Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: braintheory on January 18, 2011, 07:46:11 PM
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What do you guys think is the best attenuator? I've been doing research about this and the Bad Cat Leash, Aracom, and Rivera Rock Crusher look promising so far.
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Look at this one too. Not cheap, but you asked for the best.
http://www.ultimateattenuator.com/ (http://www.ultimateattenuator.com/)
The Ultimate Attenuator, a bold name and a bold statement, something that until you play with one you won't know. We call it the Ultimate Attenuator because it is, pure and simple. If you have an old great sounding amp that just has one problem: it's to loud and will get you expelled from your home by taging neighbours.....then read on! most known attenuators are based on the same old, outdated engineering concept: inaccurate volume control, destructive tone circuitry, and a lot of frustration. If you're like us you want a simple solution that gives you what you want when you want it. Your tone at any level, simple setup, and rock solid stability. No more stepped levels or presets, no more tone dulling effects of passive designs, and no more decrease in frequency response. With the Ultimate Attenuator you get your tone from bedroom to concert levels. Welcome to the Ultimate Attenuator, the most transparent and safest tube amplifier attenuator on the market in the world. Guaranteed
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I have an Ultimate Attenuator and I can say it is bloody good!
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I think our friend philx uses one of them live. His lead tone is the amp flat out whilst his rhythm tone is the atenuator at about 70%.
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I heard mixed things about the ultimate attenuator.
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http://www.nos.kingeshop.com/dB--Killer-MK2-100--200-watts-peak-cbpaaabOa.asp
more hand made but safe and handmade in France.
I dunno if he ships abroad but this thing is pretty enhanced here. The coolest feature is that it has a fan, its not dangerous even with a 100w tube amp and its designed only to make you feel less volume without sound quality loss.
The guy makes also cabs, full tube handmade heads and is pretty knowledgeable and he studied almost everything on the market to launch his own attenuator.
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The Hotplate has a fan and you can use it with 100watt heads.
It doesn't sound great at larger levels of attenuation though.
I don't think there is any real way to get that loud amp character at low volumes. Its always going to be different in some way depending on how you do it, what head you have, how much attenuation you use and at what level you set you amp, and how much sound your cab and/or speakers add to your sound. The question is how much you're willing to compromise.
WeberVST make one with a switchable load, so you can use different impedance combinations with the same attenuator. It also has some kind of tone stack.
Faustine Phantom is meant to be good too.
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I had a Weber Mass 150, and it was fine.
Relatively cheap too.
Mark.
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i've got the Weber too, does a perfectly good job, and considerably more affordable than the competition. like the others, with extreme attenuation the tone deteriorates, but i think that's largely because the speaker isn't working so hard anymore.
as with most guitar related things, there's a lot of snake oil and bullsheet involved when these come up. as far as i can tell, all the attenuator's do a similar job. whether or not you like the end result of one or another is mostly down to personal taste. just like with the amp's they're plugged in to :)
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I'm selling a Rockcrusher on gumtree if you're after one of the higher end ones - http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/rivera-rockcrusher-power-attenuator/78694643. Easily beats THD, but I haven't tried weber or ultimate attenuator though.
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I've tried the THD Hotplate and Weber MiniMass. Out of the two, the Hotplate was easily the best - works well down to about -8dB I think and then it starts to sound a bit mushy.
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The only one I've heard that doesn't seem to colour the tone is the Faustine one - checkout Pete Thorn's demos of it on Youtube.
Downside is they're around US$800.00
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Why do you want to use an attenuator? There are other ways to getting a good, low volume tone, without crushing it with an attenuator.