To Attenuate or Use Volume Pedal In Loop?

Robert I had trouble with CTS pots several months ago. I try to put the knob back on and the bottom of the pot came out. I bought them from the Art of Tone. I stayed away from them a long time. Now I am using them again, I just went with a large size from another maker. The small Chinese pot are more accurate but they don't last real long like the CTS pots. The Art of Tone did replace the bad pots with more bad pots. I started to get them from Chicago Music and they are fine.
 
kevinpaul said:
Robert I had trouble with CTS pots several months ago. I try to put the knob back on and the bottom of the pot came out. I bought them from the Art of Tone. I stayed away from them a long time. Now I am using them again, I just went with a large size from another maker. The small Chinese pot are more accurate but they don't last real long like the CTS pots. The Art of Tone did replace the bad pots with more bad pots. I started to get them from Chicago Music and they are fine.
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Gotcha....I've had good luck with CTS.

I used mini-pots (metric) on my Ibanez, but they have a very fast tone curve...that's the only part I don't like...
 
kevinpaul said:
I use them on all my guitars now that I found a good dealer.
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Photo of the long-shank mini pots in my Ibanez Destroyer.

IMG_20170904_1566.jpg

This guitar has (2) volumes and (1) master tone. For the volume pots, I am using Alpha 16mm (Mini) Pots, 500kΩ, Part #R-VAM500KA Audio Taper.

On the tone side, I am using an Alpha 16mm (Mini) pot, 300kΩ Linear taper, with an .015uf K40Y PIO Tone Capacitor.

IMG_20170904_37894.jpg

The pickups are custom wound Von Herndon's 17.5kΩ bridge (52mm spacing)and 15.5kΩ Middle & neck with 50mm spacing.

IMG_20170831_35697.jpg

These are basically a mixture of a Carvin M22SD, a DiMarzio Super Distortion and an Ibanez V-2's. It was probably silly to invest in them, but I couldn't get exactly what I wanted, so I had a bunch made in both cream and black.

I've been from one to another extreme, can you dig it, Kevin???
 
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RVA said:
I just ordered the Bugera Power Soak. $ 99. I will give my thoughts after I get it soaking wet.
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I hope the Bugera works out for you. My worries are: An attenuator under heavy use requires ultimate reliability and design. Bugera is known for that sneaky word called "value".

Make sure you have one of these for backup:

S-9873_US.jpg
 
syscokid said:
I hope the Bugera works out for you. My worries are: An attenuator under heavy use requires ultimate reliability and design. Bugera is known for that sneaky word called "value".

Make sure you have one of these for backup:

View attachment 12877
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While researching, I saw you make that suggestion on ETSG when another fella got one. I did not find any fire stories, so I went for it. Once again, I am the guinea pig!
 
syscokid said:
I hope the Bugera works out for you. My worries are: An attenuator under heavy use requires ultimate reliability and design. Bugera is known for that sneaky word called "value".

Make sure you have one of these for backup:

View attachment 12877
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I've flogged my DSL40C with this for weeks at 3/4 volume...No issues. It will silence my DSL40C at full volume on the 40 watt setting.

Weber.jpg
 
RVA said:
While researching, I saw you make that suggestion on ETSG when another fella got one. I did not find any fire stories, so I went for it. Once again, I am the guinea pig!
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That's funny, because I don't even remember doing that. But, I probably did. I've never seen the insides of the Bugeranuator. You should look around inside of yours when you get a chance. In the world of quality attenuators form $500 to $1000+, it's amazing anybody can produce this technology for $100. Same type of thinking goes for pedals, amps, guitars, and wine.

Robert Herndon said:
I've flogged my DSL40C with this for weeks at 3/4 volume...No issues. It will silence my DSL40C at full volume on the 40 watt setting.

View attachment 12887
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Yeah, but.... you're comparing a Weber to a "you know what?"
 
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syscokid said:
That's funny, because I don't even remember doing that. But, I probably did. I've never seen the insides of the Bugeranuator. You should look around inside of yours when you get a chance. In the world of quality attenuators form $500 to $1000+, it's amazing anybody can produce this technology for $100. Same thinking goes for pedals, amps, guitars, and wine.


Yeah, but.... you're comparing a Weber to a "you know what?"
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I didn't know anyone else made them, other than that "Hot Plate" thingy????
 
I have a Carl's speaker soak and that thing gets hot as the hinges of hell's gate. I have a Weber that is warm. I have an external master volume that goes into the loop. That is great, doesn't get hot but my pedals need to go in the front. I bought the Weber and the master volume for my Vox AC 15
I sold the Vox 15 watt amp shortly after I bought the Monoprice 15 watt amp. The new Vox amps out of China never sounded right to me.
 
I cancelled my order on the power soak. I was reviewing the manual which advises that, even with the output settings on full, the Bugera Power Soak only conveys 50% of the amp's output. This would be fine if it had a bypass. However, without one, I would be required to always burn the tubes at double the power to achieve a certain volume or disconnect everything. That is too much hassell or too much unecessary wear.
 
syscokid said:
No personal experience with any of the Weber attentuators, but the Weber Mass 100 is described as full attenuation under 60 watts and slight attenuation at 100 watts. Robert should be able to operate his DSL at the full 40 watts and still be able to fully attenuate. Either way, Robert should be able to reduce quite a bit of volume for his rehearsals.
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I have a Weber MiniMASS 50 that I use on my 18WPlexi clone and can easily get bedroom volume with the amp dimed. The Webers seem to work very well IMHO.
 
ninjaking67 said:
I have a Weber MiniMASS 50 that I use on my 18WPlexi clone and can easily get bedroom volume with the amp dimed. The Webers seem to work very well IMHO.
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And I believe it's safe to say that the Webers are built with quality in mind, and are more affordable than the higher end attenuators like my Rivera as an example.

On another note.... guess who appears to have joined the attenuator/load-box market? Answer: Fractal Audio, makers of the Axe Fx. Not on sale, yet:
X-Load - Axe-Fx II Wiki
 
I made my own cable, 32" long, so if the attenuator got knocked over, it wouldn't destroy the speaker connections:

IMG_20180224_21538.jpg

I later installed a 90 pancake end on this so there was nothing sticking out of the back of the amp...
 
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