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Attenuators do not get talked about much here. Most of us aren't interested in cranking Marshall half stacks in small clubs or bedrooms. But there is another use for them.
I got a Bugera PS-1 on the weekend. It's a cheap resisitive attenuator. I can practice with my Deluxe Reverb at 5 and get wonderful Deluxe on the verge of breakup sounds at reasonable volume levels. That's the zone where you not only play the guitar but also play the amp. Your picking dynamics change the amp drastically when amp is at it's full power and ready to be pushed to overdrive (most amps are already at their full power around 5).
I can also do the same with my Champ. No need for pedals for that slightly dirty, dynamic sound for home practice. Moreover, output of the attenuator is cabinet agnostic. Meaning I can plug my deluxe at 5 into the small 8 inch cab of Champ and vice versa.
Anybody else use attenuators this way?
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10-15-2019 12:34 PM
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Originally Posted by Tal_175
My general strategy with tube amps is to whack the preamp with a hot signal to get the pre tubes warm, and that seems to work well for mild drive for Grant Green type tones etc using fender amps, esp with a healthy mid boost.
Contemporary = Grant green + delay haha
No idea how Grant himself did it.... tweed amps?
But I’m open to giving it a go! Sometimes recording engineers like the amp to be really really quiet. Not enough for me to invest heavily tho....
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Originally Posted by christianm77
To answer the OP, I do this sometimes but I always go back. Partially because I'm neurotic and don't like having a lot of adjustable parameters. But also partially because I always get the impression the attenuator is taking off too much high end.
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Bugera is only 100USD. I'm surprised how good it sounds. It also has mic simulated XLR out. Attenuators sound unnatural when you push them to extremes. Like if you want to play 100W amp at 11 turned down to home volumes. But playing a 22watt amp at 5 seems to preserve the amp's natural tone really well.
I used an expensive attenuator in the past with a Mesa amp I had at the time. Mesa had a master volume and I felt the attenuator didn't improve things worth it's price. I returned it. But for vintage style amps with no gain channel, you're effectively adding a master volume. Except master volume comes after power tubes, so you get both types of overdrive. Not speaker distortion though.Last edited by Tal_175; 10-31-2019 at 02:38 PM.
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I have never heard of a attenuator for audio. I am a retired electronic tech. for 39 years.
I assume it goes between the output transformer and the speaker and simulates a load. That would have an effect on the sound.
But I don't use tubes so I have no input on the matter.
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Originally Posted by BBGuitar
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One more:
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Better to simulate a load than stimulate a load.
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Originally Posted by christianm77
John
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Originally Posted by omphalopsychos
* Gain and distortion are not the same thing, but the way guitar amps are usually designed, more gain is accompanied by more distortion, so they are proxies for each other.
John
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Originally Posted by John A.
It’s not as bad as MacArthur Park, but that song transcends epic metaphor failure (wherein both the metaphor, and its failure are equally epic) to become something rich and strange.
I find it hard to imagine that the lyricist with the sense of economy and character that wrote Wichita Lineman is the same man. And yet, he is.
DoWaR not quite that perplexing, it’s always just a bit excruciating (and entertaining) when someone aims for a literary flourish and ends up falling on their arse.
Songwriters, know your limits. You are not John Milton.
Whereas I was making a wanking joke.
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Originally Posted by christianm77
Anyway, the DoW&R lyrics are a whole lot better if you understand the full context of the film and its sources. The film is a meditation on alcoholism, depression, and lost innocence. It (or at least the title) was inspired by a poem by Ernest Dowson
They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate:
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.
They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream.
The poem is a not-so-veiled reference to the author's alcoholism and depression, and foreshadowing of his death at a young age therefrom. The lyrics are a re-working of the poem to fit the plot of the movie a little more directly.
I should probably go now, I think I left my cake out in the rain.
John
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If you dont like the lyrics of DOWAR, you haven't heard Tony Bennett sing them with Bill Evans.Now MacArthur park...how much coke you gotta do to think that metaphor works?
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Originally Posted by christianm77
I know what gangsters mean by this, but not jazz guitarists.
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I have used an attenuator since they were available, but not (as yet) for jazz. A Scholz Power Soak does it for me. Pristine cleans have their charms, but I also value that zone of sensitivity where light = clean and crisp and successively more energetic picking yields harmonically-altered tones from horn-like on through clipping and beyond.
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Had a couple minutes with a students fryette? Power station.
i was pretty freaking impressed.
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Originally Posted by citizenk74
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Originally Posted by skykomishone
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Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
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My good experience with the attenuator/Line out on the Tone Master got me curious about the Bugera PS1, so mine arrived today and I've been playing with it with my Princeton Reverb RI. You have to be careful where you put the PS1 because it can pick up a nasty hum if you set it over, say, a transformer. But placed right, no hum. Here's a clip I made just testing the box, using the XLR output to record the guitar. I had the speaker out line to the PS1, the speaker cable itself plugged into the Bugera, and the XLR going to the PreSonus Audiobox iTwo.
Two disclaimers: 1) lotsa clams here, I was in a hurry just to try it out 2) WAY too much reverb, sorry about that.
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Originally Posted by lawson-stone
One time I tried the XLR out, I thought it sounded surprisingly good too. How do you like it so far? At the very least it makes recording through Princeton easier and let's you use it with the headphones I guess.Last edited by Tal_175; 10-31-2019 at 02:12 PM.
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Originally Posted by Tal_175
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Originally Posted by John A.
Doug
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Originally Posted by Doug B
A nice blond and Mickey Rooney on drums
Today, 07:38 PM in Guitar, Amps & Gizmos