THD Hot Plate...

[hhcave]

Im thinking of getting a Hot Plate because my F-50 is a bit loud for home practice (i live in an apartment), firstly - do they alter tone in any way? Also, what would be the right one for me (there are different Hot Plates with different Ohm settings)? Do the Ohms correspond to how loud it will be?

Lastly - would you recommend it?

Cheers

[Jonny]

Hopefully AS Physics or any Physics at all won't fail me here.

So the THD Hotplate comes with different ohmages, so I would think that a higher ohm would give a higher resistance and thus it'll be quieter. But depending on the amount of watts you have, the more ohms on the Hotplate is recommended.

So (I think yet again) if you have a high wattage amp, you'll be ideal to get a high ohmage Hotplate.

But then again I pulled all of that out of my ass and I really don't know if that's correct.

Someone correct me, please.

[noodleplugerine]

Hopefully AS Physics or any Physics at all won't fail me here.

So the THD Hotplate comes with different ohmages, so I would think that a higher ohm would give a higher resistance and thus it'll be quieter. But depending on the amount of watts you have, the more ohms on the Hotplate is recommended.

So (I think yet again) if you have a high wattage amp, you'll be ideal to get a high ohmage Hotplate.

But then again I pulled all of that out of my ass and I really don't know if that's correct.

Someone correct me, please.

Gladly :P

The ohmage is to do with the speaker rating, and the output of the amp.

Check what ouput your speakers use in your amp, and what speakers you have - Then find out if they're serial parallel etc, and find out what ohmage rating you need by talking someone who's willing to do the math for you.

[kevincurtis]

Your amp should have the ohm rating by the speaker connection, then you need a hotplate to match it.

The hotplate can attenuate the volume down to nothing so will get you down to an acceptable level.

I have one and it does affect the tone, but for me it shows up more when recording. Personally for just playing/practising I would just rely on the master volume on the amp, but if you don't have that then the hotplate would be ideal.

[goddamn electric]

it depends what you are really looking to get out of it whether it will alter your tone or not, if you are looking to use it to play quietly in your apartment your amp wont sound very good, with the hotplate fully attenuating a cranked amp it will sound pretty rubbish in my opinion,

When i say this i mean compared to my amp fully turned up without the hotplate.

but if you are looking to just take the sound down a bit e.g. attenuate at around 8dB so its more acceptable then it works really well and doesn't really change the tone that much at all. at least i cant really notice it.

[hhcave]

So if my speaker output on the amp head says 8 Ohms thats the ohmage i should go for on the Hot Plate?

goddam electric - i'm looking to put the master volume on the amp at about 4-5 (50 watts) but have the volume as if it were around 2-3ish - would this sound decent?

[goddamn electric]

Yeah that should work fine with minimal change in tone, hot plates have a deep switch and a bright switch to help you make up if there is a loss in bass or treble anyway but using it like that you shouldn't have a problem, you should also find you can probably turn the amp up more than that and keep the volume around those levels and still get a great sound.

[indysmith]

if one more person says the word "ohmage" I'm gonna smack em

[viking]

So if my speaker output on the amp head says 8 Ohms thats the ohmage i should go for on the Hot Plate?

goddam electric -

That's correct.If the speaker output on your amp-head is 8 Ohms,you need a 8 Ohms Hot Plate.However,if you use 2 speakers (like i do),it can be more complicated.If that's the case,you should E-Mail THD.I did it and it was quickly answered..Good luck.

[ailean]

Anything anywhere in the signal chain will effect tone I guess. I have a 16ohm Hotplate rigged to my Rockerverb 50 / 4x12 (V30) set up. I think it's great, ok it messes with the tone a bit, but I suspect that the main change is that not as much energy is hitting the speakers, you need a certain amount of energy to make the cones move, and heavily attenuated they just won't push as much air.

However, it does allow me to access the full range of the RV's tones and settings at room levels. The RV doesn't have power scaling built in so maybe it's more important to me, but I'd be screwed without mine (and my RV would be little used).

[hhcave]

Hmmm? So if i'm using a 2x12 cab with 8 Ohm speakers i have to e-mail THD...?

Would the hot plate Ohm rating be different if i were using a 4x12 as opposed to a 2x12?

[martinw]

Aaaargh!  :roll:

Look, you should already be using the correct impedance output of your amp to match the cab. So if you've got a cab whose TOTAL impedance is 8 ohms, you use the 8 ohm output and need an 8 ohm Hotplate.

The number of speakers in the cab doesn't matter. The impedance of the cab should be marked on it.

However if you have 2 speaker outputs and an impedance selector, and intend using 2 cabs (why? if you want to play quieter first unplug one cab and reset the impedance!) that's when you would need to think about it and email THD.

So remember: 8 -> 8 -> 8     or 16 ->16 ->16

[hamfist]

Alternatively, if you still not sure ... if you are able to post good photos of the speaker output of the amp, and also the speakers and how they are wired up, then it would be easy for one of us to tell you what ohms Hotplate you need.

[AdamB]

Most heads, you can select the ohmage, ie, 4, 8 or 16 ohm.

It's the cab you usually have to worry about!

My cab is 8 ohm, therefore i have an 8 ohm hotplate

It doesn't matter whether it's a 2x12 or 4x12! It's only starts to get complicated when you connect 2 cabs instead of one, regardless of how many speakers in them

So, if your cab is 8 ohm, set your head also to 8 ohm and buy an 8 ohm hotplate :D

Simple!

[Antag]

Aaaargh!  :roll:

Look, you should already be using the correct impedance output of your amp to match the cab. So if you've got a cab whose TOTAL impedance is 8 ohms, you use the 8 ohm output and need an 8 ohm Hotplate.

The number of speakers in the cab doesn't matter. The impedance of the cab should be marked on it.

However if you have 2 speaker outputs and an impedance selector, and intend using 2 cabs (why? if you want to play quieter first unplug one cab and reset the impedance!) that's when you would need to think about it and email THD.

So remember: 8 -> 8 -> 8     or 16 ->16 ->16

+1

In true BKP-forum style, we seem to have made a fundamentally simple question complicated... :roll: :)