Can you hook up an attenuator to a modeling amp without problems?

[elsupermanny14]

Hey guys I just wanted to know if I could hook up an attenuator to a Line6 modeling amp without any issues? I currently have a Line6 Flextone II stack, but it's 200watts and way too loud to just practice with. It's pretty much reserved for playing with drummers only. The thing is, I want to practice with it at home but I need to cut the power on it. So if I hook up an attenuator to it, will safely reduce the power output?

 

I know attenuators are safe with tube amps but I'm just curious about amps that all computer and processor based. With that, if I were to hook an attenuator up to the new Line6/Bogner SpiderValve could I do it safely? Without harming the amp or any of it's processing components?

[GCDEF]

Attenuators don't get along with solid state amps. The only reason for an attenuator is to get power tube breakup at lower volumes. Since modeling amps don't have power tubes, connecting an attenuator to one doesn't make any sense. Just turn the volume down.

[MichaelSaulnier]

^^^^^

 

Yes.

 

On SS amps...

 

The volume control is your friend.

 

M

[ItchyFingers]

Um... Can't you just turn the "model" down? Its not like you need to saturate transistors.

[duncan]

yarp

[moctzal]

Vox's Valvetronix amps from the 30 and up have built in attenuators.

I don't see the point though if you don't have a tube in the power section though...

[GCDEF]

 

Vox's Valvetronix amps from the 30 and up have built in attenuators. I don't see the point though if you don't have a tube in the power section though...

 

 

They call it that. It's still basically a volume knob, not an attenuator like a Hot plate.

[moctzal]

 

They call it that. It's still basically a volume knob, not an attenuator like a Hot plate.

 

 

Oh.

I didn't know that.

My bad.

[golias]

 

Hey guys I just wanted to know if I could hook up an attenuator to a Line6 modeling amp without any issues?

 

 

To answer directly, yes you can.

 

To pile on with the crowd, what the heck is wrong with your volume knob?

[musicmaker '55]

Attenuators don't get along with solid state amps. The only reason for an attenuator is to get power tube breakup at lower volumes. Since modeling amps don't have power tubes, connecting an attenuator to one doesn't make any sense. Just turn the volume down.

 

+1 on attenuators not getting along with solid state amps... chances are, it will make them esplode.

 

Attenuators are dangerous enough when used on tube amps. Trying to dime too big an amp to real low practice volumes can fry it.

[golias]

 

+1 on attenuators not getting along with solid state amps... chances are, it will make them esplode. Attenuators are dangerous enough when used on tube amps. Trying to dime too big an amp to real low practice volumes can fry it.

 

 

Doesn't a good attenuator just simulate a speaker load? As long as you're not cranking the amp, drawing some of the power off the speaker signal shouldn't be a disaster.

 

But again, about as practical as installing a screen door on a submarine.

[PaulSter]

An attenuator on a SS amp makes absolutely no sense. It's a completely different process. The sole reason for existance on an attenuator is, as you probably know, to push your power tubes into the sweet zone at non-punishing sound levels.

 

Something else people don't consider, but try to do, is to squash the volume to bedroom levels and to expect that sweet singing tone of a cranked tube power section. It just won't happen. It's too choked at that point.

 

PaulS

[musicmaker '55]

+1 to PaulSter

 

Golias:

 

For years I've tried to understand and absorb the basics of guitar amps and the gear designed to mold their sound and I still have a Forrest Gump like knowledge of them.

 

But this I know for sure: Several manufacturers of attenuators I know of warn against using their products on solid state amps. The whole point of an attenuator is to saturate the power section of a tube amp into distortion that can be controlled at lower volumes.

 

My simple understanding of it is that the more gain to the amp while lowering the output to the speakers means more heat. That heat can dissipate to a point. But build up too much and you're burning up tubes and possibly a transformer or worse. Some solid state amps can quickly become overheated and fail when dimed by an attenuator as this heat build up cannot be absorbed and dissipated as quickly by the components and SS transformers as tube amps can. Most SS amps have little or no ventilation because they don't need it like tube amps do. But, push them to overheat with an attenuator, and that all changes.

 

Now, how about someone who REALLY knows their stuff come along and correct me or esplain it easy enough for me to understand better??

[ItchyFingers]

Makes sense to me Music maker.

 

Then again, my knowledge of electronics is limited to my soldering iron and holding my power adaptor and whatever its plugged into for a test run. If it heats up - I did something wrong. If neither heats up, time to rawk.

[elsupermanny14]

I bought the stack a few years back when I was playing shows and needed something with a lot of high volume and power. Now that I'm just playing by myself the amp is way too much power. It's a 200watt head! I can't even play it past 1.5 without shaking my entire house. So I usually try to keep it at around 1 which is tolerable at home. However when I play it at 1 the dirty channels don't sound good at all. That's why I'm curious of how I can the volume to stay down so I can play in my house without losing the ability to play practice at home.

[Rick 381]

 

Vox's Valvetronix amps from the 30 and up have built in attenuators. I don't see the point though if you don't have a tube in the power section though...

 

 

 

The Vox Valvetronix has a tube in the power section.

[Rick 381]

 

They call it that. It's still basically a volume knob, not an attenuator like a Hot plate.

 

 

It's not a volume knob. It changes the wattage to 1,15,30,or 60 on my amp.

[MichaelSaulnier]

I bought the stack a few years back when I was playing shows and needed something with a lot of high volume and power. Now that I'm just playing by myself the amp is way too much power. It's a 200watt head! I can't even play it past 1.5 without shaking my entire house. So I usually try to keep it at around 1 which is tolerable at home. However when I play it at 1 the dirty channels don't sound good at all. That's why I'm curious of how I can the volume to stay down so I can play in my house without losing the ability to play practice at home.

 

Even if you used an attenuator... it will still not sound good at all in the same way turning down the volume does not sound good.

 

Down is down with SS amps.

 

 

M

[musicmaker '55]

 

I bought the stack a few years back when I was playing shows and needed something with a lot of high volume and power. Now that I'm just playing by myself the amp is way too much power. It's a 200watt head! I can't even play it past 1.5 without shaking my entire house. So I usually try to keep it at around 1 which is tolerable at home. However when I play it at 1 the dirty channels don't sound good at all. That's why I'm curious of how I can the volume to stay down so I can play in my house without losing the ability to play practice at home.

 

 

Well, you got enough posts about attenuators and using the vol. knob. But, that still doesn't address the issue of how you can play your bigass 200 watt stack in the house.

 

One issue is how those speaker cabs sound at real low volume... probably not good at all. Running an amp this way makes the speakers sound like what I call "fizzy"; fuzzy and thin.

 

Consider a small open back cabinet loaded with a single 10" speaker of about 25 watts max. A speaker that can handle about "1" on your amp's vol. and maybe one that breaks up nicely around 15 watts or so... as opposed to say, 200!

 

Of course, you would have to use the main "speaker out" jack and not an extension cab jack and make sure that the speaker ohmage of your practice mini-cab matches the ohmage of your head. ...and OF COURSE you have to be mindful not to overload that lil' speaker or it'll quickly go... FWAAAAP.

 

This setup may work better on a SS amp than a tube one as the sound may be less of an issue at a low volume than that of a tube amp. As I read once: 'tube amps don't owe you anything below "2" and above "8" on their volume settings".

[elsupermanny14]

 

Well, you got enough posts about attenuators and using the vol. knob. But, that still doesn't address the issue of how you can play your bigass 200 watt stack in the house. One issue is how those speaker cabs sound at real low volume... probably not good at all. Running an amp this way makes the speakers sound like what I call "fizzy"; fuzzy and thin. Consider a small open back cabinet loaded with a single 10" speaker of about 25 watts max. A speaker that can handle about "1" on your amp's vol. and maybe one that breaks up nicely around 15 watts or so... as opposed to say, 200! Of course, you would have to use the main "speaker out" jack and not an extension cab jack and make sure that the speaker ohmage of your practice mini-cab matches the ohmage of your head. ...and OF COURSE you have to be mindful not to overload that lil' speaker or it'll quickly go... FWAAAAP. This setup may work better on a SS amp than a tube one as the sound may be less of an issue at a low volume than that of a tube amp. As I read once: 'tube amps don't owe you anything below "2" and above "8" on their volume settings".

 

 

Is there a reason why I need to use the "speaker out" and can't use the extension cab jack? In all honesty what are the chances of me ruining the speaker cabinet of my BlackHeart if I were to hook it up to my 200watt SS head in order to downsize the speaker?

 

Thanks for the help so far!

[flummox]

 

Is there a reason why I need to use the "speaker out" and can't use the extension cab jack? In all honesty what are the chances of me ruining the speaker cabinet of my BlackHeart if I were to hook it up to my 200watt SS head in order to downsize the speaker? Thanks for the help so far!

 

You can run the SS head into the blackheart if the ohm rating matches correctly and if you don't run it very loud. That might help, but the fact is that at low volumes, your amp won't sound as good to you because you're simply not moving as much air. When you play loud, especially through a big cab, you feel the sound as much as hear it. Nothing can replicate that effect.

[golias]

 

+1 to PaulSter Golias: For years I've tried to understand and absorb the basics of guitar amps and the gear designed to mold their sound and I still have a Forrest Gump like knowledge of them. But this I know for sure: Several manufacturers of attenuators I know of warn against using their products on solid state amps. The whole point of an attenuator is to saturate the power section of a tube amp into distortion that can be controlled at lower volumes. My simple understanding of it is that the more gain to the amp while lowering the output to the speakers means more heat. That heat can dissipate to a point. But build up too much and you're burning up tubes and possibly a transformer or worse. Some solid state amps can quickly become overheated and fail when dimed by an attenuator as this heat build up cannot be absorbed and dissipated as quickly by the components and SS transformers as tube amps can. Most SS amps have little or no ventilation because they don't need it like tube amps do. But, push them to overheat with an attenuator, and that all changes. Now, how about someone who REALLY knows their stuff come along and correct me or esplain it easy enough for me to understand better??

 

 

Well, my understanding is that solid-state amps should never be dimed, period. That's why they make 'em with 100 bajillion watts of output power, so you leave the volume at 3 and still flood the room with sound.

 

So you could say that using an attenuator is a bad idea, because it will lead you to running the amp hotter for no reason, a colossally stupid idea with an amp that sounds LESS pleasant when pushed to extremes, as opposed to tube amps, which are pure sex at high output levels.

 

But the attenuator itself, from what I've seen, wouldn't really damage a solid-state amp running at modest output levels.

 

But again... utterly pointless.

[golias]

I bought the stack a few years back when I was playing shows and needed something with a lot of high volume and power. Now that I'm just playing by myself the amp is way too much power. It's a 200watt head! I can't even play it past 1.5 without shaking my entire house. So I usually try to keep it at around 1 which is tolerable at home. However when I play it at 1 the dirty channels don't sound good at all. That's why I'm curious of how I can the volume to stay down so I can play in my house without losing the ability to play practice at home.

 

Take the $250 you might have spent on an attenuator, and buy an Epiphone Valve Jr. head and the matching 1x12 cab. Practice through that.

 

Problem solved.

 

[elsupermanny14]

Take the $250 you might have spent on an attenuator, and buy an Epiphone Valve Jr. head and the matching 1x12 cab. Practice through that. Problem solved.

 

If you look in my sig I already have the BlackHeart stack. I just want to actually play with all of the features and amp models that are in the Line6. I would like to do that without causing earth shattering earthquakes every time I turn the value up to 1.5 lol.

[golias]

 

If you look in my sig I already have the BlackHeart stack. I just want to actually play with all of the features and amp models that are in the Line6. I would like to do that without causing earth shattering earthquakes every time I turn the value up to 1.5 lol.

 

 

Well, if buying a smaller amp for practice makes too much sense, you could always turn down the volume knob on your guitar, too.