give us?



I am violently set on this idea and my choices about this issue. Man. The failures we welcome.. we just want to play some guitar. wtf...

Miles,

I can't find this post, do you have a link?

M

[M Fowler]

https://ampgarage.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 86#p388086