NAD (Weber attenuator)

[DrewJD82]

This popped up locally for $100 so I scooped it up, brought it home and pulled the Plexi50 into the living room to have a night of badass couch jammin’ killer Plexi tones…..

…..only to find that it attenuates maybe, maybe 6dB, so I can turn the amp from 0.0000001 to 0.0000002 now! At best I could jam with the clean tone and pedals, but that’s not too appealing to me. I want to actually utilize the dirt from the amp.

I’ll be tossing this up FS later when I get home to take some pics, I need WAY more attenuation than this to actually use it at home. The EQ adjustments are quite effective, I’d imagine at gig volume this thing is pretty killer and that’s the only volume that attenuator will allow for.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Damn, lol.

 

[DrewJD82]

Damn, lol.

I was sooooo excited, too. Even more so when I turned the amp on then turned the volume knob up and didn’t hear ANY amp hiss, causing me to assume the volume was considerably lower than without the attenuator…..until I hit a note and almost McFly’d myself across my living room not expecting 100dB to come out of the speakers.

 

[PatF]

Be sure to check the wattage rating before trying it as a dummy load. Something about the Lite in the name is suspicious. Nice Marshall

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

This popped up locally for $100 so I scooped it up, brought it home and pulled the Plexi50 into the living room to have a night of badass couch jammin’ killer Plexi tones…..

View attachment 55742

…..only to find that it attenuates maybe, maybe 6dB, so I can turn the amp from 0.0000001 to 0.0000002 now! At best I could jam with the clean tone and pedals, but that’s not too appealing to me. I want to actually utilize the dirt from the amp.

I’ll be tossing this up FS later when I get home to take some pics, I need WAY more attenuation than this to actually use it at home. The EQ adjustments are quite effective, I’d imagine at gig volume this thing is pretty killer and that’s the only volume that attenuator will allow for.

With the level most folks actually need to attenuate, I think "load and then re-amp" is always going to be the better approach. Attenuators seem to work okay when the cab is giving most of the load and the attenuator is just padding it down a little. Once you're attenuating a lot, the attenuator is now working as the main load on the amp and the cab is just kinda along for the ride. In either event, you've got this weird scenario where the amp is loaded by these two very different things running in parallel.

I'd way rather have the consistency of a fixed load with the variability being how much I'm juicing that with power amp post load.

 

[KFF]

I was sooooo excited, too.

Bummer dude!

McFly’d myself... thanks for the laugh. Easy to picture that one!

Doggie OK?

 

[Chocol8]

I still recommend the JohnH attenuator if you can solder and the prebuilt version Fromel Lotus if you can’t. The design maintains close to the correct impedance curve all the down to -31 db. You still have fletcher munson effects and no pants flapping, but the amp behavior and tone are maintained well.

 

[Stratzrus]

"There is no substitute..."

 

[metropolis_4]

I still recommend the JohnH attenuator if you can solder and the prebuilt version Fromel Lotus if you can’t. The design maintains close to the correct impedance curve all the down to -31 db. You still have fletcher munson effects and no pants flapping, but the amp behavior and tone are maintained well.

I second that! I love mine, it’s become an indispensable part of my rig. I get the sounds I want at any volume I need.

I just spent a month playing these shows where the sound engineer told me he wanted a silent stage and no amps. I told him to just trust me and used my JRT cranked into overdrive with my LP and with my JohnH I was able to pull the volume down to where I surprised him. He said it sounded amazing in the house and he had no trouble balancing it.

I actually rarely even use the lowest settings because they’re too quiet

 

[primeholy]

"There is no substitute..."

How does the 50 watt version compare?

 

[Devin]

"There is no substitute..."

This is the way


Though mine is the original one

 

[Chocol8]

How does the 50 watt version compare?

The two big differences, one can OUTPUT 100w vs 50w (I believe both can handle 100 watt amps as a load) and the 100w has the switchable channels option so you get two different volume, presence, depth options that are foot switchable.

 

[Stratzrus]

How does the 50 watt version compare?

The two big differences, one can OUTPUT 100w vs 50w (I believe both can handle 100 watt amps as a load) and the 100w has the switchable channels option so you get two different volume, presence, depth options that are foot switchable.

Also the PS-2 has speaker outputs for two cabs but the PS-100 only has a jack for one with the other having been replaced with a jack for switching between channels.

 

[Iron1]

You should know there are no “vintage plexi tones” thru an attenuation system unless it’s this: