[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: (RL) The production

Thanks Maurice!
I already have a power attenuator. It's built into the Marshall speaker emulator I bought some years ago. The problem with an attenuator is that the speakers will not work as on high volumes and you will still not get the same sound. But it may work on others equipments. But if your amp only has 8watts I think you can crank a lot. (Depends on your neighbours, of course.) I used to switch 50W Marshall to triod to get only 25W, but with a 4x12 it's still pretty loud. (But you get a fantastic overdrive sound.) On gigs everyone was complaining 'bout my level, most of all the soundman, but the Marshall speaker emulator helped me there, though a compromise to make them all a little happier. I left the 4x12 at home and used the built in speaker in the Marshall combo just as a monitor, and I could turn the level down on stage with the attenuator. The speaker sound in the PA was emulated and lined and sounded pretty good. A good solution for small places. This was a few years ago. A party some metal kids held in our rehearsing place resulted in my both Marshalls in need for reparation/service. And I still havn't done that. Too lazy, havn't been playing that much. My temporary solution is a Sans Amp box working as a complete amp going into a Twin reverb set on volume 2. Gets a very fat, good and not too loud overdrive sound, though the clean sound sucks. (To be honest I've never been able to find the right clean sound on my stuff. Thuogh my friend found a cheap Fender Bandmaster top ,silver face, and it has that rectifier tube that gives you that fantastic soft, floating Fender sound.) 

/Per







From: Maurice Rickard <maurice@mauricerickard.com>
Reply-To: matters@richardlloyd.com
To: matters@richardlloyd.com
Subject: Re: (RL) The production
Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 13:38:08 -0700

At 3:29 PM +0000 7/12/01, Per RosÈn wrote:

It would be great to know about for ex the 8" cabinet. To be able to
play a little quieter. I need to crank the amp (master volume) to
get the overdrive sound, I hate so called preamp-distortion.
Only my own experiences. It would be interesting to know about
yours, and Richards'.


I can answer for myself that I finally "found" my guitar sound with a
Kalamazoo Model Two amp (tube, ~8 watts, 10" speaker, tremelo).  When
cranked, it sounded great with my single-coil guitar for rhythm;
sounded a bit blatty on chords from the humbucker, but great on leads.

Since it's a pretty tiny amp (1 6bq5 power tube), it was easy enough
for me to put in an attenuator--I didn't have to worry about
dissipating a lot of heat.

I put in an 8 ohm, 10 watt rheostat after the output transformer so I
could turn the amp all the way up and turn the speaker output down.
It's important how you wire it--you need to present a constant load
to the output transformer, or else very bad things happen (arcing
inside the transformer and tubes, for example).  I picked up the
basic schematic from an old (1954) audio handbook.  If you're
interested, I can scan the diagram, or whip it up in ASCII.
(Disclaimer: I'm not responsible for damage done to amps on the basis
of ASCII art.)

There are some arguments that since a speaker presents a variable
load at different frequencies, you need an attenuator to do the same,
and a passive resistor (like my rheostat) doesn't do that.
Supposedly, this changes the tone of the amp at low volumes.  It may
be so, and I'd definitely not want to do this to a louder amp (way
too much heat to get rid of), but I found that I quite liked the tone
of my Kalamazoo with this arrangement.  Your mileage may vary, of
course.

HTH,
Maurice

--
Maurice Rickard
http://mauricerickard.com/
--------------
To post: Mail matters@richardlloyd.com
To unsubscribe: Mail majordomo@richardlloyd.com with the
message "unsubscribe matters"


_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

--------------
To post: Mail matters@richardlloyd.com
To unsubscribe: Mail majordomo@richardlloyd.com with the
message "unsubscribe matters"