what attenuator to buy?

i've got 30 all tube amp

laney vc-30

if i buy attenuator i could play at badroom levels? with it? how much its help?

and what version to buy? 25 wat or 50 wat attenuator..

thenks for your help!

http://www.tedweber.com/atten.htm

I think you would want the 50 watter, but I could be wrong.

does anyone here actually use a Weber mass? how does it compare to teh Hot plate?

I own the weber and like it. My only complaint is that the volume control doesn't go down to silence. When I turn it all the way down, it is still probably a tad too loud for 1am playing.

I haven't tried the hotplate. I have built several, including one I made for $25. It only used resistors, all the other ones had a coil to provide some inductance. They are pretty easy to make.

do you have any schematics for a DIY reactive attenuator?

i've seen several purely resistive ones online, and i'm gonna go out on a limb and assume (maybe incorrectly?) that they don't as sound as good as reactive loads, or more people would use them...

Here is one.

Inductance is used because it is safer. The amp output sees around double the load at 10khz than it does at 100hz with a typical speaker, so you want the attenuator to mimic that response as closely as possible. Otherwise your ouput section runs a little hotter than normal at high frequencies.

Adding the coil (inductance) takes away some treble, so some people think attenuators sound muddy. But some of my tube amps actually sound a little fizzy at lower volumes, so for me, the reduces treble is an improvement.

Note the 10 ohm load. It might be cheaper to put 4 32 ohm resistors in parallel to handle higher wattage.

I've HAD the Load Dump and Mass...sold them both.

I still have the HotPlate and wont give it up either.

I'm glad that the Webers work for some, but to me they sucked sooo much more tone than the Hotplate. Even when bypassed they ate up sound. The HotPlate allows me to get down even to bedroom levels with a decent tone. No attenuator is going to allow an amp to sound it's best when you're trying to make that amp at FULL power, be audibly at bedroom levels. The Hotplate does it light years better (FOR ME) than the Webers i owned.

Pros for the Hotplate are:

More transparent high level attentuation

"VERY" high quality

Built in cooling fan

Can be used with upto a 130watt amp

Cons for the Hotplate:

Must buy a different hotplate for each OHM setting

MORE EXPEN$IVE

Some will say that the Weber has more control over the "amount" of attenuation, because of its type of potentiometer, where as the Hot plate uses a switch AND dial for volume control. But not really, I had them side by side and found that it was just as easy to setup the Hotplate.

I'm not putting down the weber stuff, they just didn't work for ME. YMMV.

Can you go to a Guitar Center, buy a HP with their 30-day satisfaction guarantee?

What kind of amp are you using?

I used the Webers on a 50watt JCM800, Peavey Valveking, Blues Junior, MusicMan Hd130 (in 65watt mode), Pignose G40V, Mesa Boogie Mark III (in class A-15watt mode) Deluxe Reverb....it has a multi-ohm settings which is very nice.

The HotPlate was used on all of the above (but also in their FULL watt modes (Mark III,HD130), Hiwatt Custom 100,...most of my 8ohm amps.

The Webers still sounded fine...but with more tone loss (even with fidgetting with the knobs). Like I mentioned earlier, they were LESS transparent (even when set to zero) than the HP. When set to high levels of attenuation the Hotplate was FAR more transparent. Under those extreme settings, the HP still "squashes" the signal too much for me too, but it's more usable (in that mode). These things really work better for getting your amp to produce that sweet power tube OD in gigging situations. Or for those times when you're almost at the amps sweetspot but it's already too loud for a particular setting. Then just knocking down 4 or 8dbs gets you there with minimal tone loss. Recently mine has stayed home. I use it to be able to get that sweet power tube crunch without the wife and kids screaming "it's too loud."

For that, it's worth EVERY penny and then some!!

I have been loooking for solutions for my Carvin MTS head. I have it set on 50watts, but even then I have to be very cautious in even gigging situations.

I love the tone I am getting, and really want to use my rig in church....but I really need the volume to be under control.

I think I may try the THD. If I don't like it, do they sell well on Ebay?

I use a Hotplate with a 50 watt carvin nomad. sounds great.