What Should I Buy?
High-Quality Amp With Attenuation
I find myself in the fortunate position of being able to buy a top-end amplifier, thanks to my dear old uncle who passed away and insisted I did something fun with a bit of money he left me. As a result, I’m in the market for a tasty amp that will give me good traditional rock ’n’ roll/rock/blues sounds. I’m not really into pedals so I’m interested in an amp that has a built-in power reduction function, so that I can play at home, but also at the few gigs that I do with my band. What do you recommend?
John Davidson, via email
Our condolences to you and your family, John. But bless your uncle – what a geezer! We’ll do our best to do him and you proud, should you not wish to jump out of a plane or go to Vegas, etc… As you will be aware, there are many great amps on the market.
You don’t mention budget, but you say ‘top-end’, so that’s where we’re going. A few amps with built-in attenuation spring to mind, all of which we rate highly. They cover slightly different tonal ground, so with any luck one of them will appeal to your musical and aesthetic preferences.
We’ve tried most of ’em, Tony, but, none of the Guitarist staff nor alumni use an attenuator on a regular basis because, to us, they always sound good with just a few dB knocked off, but any more than that and things start changing… whereupon you may as well just use a smaller amp. In our opinion.
Nevertheless, you may be aware that there are different kinds of attenuator. The most common aftermarket ones are power ‘soaking’ devices; they sit between the amp’s speaker output and the speaker itself, absorbing (‘soaking’) some of the amp’s power using a resistive load… and letting the rest through to the speaker. The Badcat Unleash that you mention is that type, as is the old Marshall Power Brake, THD Hot Plate and so on.
You might also hear the term ‘Variac’, which is the other kind of attenuation: power scaling. This is achieved by varying the voltage inside the amp, rather than placing something between output and speaker.
Back to the external ‘power soak’ attenuator approach, and it gets a little more complicated in that they can be active and passive, with either reactive- or non-reactive loads. The Unleash is active – meaning it also contains an amp section for reamping – and uses a reactive load. The ‘reactive load’ part means that the device is acting more like a speaker cabinet would when connected. That’s because speakers have a changing impedance relationship with the amp as the power level changes, whereas a purely resistive load is fixed all the way. Now, it’s said that a purely resistive load device can sound a bit dark and flat, but the reality is that any and every attenuator will change the tone to some degree.
If you just want to attenuate the amp for playing live, a THD Hot Plate, Dr Z Air Brake or Palmer PDI06 will all do the job. Just make sure you match the impedance correctly. The Unleash will do that job, too, as well as offering you two footswitchable levels of attenuation/boost, and an effects loop. If you’re after something to also handle reamping/direct recording, make the tea and create world peace, the Radial Headload, Rivera RockCrusher and Fryette Power Station are well worth a look. Good luck!
ENIGMAToNIc
I have a few guitars to cover all options (almost), but that elusive sound in my head is still like a bit of rocking horse doo-doo. I bought a Blackstar ID:30 thinking that the TVP option would cover all bases, then I go and win a brand-new Blackstar Artist 30 in a competition… only to find that the sound in my head is blown away by the sheer volume of the new Artist 30.
I sold all of my pedals to fund the purchase of a Les Paul 1960 Reissue Classic, and to add the Lester to the SG ’61 Reissue, the Fender USA Standard HSS with S-1, ’88 Japanese Strat and an Epi Sheraton Lucille.
I still can’t find that sound at low volume in the man cave with all this gear. Am I searching for a unicorn or just looking in the wrong place for something close to a Cornell Brown 10? Thoughts from the oracle of all GAS knowledge, please! Dave Cross, via email
Ooh Dave, this is a bit like going to a dating agency and asking how to find true love. They can’t tell you and neither can we – so forgive the unorthodox answer for Q&A, but we’re going to say that the last thing you need is more gear. Instead, we’ll bring to mind Bruce Lee and his eager student, when he whacks him on the head in Enter The Dragon. “We need emotional content… Don’t think, feel. Like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don’t concentrate on the finger, or you will miss all that heavenly glory.”
Dr Q&A prescribes averting your concentration away from the finger (your gear) and towards the heavenly glory (good music) for a while. Stick any old dirt pedal (we’d recommend a Fulltone OCD) in front of that Artist 30 turned down and rock out with a bunch of new songs to learn. Forget about the sound for a while and reconnect with why you started doing this in the first place! We think the change of perspective will do you good.