To Many Watts!! Ahh

[benniej]

Hey guys, i have a marshall dsl 100 head and a 1960a cab. I love my setup so much, the marshall sounds really good but the only problem is i can never really get any real nice tube saturation because its far to loud. Even with my band i have the volume on 6 maximum. Any more and you can't hear anyone else lol. So i was just wondering what i can do to reduce the amount of volume. Can i take some tubes out of the poweramp? or get it modded with a half power switch? or is there anyway i can run my cab at half power?

Many Thanks
Ben

[mickeystorm]

ben

i've suffered through the same problem when i used to play small clubs in nyc in the '80s (max's, cbgb, the pep, etc). norman dunn, the former sound man at cbgb's, told me about the Tom Scholz Power Soak and I've been using it ever since. It's the least costly of the lot (though its hasn't been made in years.) you can find one for about $70-100 on the 'bay every now and then.

There are higher end units as well that are still being made: Marshall makes the Power Brake and THD makes the Hot Plate. I don't have experience with them so I can't say good or bad. maybe some other forum 'bro has used them and can chime in.

I eventually had an 18 watt amp built out of a Fender Musicmaster Bass Amp. It's one of the best investments I made. My amp guy basically turned it into a Fender Blackface Deluxe. Top to bottom it cost $650 which includes the $130 I paid for the amp on eBay and a new Jensen AlNiCo speaker. I added an ART MR-1 for reverb but other wise play it as is.

I've taken a few photos and will post later along with the specs. I know my amp guy likes to use the MM as a base since there's room in the cabinet and on the chassis to change/add parts. hope this puts you on track to fix your problem. --mike c.

[RockStringBender]

+1 on everything Mickey just said, including the models he recommends.

That is the best/proper solution for this issue and it's the most economic as you get to keep your present gear.

[mrcrazyhimself]

too much watts? simple and easy. if its a 100 watt head, just pull out the far poewr tubes and leave the middle ones. then you can run it at half power. check out www.marshallampforum.com and that is the answer they will give u. It wnt be THAT much lower volume but you will get more sateration at a lower volume. give it a shot!

[TommysGs]

I have a 50 watt Marshall head and it sounds allot better than my 100 watt head at volumes you can/want to have in your house.
I blew the power tubes in my 100 watt head so when I put it in the shop I'm going to have them add a half power switch.
I have a half power switch on my Peavy Ultra Plus.
I always run it at half power.

[bkeen]

I've had the SRD Power Soak and the Marshall Power Brake. They both work but I like the Power Brake better. But it is more expensive.

[TommysGs]

So what does this power brake do?
Allow you to open up your amp and turn the volume down?
Does it go between your head and speaker cab?

[RockStringBender]

It puts a load on the post side amp like it has a billion speakers hooked up to it but without changing the impediance. You can then crank those tubes just like the pre amp tubes get cranked when the gain is on 11. I used to gig with a guy that went through about 3 different models of these and he liked the marshall too. Funny story with this guy, he ended up spending and trading-in and bitching about wanting to satuatrate all the tubes and still stay in legal decibels and I picked up his amp user manual when he was doing some tracks and found on the 4th page that it had a 50% switch on the back of it. HE started using that right there that day and got everything he was looking for. It was a Carvin signature model 100w and I think it was Steve Via if I remember correctly.

Chicks always say that guys don't read the directions........

Check this out http://www.marshallamps.com/product....ductCode=PB100

[bkeen]

Tommy, yeah it goes between the amp and cab. It allows you to power up the power tubes while keeping the speaker cab volume down. You still need to get enough power to the speakers to get them sounding good but you can achieve that at home studio levels.

Here is mine on my head...

[TommysGs]

Cool. What do they cost? Do they cause any damage to your head?
I would love to be able to open up my amp.

[mickeystorm]

There used to be a lot of hooey about the SRD Power Soak burning out tubes. Never happened to me and I kept my Super Reverb at 10/10 (vol: 10, treble: 10) The only thing I can tell you is that the impedence fluctuates with each click on the output selector, but never more than .25 - 1 ohm. I thought I'd mention that because my neurotic amp guy gave me the "I told you so" look when he measured it. My Super is a 2 ohm output into 4 10" speakers. And yeah, it goes between the speaker output and the speakers.

The Power Brake runs about $550 new. The TDS Hotplate around $300.

I just did a quick search on eBay for completed sales on the SRD Power soak and found they range from $95 to $165 over the past few months. There's 2 up for bid now.

As I said, I've never used the Marshall or the THD. But on my Fender Super (and my band mate's Marshall 100 watt and Fender Pro Reverb) the SRD Power Soak was a godsend.

[KramerWolf]

I am sold on the Weber VST Attenuator Pat Kelley has one and he runs his marshalls through it at full volume, but with the Weber you can play at dinner table volume...
here's the link....http://www.tedweber.com/

James

[TommysGs]

Thanks for info Mike.
I have a 1969 Fender Super Reverb. Awesome amp.
I don't light that old girl very often but she never disapoints me when I do.

[bkeen]

The Marshall power brake will work at "dinner table volume" too but I find with any soak device you have to get it a little louder than that to drive the speakers.

The Power brake is the only soak device that Marshall approves and will still warrenty their amps.

You can catch them used on ebay for $200 to $300.

I have heard good things about the weber just have no experience with them....

[_xxx_]

Just don't waste money on attenuators but pull those outer tubes out and you're done.

[RockStringBender]

I can't help but comment that that is the coolest rock'n'roll pic I've ever seen.

[pel666]

Personally I had the chance to try the powerbrake, I didn't like it on my Marshall. It cannot handle my Sunn either....so I ended up with an IT Amps powersoak. But if I were you, I would do the half power switch mod with your local tube guy. Especially when you do a lot of gigs....the soakers are pretty heavy

Bias adjustment could be needed, I wouldn't just permanently pull 2 tubes out...

[Caddielack]

The words I hear from the amp gurus now is "power scaling", seems like the attentuators like Hot Plate, Powerbrake etc. changes the tone from your amp like power scaling dont.
Read more here:
http://www.londonpower.com/pscaling.htm

Prices here:
http://www.londonpower.com/kits/psbox.htm

/ John

[_xxx_]

That's basically the extension of the bias change Pel mentioned above, this thing does it dynamically instead of the fixed circuit. Not bad.

[bkeen]

Truth be told that when you turn up/down gain on all tube amps you are going to get a tonal difference with or without a soak. The tubes play a part of that but also the way you drive your speakers will be effected.

Here is a sample of my TSL 60 with the output cranked to 7 or 8 while the preamp is just slightly toasty at 5 to 6 but soaked with a Power Brake to slightly over normal speaking levels. Miked with a Shure SM 58.

If you listen closely you can hear the tubes squeeking...

Sample

[KramerWolf]

the problem with power soaks, is that they are resistor driven, the weber mass attenuator actually uses a speaker motor, which helps to not change the tone of the amp as bad as resistor driven models.. anyone who was at the Expo, and played through that Marshall Rig that was sitting to the side of the stage played through one.... I am here to tell you, the Weber Mass, is probably the best on the Market.... sure Marshall is going to tell you thier product is better and is the only one they recommend, because they want to sell more of them...LoL

James

[bkeen]

Hey James

[KramerWolf]

Hey Bruce....

[KramerAmsterdam]

Weber it is. I got one-works wonders although keep in mind 12" speakers need some push to sound good-just above talking level, so even attenuated the guitar is kinda loud.

Remy

[bkeen]

Oh! I feel stupid!