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Post by internetuser on Jan 25, 2018 15:07:06 GMT -7
is the Air Brake a "reactive" attenuator? If not, that's kinda funny because lots of people make a fuss about reactive attenuators yet the Air Brake is regularly recommended as the best on the market
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Post by Mark (Basement Enthusiast) on Jan 26, 2018 6:55:19 GMT -7
No, it's purely a "resistive" (passive, non-active, non-reactive, etc.) setup. But yeah, somehow despite that these type are generally not preferred by us tone snobs, they simply work very well--especially with Dr. Z's amps. I use the Brake Lite with many of my Z-amps. I also have a bigger Scumback attenuator (aka. Alex's attenuator, before Dave bought from Alex) which is also not active or reactive, but it's fabulously transparent in its sound reduction.
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Post by benttop (Steve) on Jan 27, 2018 21:43:59 GMT -7
One thing about the Airbrake design that may be different from other resistive attenuators is that the speaker is still part of the load. So the amp still sees a reactive load even though it isn't coming from the attenuator.
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Post by fingersmcginty on Mar 28, 2021 3:03:58 GMT -7
No, it's purely a "resistive" (passive, non-active, non-reactive, etc.) setup. But yeah, somehow despite that these type are generally not preferred by us tone snobs, they simply work very well--especially with Dr. Z's amps. I use the Brake Lite with many of my Z-amps. I also have a bigger Scumback attenuator (aka. Alex's attenuator, before Dave bought from Alex) which is also not active or reactive, but it's fabulously transparent in its sound reduction. Apologies for dragging up an old thread but does the alex have more4 attenuation than the brake? I'm finding that the brake lite doesn't attenuate enough for bedroom levels on my maz 18
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Post by John on Mar 28, 2021 4:34:28 GMT -7
The brakelite wasn't designed to squash an amp down to bedroom levels. Wrong tool for the job. There are other attenuators out there that will, but it seems like a lot of money. You could turn the maz down...and just use an OD pedal.
Any attenuator will squash the amp down so far you you'll loose dynamics anyway....so I'd use the pedal approach.
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Post by fingersmcginty on Mar 28, 2021 4:59:40 GMT -7
seems the sweet spot for my maz is master volume on noon. At this level though i can only run the volume gain at 9 o clock and the brake lite on the highest setting. Unfortunately this is just too loud for late night practice. I was thinking of getting maybe a bugera Power soak would get me there but I read good and bad reviews of this item.
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Post by Mark (Basement Enthusiast) on Mar 28, 2021 9:28:56 GMT -7
Apologies for dragging up an old thread but does the alex have more4 attenuation than the brake? I'm finding that the brake lite doesn't attenuate enough for bedroom levels on my maz 18 The Alex attenuator (now owned & sold by Scumback as the "DBL" attenuator--same product) will attenuate to full-"load," meaning that it'll go to zero audible volume while still providing a correct load back to the amp (so it doesn't fry itself). The Dr. Z AirBrake will go close to that at -30 dB volume, but not technically full load. (I have never tried this myself to see how quiet it really goes, whether it's full no-volume or not.) The Brake Lite & Brake Lite SA--as John has stated--is not designed to go that fully attenuated. The max attenuation on a stock Brake Lite & Brake Lite SA is -11 dB.
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Post by fingersmcginty on Mar 28, 2021 11:17:51 GMT -7
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Post by bubs42 on Mar 28, 2021 18:06:52 GMT -7
I love the Brake Lite, it has been too long since i have owned the Air Brake to remember how well the bedroom settings worked. I'm using my Ghia around 10:30/11:00 O'clock and 4 clicks is perfect for my daughter little drum set, and her ears.
Speaker choice matters as well.
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Post by zpilot on Mar 30, 2021 0:10:51 GMT -7
I used to use a Brake Lite with my Maz 18. I tried it with other amps as well. It worked well enough on the first two steps. I did not care for it on the other two. That was OK though because for me the first two steps got me into the range of loudness I needed for virtually any gig I played and also for rehearsal levels. There ARE other attenuators out there that are more versatile and even sound more "transparent" but they generally cost much more than a Brake Lite.
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Post by bubs42 on Mar 30, 2021 8:54:39 GMT -7
I used to use a Brake Lite with my Maz 18. I tried it with other amps as well. It worked well enough on the first two steps. I did not care for it on the other two. That was OK though because for me the first two steps got me into the range of loudness I needed for virtually any gig I played and also for rehearsal levels. There ARE other attenuators out there that are more versatile and even sound more "transparent" but they generally cost much more than a Brake Lite. That is because the speaker is not being worked as hard. It has nothing to do with the attenuator, it has everything to do with volume. The amp, hitting the speaker, and the speaker pushing air. Lowering the DB level, you don't push as much air, nor do you work that speaker hard enough. Best thing that I did for home playing was switch to a less efficient speaker. I love the clarity of a 1265 or a variant of, and when you play with a lot of gain you can get away with that speaker at many levels. But when you play with a base tone of your amp really cooking and smacking a speaker into breakup your ears want that, and you need a speaker that is going to give it up earlier. Everyone wants that amazing feeling and sound at any level, but it is not perfectly achievable. Sure you can find something that sounds great at lower volumes like a reactive load and a speaker impulse response, but if you are not recording guitar tones, then there is no replacement for Z Amps to Speaker than the Air Brake or the Brake Lite.
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Post by zpilot on Mar 30, 2021 9:28:52 GMT -7
I used to use a Brake Lite with my Maz 18. I tried it with other amps as well. It worked well enough on the first two steps. I did not care for it on the other two. That was OK though because for me the first two steps got me into the range of loudness I needed for virtually any gig I played and also for rehearsal levels. There ARE other attenuators out there that are more versatile and even sound more "transparent" but they generally cost much more than a Brake Lite. That is because the speaker is not being worked as hard. It has nothing to do with the attenuator, it has everything to do with volume. The amp, hitting the speaker, and the speaker pushing air. Lowering the DB level, you don't push as much air, nor do you work that speaker hard enough. Best thing that I did for home playing was switch to a less efficient speaker. I love the clarity of a 1265 or a variant of, and when you play with a lot of gain you can get away with that speaker at many levels. But when you play with a base tone of your amp really cooking and smacking a speaker into breakup your ears want that, and you need a speaker that is going to give it up earlier. Everyone wants that amazing feeling and sound at any level, but it is not perfectly achievable. Sure you can find something that sounds great at lower volumes like a reactive load and a speaker impulse response, but if you are not recording guitar tones, then there is no replacement for Z Amps to Speaker than the Air Brake or the Brake Lite. Agreed, which is why I'm not much of a fan of attenuators in general.
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Post by GuitarZ on Mar 30, 2021 9:38:11 GMT -7
I'm guessing I approached this from the opposite direction of some. I played my Maz Jr for probably a year+ before getting my AirBrake. I wasn't getting the opportunity to open it up and was keeping the volume low with the master volume. So, once I plugged into the AirBrake and opened up the Master Volume, it was like I had a whole new fantastic sounding amp. The sound blew away the low master volume sound. I suppose I was lucky in that I wasn't comparing it to a wide open Maz Jr. Actually, that's my secret with my Kinman noiseless strat pickups. I figure if I never play a real single coil strat, I won't know that I'm missing anything if I am.
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Post by daddyelmis (Greg) on Mar 30, 2021 14:59:30 GMT -7
I’ve played the Brakelite, Weber mass, load dump, and all sound decent as long as you don’t crank them down too much. The Brakelite does seem to play well with Z amps, better than the others.
The best I’ve used, however, is the Fryette Powerstation - which isn’t really an attenuator but is a re-amp. But it’ll take almost anything and put it at whatever volume, loud or soft, you want. Expensive, but it knocks down loud amps and can make a 5 watt amp scream. All without coloring the sound to any big degree (IMO). Considering what I’ve spend on attenuators I could have just bought a Powerstation and been done with it - buy once cry once. Of course, at low volume your speaker is out of the picture for the most part. So then we get into the Ox. 😁
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