The Aracom PRX150-Pro to be exact. I’ve actually known about this for awhile, but Jeff Aragaki, owner of Aracom Amps asked me not to say anything until someone else had mentioned it. Jeff told me the news right after Joe purchased it, but I respected Jeff’s wishes to wait to mention it. So I did. And none other than Doug Doppler, guitarist extraordinaire and author of “Get Killer Tone,” happened to mention it in a thread on the The Gear Page recently about how Joe had told him about the unit. So the cat’s out of the bag! Joe Satriani is a proud owner of a PRX150-Pro, and his words to Jeff were “Great unit. I like it a lot.”
That’s about all the information I know other than how he raved about it to Doug who, in turn, contacted Jeff to get a unit; and since he got it, Doug has been raving about it on The Gear Page, and will be featuring it in his DVD.
This is not so much a plug for the PRX150-Pro as it is meant to underscore that even guitar heroes like Satch see the virtues of using an attenuator. Speaker breakup aside, some amps just don’t hit their sweet spot until they’re cranked up and played wide open. Unfortunately, the volume level at that point is too high to be comfortable for most human ears. With an attenuator – and a great one in the PRX150-Pro – players can crank their amps to their sweet spot, and not worry that their ears are going to bleed.
I know, there are several people who eschew attenuators as being tone suckers. But the new breed of attenuators such as the Aracom PRX150-Pro are so much more transparent than the older attenuators on the market; and yes, they are particularly more expensive than their older counterparts, but how much is great tone worth? We gear sluts think nothing about spending a few hundred bucks on a pedal. For what a great attenuator gives you, it’s totally worth the investment.
For more information on the Aracom PRX150-Pro, go to the PRX150-Pro product page!
Guitar Gear 
Joe has Bern an outspoken proponent of attenuators and speaker load boxes for…well…a long time. He was an early adopter of the Palmer speaker emulators and most of his recorded tones from Flying in a Blue Dream onwards are direct-to- desk tones recorded through PDI-03 and PGA-04 boxes.
I thought the Palmer came along later?
Personally I think people should stop wasting money on attenuators and instead buy amps that suit their needs, so many great low wattage amps available these days, many switchable between different output wattages. My amp for instance allows me to run on 2 tubes instead if 4 and halve the wattage, meaning same pure great tone.
Jon, you’re certainly entitled to your opinion, but that view sounds to me like it’s coming from someone who hasn’t used one – at least a great one – that doesn’t suck tone. Yes, there are great amps out there that have power scaling and half power switches. But think about this: I have an 8 Watt amp switchable to 2 Watts. Even at 2 Watts, it’s still too loud for real late night playing in my garage/studio. An attenuator is the only solution I know of that will get me the gain I need while retaining my tone, and not wake the neighbors in the process.
Joe and I may have used a speaker load box in some rare occasion but the Palmer speaker emulator was not employed until after 2000. We see it as another “color” on our pallet, not a permanent replacement for his speakers.
It changes the sound no more or less than a mic, amp, guitar or stomp box would. So for you purest, you are only limiting your choices to what end?.
I enjoy the low wattage amps as much as most folks.. I have 4 tube amps that are under 25 watts. All of them are too loud when the amp starts to sound good.. I’m not talking about the sweet spot of the amp, just the point where the amp goes from a bad to a decent sound. So that leaves me with three choices, isolation box, attenuator, or totally bummed out.
what did I choose… my Aracom came today..
Tune in next week.. Same bat time, Same
bat channel and I’ll post a quick review
Chris, you will not be disappointed! And more likely than not, you’ll be completely amazed.
Well kids, I just prefer 4 power tubes to just two and little wattage amps just do not do it for me. I dig the half stack because it just sounds better. I also prefer the amp pushing a 16 ohm load. I try putting it on 50watt 2 tubes (EL34Bs) but it just sounds better on all 4. Wattage is not about volume it’s about the quality and depth of the tone. I get using an antenuator to run the amp up more while cutting the volume. Who in their right mind can argue w master Joe, his tone is amazing, check out the last Paris live DVD and the new CD which just came out!!
Reducing the watts just does not sound as good to me. Little amps are perhaps fine for recording because that is all an illusion anyway but for shear depth in the tone and a 3D quality HD sound I just always go back to the half stack. Despite keeping the master down to human bearable levels which in theory reduces the wattage to the speakers, it is just not the same as a little amp. And please give me a multi cab over a single speaker any day as the tone is just better. I prefer the 4×12 because it just sounds better. It is not about shear volume and loudness or even a gain master head, I more so use my stack on a good vibrant clean tone and use my board for the gain and OD variants. The tube gain is there as an option but I prefer the pedalboard myself. Even with the 4 tube 4×12 at low master volume the quality of the tone is just better than the little amps and a good ear can hear the little amps on a recording, they are different. Not saying they do not sound good but live for shear balls and god tone, it’s the half stack and the antenuator allows you to crank it without blowing speakers or your ears.
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