Question:
I need an attenuator that can handel 100 watts but i can't afford a hotplate, i gotta keep the price below the 299 pricetag of a hotplate or a gibson... from what i hear a homemade one will get eat up by my B52... but we (my band) can't hear ourselves practice if we turn up for tone, also i drown out josh's epi ...
Answer:
Originally Posted by AXguitar I need an attenuator that can handel 100 watts but i can't afford a hotplate, i gotta keep the price below the 299 pricetag of a hotplate or a gibson... from what i hear a homemade one will get eat up by my B52... but we (my band) can't hear ourselves practice if we turn up for tone, also i drown out josh's epi ... www.tedweber.com
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whoah, little red flag going up: your B52 is 100 watts, correct? if so you're really not gonna want a 100 watt attenuator, too easily fried. in electrical work i've done, it's standard practise to pick a wattage value for a component double the wattage it's expected to handle. maybe this doesn't apply to guitar attenuators, but if so i'm sure someone will speak up.
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Major Tom told me to go for 3xs the wattage.
I would suggest you get on ebay and get an altair or scholz power soak. Either of those could handle the wattage and fit in the budget.
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Originally Posted by AXguitar I need an attenuator that can handel 100 watts but i can't afford a hotplate, i gotta keep the price below the 299 pricetag of a hotplate or a gibson... from what i hear a homemade one will get eat up by my B52... but we (my band) can't hear ourselves practice if we turn up for tone, also i drown out josh's epi ... #1 Take 2 tubes out. That effectively cuts it to 50 watts.
#2 Disconnect a speaker, and change the ohms setting to match. (optional)
If you don't do the things above, you'd have to get one a bit higher than 100w, like 120w.
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For the home-made stuff, like the variable LPads, yes, I would go for like 3x the rated value, maybe 2x if you don't use heavy distortion. A couple reasons for this - tube guitar amps I believe are capable of delivering much more current when driven into distortion than their rating, which I believe is traditionally at a clean output. The other thing is that things that are engineered for music reproduction - like LPads, are rated for a completely different type of signal that has a lot of cool-down preiods in between the peaks. I would assume that aftermarket power attenuators would be rated to match guitar amps ratings; i.e., a 100 watt Marshall Power Brake for example, would handle any guitar amp rated at 100 watts.
I would second the suggestion of pulling the pair of power tubes - put them away as spares, you won't need 'em. The difference between 100 watts and 50 through the same speakers is just about negligible. You do have to adjust the impedance though... a 4 ohm output with a pair pulled is now an 8 ohm. Its an old "trick", players have been doing that for decades. You might want to research and make sure it will work with your amp.. The only one I know of that you can't do that with is the Peavey Classic 30 (the filaments are wired in series).
I also second the using one speaker thing. An amp's volume IMO, is related more to the speaker configuration (efficiency of the ones used, how many, closed or open back) than the watt rating of the amp. A single 12" speaker is loud enough for just about anything any of us will ever do.
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i'm just gonna spring for the hotplate... i got some cash saved up and it's good, plus i don't have a lot of experience with tubes so for now i'm not gonna mess wit them
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Catch me if I'm wrong-but couldn't you make one yourself for waywayway less? There is a dude here who boutiques amps here and he makes attenuators for amps up to 100watts (I'm thinking about one myself)
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Originally Posted by Captain Dan Catch me if I'm wrong-but couldn't you make one yourself for waywayway less? There is a dude here who boutiques amps here and he makes attenuators for amps up to 100watts (I'm thinking about one myself) if you could provide schematics, or have the guy throw his schematics up on the net, sure it would probably be doable.
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Major Tom made his own... go check out the stickied threads
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a 100 Watt amp will destroy a 100 watt attenuator... as posted yearlier at least double if not triple is what you need...
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Originally Posted by AXguitar a 100 Watt amp will destroy a 100 watt attenuator... as posted yearlier at least double if not triple is what you need... this is a very misleading statement.
more properly, a 100W home audio attenuator will likely not handle a 100W guitar amp, however a 100W guitar amp attenuator will handle a 100W guitar amp.
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Originally Posted by thesteve if you could provide schematics, or have the guy throw his schematics up on the net, sure it would probably be doable.
I have three pages of schematics

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upload them here (like in a journal or something) and post the link
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I mean-I have had no probs with an attenuator for a 30watter my friends has-but I just didn't know if you could make one for a 100watter-I know it's doable-just didn't know if it homemakeable? if that makes since-it's a fender twin -'96 I do believe- with three channels-
I would post schematics-unfortuneately my scanner is at an office at the moment-
whoa-I just found them online-it says it's for a '94 Twin-but those schematics are deff. my amp-
here's the link- http://fender.com/support/amp_schema..._Schematic.pdf
btw it's a pdf and it may take a wee bit to load