Attenuator - has anybody tested??

[PIPCO]

I´m about to buy a Mesa Triple Rectifier and as most of you already know, these monsters plays LOUD at 150 watts. Much too loud for basement practice unless you live alone 10 miles out in the desert, which is not my situation.

I just read about this little device called THD Hot Plate Power Attenuator, which enables you to krank the volume knob up to maximum, and then you let the Attenuator take care of the out-volume by the knob in the front, letting your huge amp work for full but the sound coming out could be used in the bedroom after the kids have fallen asleep.

This little device costs around 300.00 and must be worth every cent if it works as it should.

http://www.thdelectronics.com/products/hotplate.htm

Anybody with experience from an attenuator, willling to share his impressions?Is the sound really just lowered or are there any other side-effects of it?

I would very much appreciate any kind of information as soon as possible since I just got this terrible disease, the worst disease of them all: G.A.S.

Thanks in advance all attenuators out there.

[losgatosrg350dx]

Originally Posted by PIPCO

I´m about to buy a Mesa Triple Rectifier and as most of you already know, these monsters plays LOUD at 150 watts. Much too loud for basement practice unless you live alone 10 miles out in the desert, which is not my situation.

I just read about this little device called THD Hot Plate Power Attenuator, which enables you to krank the volume knob up to maximum, and then you let the Attenuator take care of the out-volume by the knob in the front, letting your huge amp work for full but the sound coming out could be used in the bedroom after the kids have fallen asleep.

This little device costs around 300.00 and must be worth every cent if it works as it should.

http://www.thdelectronics.com/products/hotplate.htm

Anybody with experience from an attenuator, willling to share his impressions?Is the sound really just lowered or are there any other side-effects of it?

I would very much appreciate any kind of information as soon as possible since I just got this terrible disease, the worst disease of them all: G.A.S.

Thanks in advance all attenuators out there.

i got a marshal first and it SUCKED and then i got a thd


these are really only practical if you are playing clean tones

with distortion they DONT sound good at all unless you completey dial it in

not worth it, some poeple like it, some people hate it

try it on a messa, and the hotplate is only rated at a single channel at 50 watts, anything above that and it wont work right or sound right

i think, anyone else think otherwise..??

[ColinMmmmm]

There are a bunch of other threads on this same topic . . .

[wilch]

Paul Gilbert had a THD hotplate on top of his Marshall during his recent Australian clinics.

Sounded great.

[elcid]

I had a hotplate and it killed the tone of my Marshall 1959SLP.
It was one of the worst gear purchases I ever made.

[Lefty Robb]

Try a Weber Mass, they don't suck the tone nearly as much since they actually use a speaker driver to soak the tone, and not a bunch of resistors. I liked mine before I had to sell it.

[losgatosrg350dx]

Originally Posted by Lefty Robb

Try a Weber Mass, they don't suck the tone nearly as much since they actually use a speaker driver to soak the tone, and not a bunch of resistors. I liked mine before I had to sell it.

yeah i heard those were better but i never got around to finding one

[Ayrton]

Originally Posted by Lefty Robb

Try a Weber Mass, they don't suck the tone nearly as much since they actually use a speaker driver to soak the tone, and not a bunch of resistors. I liked mine before I had to sell it.

The Weber is the one to get.

[T.B.A.]

I have a THD Univalve head, with built in "hotplate".
I'm a huge fan of this amp', but not a fan of how the attenuator completely changes the sound, at all.
So I just don't use the hotplate and found some really low powered tubes ;-).

[Drew]

I may be in the minority, then - I swear by my hotplate. Does it color the sound a bit? Sure... Bt with the deep and bright switches engaged it's not too bad (with them off, though, anything over 8dB makes the amp sound horrible) at all, and more to the point, my Rectoverb combo running with the volume halfway up at -16db attenuation sounds WAY better than the amp with no attenuator does at the same volume.

And that's the critical thing to remember - yes, it's not perfectly transparent, but is your sound betterat the volumes you'll be using it with the Hot plate than without? For an amp as volume-sensitive as a Rectifier, I wouldn't recommend owning one in an apartment without an attenuator.

I wouldn't run the Triple wide open and use the attenuator to control the volume - with 6L6's, the "sweet spot" seems to be about halfway up with channel volume at around 1/3 on my Rectoverb, though with E34L's you can go a bit higher. Muchpast that sweet spot though, and you go from poweramp compression/coloration to poweramp distortion, and for high gain metal rhythm stuff you actually don't want a fully saturated power amp - the low end tightness just falls away. IT's perfectly safe for the poweramp and the attenuator to crank it all the way up, but I just doublt you'll like the sound.

I can't speak to how the Weber compares to the Hot Plate, bu I know a lot of guys over at sevenstring.org own and like Webers.

[Racerx2k]

I use one of the original Scholz Power Soaks, and have not noticed any any tonal changes, until I push the amp beyond 8, but I'm guessing that change is coming from the amp, and not the Soak.

[LonePhantom]

Originally Posted by wilch

Paul Gilbert had a THD hotplate on top of his Marshall during his recent Australian clinics.

Sounded great.

I agree, Paul sounded great with the THD running.

He has also said that the Vintage Modern actually sounds pretty good with the master just turned down for home practice. He said he does that at home, and whilst the power tubes aren't running full steam the amp still sounds pretty much the same.

[microdmitry]

Gilbert's "turned down" could be everyone else's "11". It's not a coincidence that he wears isolating headphones now - years of standing in front of walls of Marshall 4x12's wrecked his hearing pretty bad.

[LonePhantom]

I don't think so, he has said that he doesn't like it really loud when just practicing and stuff.

[microdmitry]

Anyway, attenuators suck. Get your amp tech install this into your amp:

http://londonpower.com/kits/dcpsk1.htm

Adjustable output power down to whisper level, adjustable sag, and adjustable power stage overdrive. And there's NOTHING between your amp and your speaker.