Warning: This post regards tube amps, anyone with SS amps need not read on.

So in my research for a killer guitar amp capable of crushing distortion AND lively cleans, I never ran across an amp that someone didnt have something bad to say about. Some of these amps I was looking at I wasnt able to actually play so I was relying on online reviews. And for every amp I read a review about there was the inevitable "this is bar far the worst amp I have ever played, dont waste your money blablabla." or "this amp just dosent perform."

So then stumbled upon an article that completely changed my perspective. Most people think that to achieve the distortion they want, they have to crank the gain. I soon learned why this was wrong. By cranking the gain, you are distorting the preamp tubes more and more. I learned that preamp tube distortion produces a fizzy, buzzy, bees-in-a-can type of distortion (think Boss Metal Zone). I learned that in order to get thick, rich, dynamic distortion you need to distort the power tubes. But to do this you really need to crank the master volume and on the modern 100+ watt heads, that can kill most living things.

The key is using a power attenuator (THD Hotplate, Power Soak, etc) This is a device placed between your amp and your speakers that allows you to crank your amp up to get that sweet power tube distortion without killing your ears. After finding the amp I wanted (Laney VH100R) I bought a THD Hotplate. Wow! I recommend that anyone with the funds (THD Hotplates are around $200-250) look into this, its the best thing that has happened to my guitar tone!

Those seem pretty good if you're gonna be playing a tube halfstack around your house. But when it comes to playing live nothing sounds better than a cranked up tube amp imo.

Oh of course, this is just for playing small to medium sized gigs or rercording in a studio that dosent have an isolation room for the stack.

find a better place and crank it till the cops come and unplug you (happened at the last show...) eveyone here already know this but im glad you now know to turn it up. imo attenuators still dont sound the same as a cranked amp. part of getting to that sweet power tube saturaion is feeling the sound hit you in the chest when you just barely slide your fingers across the strings.

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Of course, if you can its always best to crank it, but sometimes people cant, like those that live in apartments and such or have home studios.

You won't get the same dynamics and sound with a power attenuator as you would get with an amp with the volume maxed out. But it's still pretty close.

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100% right but old news. i think/hope most of the guys here knew this before. anayways ...

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Damn, well I wished I had discovered this forum earlier then! My apologies.

My head has a built in attenuator, the thing is badass, really useful, and you CAN use the shit to play loud

Well hey at least now i know what the item is CALLED. I couldn't for the life of me remmember what the damn thing was called, because i had planned on buying one so i could raise my volumes like a beast.

Only problem is, obviously by doing this you will burn out you're tubes much
sooner. (As i've heard and read)

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old news for me, but congrats on finding it out annyway.

and welcome to the forum, you don't seem to be an anoying twat noob like most.

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You will do the same by just cranking your amp.

There are a number of devices on the market and most offer besides power sucking line outputs with or whitout a cabinet simulator that's quite handy for home recording and for getting monster tone
Van Halen used a Palmer dummy load to make his head work like a preamp (he had most of the effects after the dummy load and before the power amp & speakers). By this he had the poweramp distortion (all the knobs at 11) without the killer volume.
Bear in mind that most powersoakes/powerbreakes/hotplates/loadboxes/whatever tend to fuck up your original tone.

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Thanks mate! Yea ive been a forum regular for a few years now and im the resident "guru" I guess you could say on the John Myung forum.



Thats true mostly about the power soak, according to articles and my own personal experience the THD Hotplate actually really only fucks up your tone if you attenuate past -16dB. (it has -4dB, -8dB, -12db, -16dB, and LOAD settings) Anything less than 16 dosent seem to negatively impact the tone.

Just get an EnGl, its tube madness but still sounds great at lower volumes or just boost the amp with a OD pedal, why an attenuator. But yeah, the greatest heaviest tones only come at ear bleeding level.

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Do you have a 300 watt guitar head?

Do you have ears?

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Better.... a Marshall Super Lead


Yeah I have ears as well as some hearing loss.

some of us cant crank our amps cuz we live together with other human beings

btw in my opinion you dont need killer distortion on your practise amp. if you play in a band you will need a practise room anyways where you are allowed to play at higher volumes. at least thats what i do.

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I use one on my recto. Works great.

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