power attenuator alternative?

[JDC]

ok i'm up too late and half asleep and thinking too much again

instead of using something like marshall power brick thingy to get the most tone out of your amp, could you fx loop out your amp into the fx loop of say a different but lower powered tube amp?

probably change your tone a bit but cheaper way to do it if you already have a low power tube amp

or am I talking absolute rubbish and would kill an amp or 2?

just curious :)

[igloo0213]

You could definitely do it, but putting your signal into a lower powered power amp also means that it will have different tubes, therefore changing the tone quite significantly.

And I would also assume that you would not be able to get the volume down a whole lot lower. Remember: twice the wattage only equals another 3dB of volume (Or is it clean headroom? I can't remember).

My 20 watter can get pretty darn loud, so I definitely would not be trying to use the poweramp of it for the preamp of my 50 watt, if the intent is to achieve lower volume.

[Ratrod]

I made a little box with a volume knob that you can put in your FX loop.

[TwilightOdyssey]

The best alternative to an attenuator is to play in a place where you can turn the amp up properly!!

[LazyNinja]

I made a little box with a volume knob that you can put in your FX loop.

Or simply an EQ pedal. If your amp has a serial FX loop you can just stick an EQ pedal in there with all the sliders turned down and it works a treat.

[hunter]

One thing to keep in mind is that if you need to flip the source amp fully on to use its preamp, it needs a speaker load (even if vol on "0").

On the Bogner Shiva and the Diezel Einstein this is not needed as its preamp fully works with the amp on Standby.

However, when I ran the Send of my Shiva into the Tiny Terror, it was rather disappointing. Overly bright and thin. Maybe it was wrong because I used a line level send into an instrument in of the Terror ... actually thinking about it now that was most definitely the issue.

As others mentioned before, even 5W amps are still damn loud.

The only really working alternative seems to be London Power Scaling.

[Twinfan]

The only really working alternative seems to be London Power Scaling.

Agreed.  I'm looking forward to trying it out on an amp in the future.

[sgmypod]

London power scaling?? whats that then

[Twinfan]

It controls power to the valves.  Lower power = less output.  It's a fairly serious mod.

[sgmypod]

oh cool

[hunter]

Some recently released new amps that are using the feature:

Fargen MiniPlex Mk II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_euZJYNlaY

Suhr Badger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBUxUB-6qjw

Wondering if I could fit this in a Tiny Terror  :twisted:

[badgermark]

I think I have found my new amp, Suhr Badger sounds awesome. Shame it doesn't have reverb...

How much are these puppies?

[hunter]

1700$

They have an FX loop so reverb can be added at will

You liked the Badger more than the MiniPlex?

[badgermark]

I wasn't too impressed by the Miniplex.

I'm on the lookout for a good low powered valve head, looking to splash out on a super sweet amp next year. I'll come back in 12 months and see what's on offer.

[Johnny Mac]

It controls power to the valves.  Lower power = less output.  It's a fairly serious mod.

Is it something like Van Halen's 'Variac' mod he had on his Plexi?