Attenuate with a pedal?

[tlarson58]

I tend to agree with the two comments below (you'll have to click the comments box to enlarge it). Some clarification is appreciated.

[tlarson58]

Bumpity?

I tried this today. Meh. It didnt sound as good as my amp's tone.

[golem]

I've experimented with a few ways to get good tone at lower volumes.

1. Using an EQ pedal in an FX Loop to lower the volume that hits the power tubes.
2. A proper attenuator between a head and the cab.
3. Using OD, boost, or compressor pedals before an amp.
4. Using the Revival Drive as my Pre Amp and going into the power section of an amp

They all work to some extent but I've heard of not all FX loops being created equal and a warning that if your tone comes from the power tubes of an amp you might not be happy with the first one. The EQ pedal gives you a lot of control over the tone though, which I thought was quite nice. The second one also worked well for me. I used something Soldano designed attenuator that was offered cheaply for <$150 that Bugera later stole the design of. I've heard of people discussing loss of high end. If there was, it wasn't noticeable to me. It helped me play a very loud Rivera at bedroom volumes. The third I did with my Origin 5 which I think sounds great after a tube swap. I use the Strymon ob1 to both compress and boost the signal. The result is that I'm able to get a very nice big tone that sounds great, still has dynamics, but which doesn't have large enough spikes in volume to get me complaints.The fourth is my favorite. I do this with my BK Butler Tube Driver Combo which has a preamp you can turn off. I then just plug the the Revival Drive into the power section (which is similar to the Mosvalve Power Amp that can be bought used as rack gear). The sound is glorious. Much better than I would've expected.

Of all these approaches, I really only still use 3 and 4 at this point, but still think 1 and 2 can work well.

[aullucci]

I'm curious about home attenuation as well, and I'll say this is one of the reasons I splurged on that $19 Behringer EQ pedal (I don't really want to drop $300 for a Torpedo Captor or something either). I'm no tube amp tech guy, so I defer to people who know more about this, but I've definitely done the EQ pedal trick. Certainly, it depends on the quality of your EQ pedal and loop, but in theory that seems to make the most sense to me. I've run an old Fish n Chips last in line into the front of a tube amp with the same results. Crank the gain on all the pedals/preamps, drop the volume on the EQ, then set the amp loud to make the power tubes work. I'm not recording or anything, but for my particular audience (me, occasionally the dog), it works great...

If I was recording, probably the Torpedo tho. That thing does a lot for $300 and apparently does it really well.

[andrewsrea]

I tend to agree with the two comments below (you'll have to click the comments box to enlarge it). Some clarification is appreciated.

In the blues.jpg

IMHO, the tones in the video are like you described, meh and the comments are somewhat right and somewhat wrong. Using a master volume or a pedal as one, reduces the signal to the output section and speaker. A component of what I consider a big, 3-D tone, is the output section and speaker doing some serious working. As @golem mentioned, unless you are using a device like a Revival Drive and perhaps a cabinet simulator plug-in on the recorded track, you are not going to get the sound of Jimi Hendrix through a wall of stack amps.

Using a master volume (exception would be a Ken Fischer post-inverter MV) or a pedal as a MV, your tone will be high gain fizzy and not high gain grindy.

[tlarson58]

@golem @aullucci @andrewsrea

Thank you guys for the in-depth thoughts and suggestions. This reply does not give them the justice they deserve but I did try them all - except those involving a send/return because my amp doesn't have one.

After lots of fiddling, tweaking, cranking, etc. I feel that my tele and Princeton Reverb sound decent with a bit of pedal overdrive, volume at 2:00 and a bit of attenuation from the Z BraKe-Light. "Sounds better when cranked, but the practice room space won't allow it. (Boo!)

Thanks, again.

Tommy

[andrewsrea]

@golem @aullucci @andrewsrea

Thank you guys for the in-depth thoughts and suggestions. This reply does not give them the justice they deserve but I did try them all - except those involving a send/return because my amp doesn't have one.

After lots of fiddling, tweaking, cranking, etc. I feel that my tele and Princeton Reverb sound decent with a bit of pedal overdrive, volume at 2:00 and a bit of attenuation from the Z BraKe-Light. "Sounds better when cranked, but the practice room space won't allow it. (Boo!)

Thanks, again.

Tommy

Glad it worked-out! Sounds like you achieved a decent practice tone?

Identical to your experience and regardless if I am using a resistive or inductive load attenuator (like your z-Brake), my ears don't like more than -3dB to -6dB of attenuation. The speakers just are not adding their harmonics to the mix.

[aullucci]

One of my concerns about the Torpedo is that the attenuation is fixed at -20db (at least on the $300 entry version). That seems like a lot of volume to cut...