FrankS1281734010 Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 I've been considering buying my first tube amp come tax refund time, and I wanted to find something that I could use both at home and on stage, so I'm considering buying a stage-worthy amp and an attenuator So I have a few questions: A)would pushing the snot out of my amp with an attenuator make me go through tubes faster? B)Do they color the tone at all? and C) are there any attenuators that are better than others? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenrirlupus Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 I've been considering buying my first tube amp come tax refund time' date=' and I wanted to find something that I could use both at home and on stage, so I'm considering buying a stage-worthy amp and an attenuator So I have a few questions: A)would pushing the snot out of my amp with an attenuator make me go through tubes faster? B)Do they color the tone at all? and C) are there any attenuators that are better than others? [/quote'] A) wether you use an attenuator or not, you'll go through tubes faster if you push the snot out of your amp. sorry, you have to leave the snot in there. well kept secret of tube amp builders. B)i'm not sure C) see answer to "B)" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m-theory Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 Yes Yes Yes Imho, you're better off getting an amp that you can run the way you want without having to rely upon attenuation. In other words, in most cases, something around 20 watts, if you intend to run it to tube distortion, and use your guitar volume to get your "cleans." 18-20 watts is plenty of output to give you enough volume to hear yourself on most typical stages. Go much beyond that and you'll destroy the FOH mix. It's nice to have a bigger amp for very large stages and outdoor festivals, but if you're attenuating that 50-100 watt amp down to 20 watts or so 95% of the time, what does that tell you? (speaking from personal experience here...this is a conversation I've had with myself). The point is, you want to have enough output to give you ample stage volume to match your rhythm section and monitor system, but not so much that you either cannot drive the amp into output tube distortion, or in doing so, you blow away the rest of the band. You want your FOH engineer to take care of the FOH mix, and he really cannot do that if your amp is blowing out the rest of the band. Bear in mind that 18-20 watts is too loud for typical solo rehearsal at home. For that, look for something in the 1-2 watt range. Ideally, if a person prefers tube amps, it's not at all a bad idea to have a 1-2 watter (or lower), a 7-8 watter, an 18-20 watter, and a 50-100 watter, so that you're able to cover virtually any venue. This was really Leo Fender's idea behind his amp line. He offered very similar sounding amps in output levels to suit any situation/venue. Smart guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nighthawk Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 Check out Premier Guitar http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2009/Mar/Quiet_Please_Attenuators_and_Their_Many_Uses.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Lister Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 A) yes or no... the debate rolls on -- but the harder you push valves the tendency is shorter lifespan color is not quite accurate -- SUCK is closer C) maybe... but after trying hot plates and VVR, I gave up and found a better solution (for me) Solution = VJr. cranked 1:00 - max (always), pedal in-front (always), use combo of guitar/pedal vol. controls for practice levels (where front-end crush is not critical but still can be tweaked to some degree with pedal's gain knob) and adjust both upward as appropriate for performances. Granted this method will not be as effective for any valve amp above say 30w. But no one I know practices with big watt valve amps anyway -- it's just too impractical/costly -- and the tone loss dictates owning a smaller watt amp to hone those chops. Hit every BLUE NOTE baaaby..., I'm going to play on:-" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cGil Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 B) color is not quite accurate -- SUCK is closer Good call! -- and the tone loss dictates owning a smaller watt amp to hone those chops. It's so much more effective to reduce volume on a 5 watt amp in very low volume settings, even with a tone sucking attenuator, since the overall volume will be much lower with a good warm fat tone before it gets to the point where it totally sucks. Given that point, it really doesn't make sense to attempt the same job with a 100w head. Face it. Stadium gear is extreme overkill in a bedroom and won't give you the fat warm tone you want, no matter what you do while choking it to death. And yes, running your tubes full blast will eat 'em faster. That's life. If you're gonna do that anyway, doesn't it make sense to only have to swap one $12 tube, instead of a matched quad of octals? Gil... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenrirlupus Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 yes' date=' running your tubes full blast will eat 'em faster. That's life. If you're gonna do that anyway, doesn't it make sense to only have to swap one $12 tube, instead of a matched quad of octals? Gil...[/quote'] +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hiberna Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 But isnt the point of an attenuator so you can krank your amp but without the volume? but it does purely depend on whether your amp sounds better kranked or not. IMO id take the amp to a shop, ask to try out a attenuator see whether it did make a decent sound when kranked, if not leave it, if so buy it and enjoy it. regardless of messing up the valves in your amp, attenuators do a fine job, depending on the one you buy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafaelh Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 A)would pushing the snot out of my amp with an attenuator make me go through tubes faster? Pushing the "snot" out of a tube amp will eat tubes regardless. Some folks that only ran there tube amps at low volumes in the past are now with the use of an attenuator able to crank them up higher and are noticing the life of there tubes are shorter. Nothing to do with the attenuator eating tubes or blowing transformers. B)Do they color the tone at all? No...depends on how you use one' date=' or rather how much you attenuate. The ones I've tried while still wide open had no effect on the tone. The more you cut the speaker out of the equation then yeah. I mean you're not going to avoid the change in tone there. and C) are there any attenuators that are better than others? Never tried the Webers but have read positive reviews on them. The others I've tried (Gibson, Hot Plate and Power Brake) pretty much the same to me....although the Marshall one seem to me a bit less favorable then the other two. FWIW...I have one of them in my gear cemetery. Anyhow as always just my opinions...right or wron#-o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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