Pentode/Triode/half-power switches

[Entropy]

Do the half-power/pentoed/triode switches found on many amps affect the sound negatively at all?

Does it make the amp sound "muffled" or "choked"?
Or does it just let the tubes breathe but at a lower volume?
Do these switches sound different than say a "THD HOTPLATE"?

For example....I see th Rivera Knuckleheads have this option. I like the soundclips of the heads...but haven't seen one/played one in person.

If I want to practice after the kids have gone to bed, can these switches give me reasonable tone or am I wasting my time thinking that I can get good amp gain and distortion at livingroom levels?

Thanks for any input!
Rock on,

[Black Napkins]

By swiching pentode to triode, you half reduce the power on all the tubes.By the way you avoid that only 2 valves (on a 100w=4 amp tubes) harder than normal,and have a shorter working life.So its a SAFE way to reduce the power (in fact the tube work with three cathode instead of five).

But the real cool stuff is that also change the tone of your amp. Triode gives a smoother Tone.Its a matter of taste, but i always play in triode mode

[7 Dying Trees]

A pentode is basically a triode with two more plates within the tube to do strange things to it to make it more high gain, and tyhus more powerfull than a triode. Trick is, that you can bias the plates such that it acts like a triode, and thus has lower power. It'll change the output tube stage and it's tone somewhat, but the preamp will stay the same (which is where most of your tone comes from anyway).

Make it quiter, but a 100w amp on half power (50w)is still loud, but does allow tube saturation at more listenable levels...

Personally it may be better to get yourself a hotplate.

[Entropy]

Thanks for the replies. I think I understand it a little better now.

The Knucklehead 55 has advertised switches that allow it to go down to 8W operation from 55W.

I totally understand a 50W head is not a *lot* quieter than 100W. But surely 8W is quieter than 55W.

Does the HOTPLATE adversely affect tone? I'm not sure I like the fact that you need to buy a HOTPLATE based on cabinet ohmage. Kinda locks you into a particular cab config.

[EKG]

I checked out all the different power soaks, brakes, attenuators and found the THD HotPlate to be the best (IMO). I am using it with my Legacy stack at bedroom levels sometimes. With the bright and boost switches, and a variable volume (instead of 11 levels of volume), the THD is quite a unit, even if you have to buy a specific impedence. I would definitely buy another if I had to for another setup.

[zendra]

i once did a 600 people ball/gig with a 12 w peavey rage(not a great sound but nevertheless loud sound) and i have a rivera tbr 1m with switches you're talking about. trust me 8 watts is plenty (too)loud for home. read the manuals at their site(they explain what are the changes). in short you're changing nature of the sound(type of amp sound) and not so much the amount of noise coming out(that's measured in decibels...although wattage does "somewhat" reflects loudness. 100 w compared to 5o w= around 10 % louder in decibels)