Our singer/rhythm/lead guitarist plays through a vintage tweed Fender Deluxe with a single 12". To get the tone he likes, he has to turn it up too high for some small venues (it's amazing how loud that little amp is). He does not want to go into this vintage amp circuitry and add a master volume control. I was wondering, could you just splice something with variable resistance like a rheostat into the speaker wire?
I originally posted this with a subject line about adding master volume controls to old amps. Since that's not really what we want to do, I decided to repost with a more appropiate question. On the old post Jon light gave me a link to the Weber site, where they offer two speaker attenuators:
http://www.webervst.com/index2.html
Does anyone know of other such products? Apparently you can't just stick a rheostat in, because that would affect the tone balance. To keep the EQ from going flat at lower volumes, you have to incorporate something like the old "Loudness" control on hifis.
Speaker attenuator products?
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David Doggett
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Weber, THD, Marshall, Scholz, Altair, Dr. Z, Kendrick are just a some of the manufacturers of speaker loads and attenuators. Over on the www.FenderForum.com the guys seem to like the Dr. Z, Weber and THD the best.
I found a schematic for a very simple speaker attenuator using power resistors in an old Vintage Guitar magazine a while back. I built 3 of them and put them in a box so I can switch any or all of them in and out inseries. When I run them in series, my 50 watt amp now puts out at the lowest volume about 1 watt. That's still pretty loud in a house or apartment depending on your perspective, but it's nowhere near as obnoxious as 50 paint peeling watts.
Be advised that even though your attenuator may cut down on the volume, as well as the strain on the speaker, your amp will still think it's running at full volume if you have it all of the way up. The wear on the tubes and other components will be accelerated.
I found a schematic for a very simple speaker attenuator using power resistors in an old Vintage Guitar magazine a while back. I built 3 of them and put them in a box so I can switch any or all of them in and out inseries. When I run them in series, my 50 watt amp now puts out at the lowest volume about 1 watt. That's still pretty loud in a house or apartment depending on your perspective, but it's nowhere near as obnoxious as 50 paint peeling watts.
Be advised that even though your attenuator may cut down on the volume, as well as the strain on the speaker, your amp will still think it's running at full volume if you have it all of the way up. The wear on the tubes and other components will be accelerated.
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Dan Tyack
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The THD Hotplate has been out for more than 10 years, and is by far the most widely used. They are very, very reliable (meaning they won't break your amp..). They also change the tone a lot less than some others I have tried.
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