Volumepedal or attenuator?

[Terex]

I'm thinking of picking up a attenuator to run along side my Triple Rectifier. The SPL Cabulator caught my attention, aswell as the Palmer pdi-03, so I can record silent.
Now, I read somewhere somebody used a Ernie Ball volumepedal as a attenuator. He set the mastervolume high, while keeping the volume down with the volumepedal. Does dit get the same result as a attenuator? This would be a cheaper solution then getting a attenuator.
Any experience with this 'methode', or attenuators in general? Are they worth the money?

 

[flash6969]

That sounds completely incorrect information & you will destroy your amp if you try this.
Any tube amp needs a proper 'load' (ie: simulates a speaker) & the attenuators do this by dissapating the extra load as heat. A volume pedal is NOT designed to do this & you will fry your amp.
Always always always have a properly matched load on your speaker output

That said, attenuators do work well & will help with loud volume issues.

 

[Terex]

That sounds completely incorrect information & you will destroy your amp if you try this.
Any tube amp needs a proper 'load' (ie: simulates a speaker) & the attenuators do this by disappearing heat. A volume pedal is NOT designed to do this & you will fry your amp.
Always always always have a properly matched load on your speaker output

That said, attenuators do work well & will help with loud volume issues.

Thanks for the information! I thought so too about the matched load on the speakers, but the dude with his volumepedal gave me some doubts. Guess that's sorted then! I'll look into attenuators!

Any recommendations or experience with attenuators? SPL, Palmer, THD..?

 

[Erock]

An attenuator goes between your power amp and cab. It allows you to crank a power amp, without all the power hitting the speakers.

The volume pedal trick works between the preamp and power amp, ie. in an fx loop, so u can crank the preamp without the full signal hitting the power amp. It basically acts as a master volume if your amp doesn't already have one. Not the same principle as an attenuator.

 

[tripstan]

VP in the loop WILL NOT fry your amp. It will also NOT act as an attenuator. Like Erock said it's pretty much just another master volume.

 

[Crunchtime]

Check out the Rivera Rock Crusher.

 

[Ratou]

I had an attenuator (rivera rockcrusher) for a while but I think it doesn't work well with Rectifiers. Attenuators will help you get power tube saturation, and while it can be very desirable with certain amps, it really didn't serve the mesa boogie high gain tone. I had much better results by lowering the master volume of the amps (dual rectifier, mini rectififer and mark IV) than if I had the master high but used the attenuator. As soon as i turned it on (even at lowest setting, -3db) i felt disconnected from the amp and it lost it's 3D character. While recording this is much less noticeable but for in the room sound and live it was a deal breaker for me so I returned it.

It's not a bad unit and definitely does what it's supposed to but for a high gain amp with the gain coming from pre-amp I really don't recommend it. While power tube distortion can be nice with Marshalls etc., I really didn't feel it was an enhancement to my tone on my Mesa amps. I always ended up bypassing the attenuator and lowering the master volume for better results.

 

[Terex]

I had an attenuator (rivera rockcrusher) for a while but I think it doesn't work well with Rectifiers. Attenuators will help you get power tube saturation, and while it can be very desirable with certain amps, it really didn't serve the mesa boogie high gain tone. I had much better results by lowering the master volume of the amps (dual rectifier, mini rectififer and mark IV) than if I had the master high but used the attenuator. As soon as i turned it on (even at lowest setting, -3db) i felt disconnected from the amp and it lost it's 3D character. While recording this is much less noticeable but for in the room sound and live it was a deal breaker for me so I returned it.

It's not a bad unit and definitely does what it's supposed to but for a high gain amp with the gain coming from pre-amp I really don't recommend it. While power tube distortion can be nice with Marshalls etc., I really didn't feel it was an enhancement to my tone on my Mesa amps. I always ended up bypassing the attenuator and lowering the master volume for better results.

Hm interesting. I always thought Recto's would sound great with a attenuator, but apparently not so. Guess I really need to try one first.
Thanks for the information!

 

[Ratou]

That's what I did, bought it new with a 30 day return policy so I could try it out with my amps and then decide if I wanted to keep it or not. I also though it would just be the perfect solution to have the best tone of the rectifiers at low volume but I ended up returning it.

However, I must say that I got good results when using it for recording with it's DI combined with the WOS III plugin but not a sufficient difference compared to using the Mark IV's DI (bypassing the power section) to justify the cost of keeping the rockcrusher (500$ new...).

If you have the chance, definitely try an attenuator so you can feel the difference yourself and decide wether it is woth the compromise or not!

 

[Schaf]

That sounds completely incorrect information & you will destroy your amp if you try this.
Any tube amp needs a proper 'load' (ie: simulates a speaker) & the attenuators do this by dissapating the extra load as heat. A volume pedal is NOT designed to do this & you will fry your amp.
Always always always have a properly matched load on your speaker output

That said, attenuators do work well & will help with loud volume issues.

Huh??? If you run a volume pedal in the loop it will not destroy the amp. It works the same as those loop volume things. You can crank the amp and use the pedal for volume but it doesn't work the same as an attenuator nor will the results be the same.