Too freakin bright

[f.sardis]

it is the capacitors you need to look out for. usually they are the two largest components inside the amp and they look like small barrels. you can discharge them by powering up the amp and while playing pull the plug from the wall. and keep strumming until the sound completely fades.
having said that, i still got zapped really good after doing that to my amp so you still need to be extra careful in there.

[silentrage]

I'm thinking of building an attenuator myself, the parts should be relatively cheap, and I think I found a suitable design.

http://www.aikenamps.com/DummyLoad.pdf

It's just a few resistors, capacitors and inductors wired together, with a simple 3 way switch for impedance selection. I'm getting the old man to help me, he has a bachelor's in electrical engineering, so should be ok as long as I get all the facts straight.
The speaker cables are easily accessible on the back of my combo.

I just wanna see if anyone's tried this and if there's anything I should watch out for.

[hamfist]

it is the capacitors you need to look out for. usually they are the two largest components inside the amp and they look like small barrels. you can discharge them by powering up the amp and while playing pull the plug from the wall. and keep strumming until the sound completely fades.
having said that, i still got zapped really good after doing that to my amp so you still need to be extra careful in there.

There well may be far more than two large electrolytic caps insode the amp. As f.sardis says, they are barrel or can shaped, and usually at least an inch and a half  to 3 inches long. Usual values stated on the side are between 32uF, 50uF and 100uF. Some cans contain 2 separate caps in one casing, in which case the connections will be two different +ves and one common -ve.  They will need to be discharged through a resistor (10K or 100K is fine) to the chassis. Each one can hold a charge which can potentially stop your heart so  be very careful.
  Some amp's caps can be discharged fairly well using your technique f.sardis, but others need it to be done once you get inside the chassis. it all depends on the circuit design.

[HTH AMPS]

I'm thinking of building an attenuator myself, the parts should be relatively cheap, and I think I found a suitable design.

http://www.aikenamps.com/DummyLoad.pdf

It's just a few resistors, capacitors and inductors wired together, with a simple 3 way switch for impedance selection. I'm getting the old man to help me, he has a bachelor's in electrical engineering, so should be ok as long as I get all the facts straight.
The speaker cables are easily accessible on the back of my combo.

I just wanna see if anyone's tried this and if there's anything I should watch out for.

that link above is just for a dummy load, not an attenuator.

[silentrage]

yeah, later I found this.

http://www.tube-town.net/diy/tt-pos/tt-posx-en.html