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Post by billyguitar on Jun 19, 2006 14:32:41 GMT -7
I just received an Air Brake that I bought from another forum member. I tried it with my Ghia. It works just right. No loss of highs or lows and the amount of attenuation per click is just about right, at least with the Ghia. I think I'm going to be very satisfied with this piece. What else would a guy expect from a Dr Z piece of gear!
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Post by billyguitar on Jun 23, 2006 5:19:05 GMT -7
Tried the Air Brake with my new Stang Ray. It still does a perfect job. Z ought the build these into non-master volume amps!
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Post by guitarstan on Aug 19, 2006 7:27:11 GMT -7
I too bought an AirBrake off a fellow forum member to use with my Maz 38 and it works great, very pleased. Even the bedroom level is useful.
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Post by Dr.T on Sept 17, 2006 13:56:30 GMT -7
As expected, at high attenuation there's a little loss in trebles and a little compression. But this box is very important, to play at room levels and to cranck it up without loosing mind with tremendous volumes!! (R66 is very loud).
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Post by billyguitar on Sept 17, 2006 15:19:05 GMT -7
Since my first posts I have noticed a slight loss of lows and highs when using the Air Brake. It's not hard to compensate a bit with the tone knobs to make up for the losses. I still find the Air Brake a good and useful piece of gear.
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Post by benttop (Steve) on Sept 17, 2006 15:56:30 GMT -7
Remember in the "olden days" when your stereo had a "loudness" button? That was to compensate for the Fletcher-Munson effect. You can read a little about that at www.recordingwebsite.com/articles/htmyhrp.php but the bottom line is this: Humans do not hear the low frequencies (bass) and the extreme high frequencies (treble) as well at low volumes. (there are thousands of hits on the Fletcher-Munson effect on Google - plenty to keep your afternoon full of excitement). Thus, when you click that Airbrake down, down, DOWN, your brain is going to think you've shut off the bass and treble way more than you shut off the midrange. This is natural, normal, and nothing to do with the Airbrake. It is your brain, and the way it hears frequencies at different levels. The THD Hot Plate attempts to compensate for the Fletcher-Munson effect, but based on comments I've heard on other forums, it doesn't succeed any better than the Airbrake. Some folks think it is transparent, others say they hear the loss of lows and highs at extreme attenuation. I think that's because we all have different frequency sensitivities, and we're all using different gear set differently. For me, I have both attenuators, and I enjoy them both when playing live. I like the Airbrake better for the lower powered amps, and I like the Hot Plate better for the higher powered amps, mostly because of the difference in power drop per click - the Airbrake ships at 2db per click, and the Hot Plate ships at 4db per click. That works out to just about right for lower power amps and higher power amps respectively. Cool!
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Post by dock66 on Sept 18, 2006 7:07:04 GMT -7
I use my Z brakes to save my hearing.They are usefull and worth the investment for me.I love pushing my amps and Z brakes are the only thing to tame these beasts.
dock66
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Post by guitarstan on Sept 18, 2006 17:14:37 GMT -7
I'm with dock66...the Z Airbrake adds additional options.
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Post by Dr.T on Oct 7, 2006 12:58:28 GMT -7
I've noticed that tone without Airbrake in the chain is more trasparent than that with Airbrake with NO attenuation but between head and cabs.
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Post by deltone on Oct 7, 2006 20:56:35 GMT -7
I've not had the opportunity to try out an Airbrake. From what I've read here, am I right to conclude that it just acts as a master vol. for a non-master vol. amp? If that's the case, then why don't amp makers construct all amps with a master vol. control? I've read several times that folks wish their particular Z amp had a built-in Airbrake. Now I'm going to ask a sophomore type question: Is there a benefit (tone-wise) of constructing an amp with a volume (i.e. gain) control only? FWIW, I just realized that all the amps I own have a master vol. control--never thought about it before. I'm thinking a Ghia might be my first amp without a master vol. control.
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Post by benttop (Steve) on Oct 8, 2006 8:35:02 GMT -7
I've not had the opportunity to try out an Airbrake. From what I've read here, am I right to conclude that it just acts as a master vol. for a non-master vol. amp? If that's the case, then why don't amp makers construct all amps with a master vol. control? I've read several times that folks wish their particular Z amp had a built-in Airbrake. Now I'm going to ask a sophomore type question: Is there a benefit (tone-wise) of constructing an amp with a volume (i.e. gain) control only? FWIW, I just realized that all the amps I own have a master vol. control--never thought about it before. I'm thinking a Ghia might be my first amp without a master vol. control. It's an excellent question with a bazillion variations on the answer. In the final analysis, what an Airbrake allows you to do is get your power tubes into the tone-creation equation. You've probably heard that power tube saturation or distortion has a pleasing quality, and I believe that I've heard that in all of my amps. But to get your power tubes to the point where they are saturated and distorting, you have to get them pumping out a lot of power. That's where the Airbrake comes in. You turn the amp up, then control the power to the speakers with the Airbrake. Why doesn't a master volume do the same thing? Well it can't really do it. The master volume on almost every amp design is between the preamp and power amp in your amplifier. So when you turn the master volume down, you are lowering the signal to the power tubes, which brings them down into their cleaner sounding territory. Yeah, you can turn your volume up on the preamp, and get distortion, but that is not power tube distortion. It is subtle sometimes, but it's not the same thing. I use an attenuator on all of my amps, even the ones with a master volume. I do that specifically so I can get the power tubes humping out some saturation. Naturally, if you're going to run your power tubes wide open all the time, they are going to wear out a little faster than if they never do much more than a few watts output. Fine. That's the price I'm willing to pay for the tone I want. And by the way, opinions vary on this, so you may get told otherwise. When it comes to attenuator questions, you're likely to get as many answers as the folks you ask. There's a lot of good info on them, but there's also a lot of BS if you ask me. YMMV!
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Post by Telemanic on Oct 8, 2006 15:02:27 GMT -7
Couldnt have said it any better than that Steve!
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Post by deltone on Oct 8, 2006 20:14:16 GMT -7
benttop, thanks so much for the response to my question. But, now that I understand how it works, I guess I'm gonna have to add one to my wish list. Man, that list keeps getting longer and longer. But, if that'll make my amp sound like it does when it is pretty well cranked up, then I've got to have one of those. They really seem to maintain their value; I never see a used one sell for less than ~$250. One last question, then I'll shut up. If the master vol. drives the power tubes, then I assume the volume knob just adds color. Am I close here? I'm thinking that amp book myles recommended on another thread might be good for me.
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Post by benttop (Steve) on Oct 8, 2006 20:30:46 GMT -7
benttop, thanks so much for the response to my question. But, now that I understand how it works, I guess I'm gonna have to add one to my wish list. Man, that list keeps getting longer and longer. But, if that'll make my amp sound like it does when it is pretty well cranked up, then I've got to have one of those. They really seem to maintain their value; I never see a used one sell for less than ~$250. One last question, then I'll shut up. If the master vol. drives the power tubes, then I assume the volume knob just adds color. Am I close here? I'm thinking that amp book myles recommended on another thread might be good for me. Well your preamp volume can add distortion too, but it is the distortion that your preamp gets. That isn't to say that's bad, just different from power amp distortion. Guys who have the Maz amps are totally in love with their master volumes because the Maz preamp is designed so well it sounds like power amp distortion. That isn't the case with MOST amps that have a master volume. And even with the Maz amps, I'm sure you can hear those power tubes coming on line when they start to saturate, because it changes so much about how the amp feels - more compression, more sustain, more sag, it suddenly sounds like an amp trying to tear itself apart, and that sounds very cool indeed..
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neil
Junior Member
Posts: 56
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Post by neil on Oct 12, 2006 7:19:56 GMT -7
That was to compensate for the Fletcher-Munson effect. You can read a little about that at www.recordingwebsite.com/articles/htmyhrp.php but the bottom line is this: Humans do not hear the low frequencies (bass) and the extreme high frequencies (treble) as well at low volumes. (there are thousands of hits on the Fletcher-Munson effect on Google - plenty to keep your afternoon full of excitement). Ah that explains something. I was listening to a CD in the car recently and I noticed that there was an acoustic guitar that seemed to be acting almost independantly of the volume control. With the stereo at very low volume the guitar was really high in the mix, but turned up I could only hear it if I tried, it was drowned out by drums, bass etc. I thought it was an oddity of my stereo. It funny how we never blame our ears for stuff, isn't it?!
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