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Post by combo800 on Apr 3, 2006 14:17:12 GMT -7
I've never used an attenuator before... but today I received the AirBrake I ordered. This thing is GREAT! I imagine a lot of you already have one of these, but I was amazed to hear how transparent it is. Yeah, when it's in "bedroom settings," the highs do get a little soft... but still, it ain't bad. I should've got one of these things ages ago!
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Post by benttop (Steve) on Apr 3, 2006 14:26:49 GMT -7
Yeah, I like mine very much. In fact, I cannot gig without it these days!
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Post by guitarboy02451 on Apr 5, 2006 18:59:53 GMT -7
The Z-Brake is awesome. It's a life saver. Try recording with it as well. Recordings come out as if you have an amp turned way up... but in fact it's at very comfortable level...
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Post by BW on Apr 13, 2006 9:19:13 GMT -7
My first attenuator: I had an Orange OR120 w/ 2 4X12's when I was young and dumb (now I'm just dumb) Had to use both cabs or you'd blow speakers. Louder than Hendrix on white windowpane. So when I was in my junior year high school Radio & TV class, I got the bright idea of soldering a 16 ohm TEN WATT wirewound resistor to a phone plug to act as a dummy load. As usual, the dummy was yours truly! I had the whole contraption wrapped up in electrical tape and about halfway into the first set, MAXIMUM SMOKE! "All part of the show, y'all". In my infinite wisdom, I also used to use the 'Premium' Radio Shack FREE REPLACEMENT LIFETIME TUBES! What a BARGAIN! I was down there at least once every coupla weeks til the guy said he couldn't get any more EL34/6CA7's.
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Post by benttop (Steve) on Apr 13, 2006 9:28:19 GMT -7
I actually built my first attenuator in 1975. I used an enormous 250 Watt Rheostat. And it worked great - got pretty hot though. And I couldn't figure out how to get it to go out of the circuit at full twist, so with the attenuator in the most you could get out of your amp was -3db. But I sold it to a buddy of mine and he used it with his 100 Watt Marshall for years!
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Post by BW on Apr 13, 2006 10:52:37 GMT -7
The first commercially available one that I remember was the 'Altair', I think its the one that Jim Kelley used on his early amps. Then the Power Soak by 'Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera' pioneer/Rockman inventor/Boston Rockstar/ Tom Scholz. Then the Marshall Power Brake and THD Hotplate I guess.
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Tapsa
Junior Member
Posts: 50
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Post by Tapsa on Apr 13, 2006 12:24:58 GMT -7
That´s great story BW. And SMOKY show I guess. LOL....... ;^) . Many great things are found by accident and experiment. And sometimes comes only smoke ;^)
I saw once that power tubes EL34 (Golden Dragon) melted in Hiwatt dr 103. Attenuator was THD Hotplate. I think that Chinese tubes didn´t manage with that anode voltage together Hotplate.
Have a nice gig BW. I hope Zane manages to take video clips. So I can get good sounds up here!!
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Post by billyguitar on Apr 13, 2006 13:16:23 GMT -7
I did a dumb thing once. I had a Mesa Mark III and I was trying to get a little more give in the output. I strapped a 10 MFD capacitor across the speaker terminals. I liked that I could turn the treble up on the amp and let the cap take it back out. I liked the sound of it that way. Anyway at the first gig I heard what sounded like a gunshot go off in the back of the amp and the amp went dead. I knew what it was I had blown up that cap. I immediately shut the amp down and reached around the amp and pulled that cap off. I turned the amp back on and played out the rest of the night. I did that all during the tune so I probably only missed about 12 bars. The cap was only rated for 35 volts, that's why it blew. I never tried that again! Later I used the dreaded Sholz with that amp. It didn't help that amp either, I don't think anything could.
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