For a long time I was – and pretty much still to this day – an overdrive pedal lover. I have several, and am waiting for my new Paul Cochrane Timmy to be completed and delivered in the next few weeks. I’ve been wanting one of these for awhile now, and finally bit the bullet and got on the waiting list. So excited! But using an attenuator – specifically the Aracom PRX150-Pro – changed the way I use overdrive pedals.
In the “old days” before I used an attenuator, I used an overdrive pedal to get grind through a clean amp. Early on, I was using my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe that was all about loud, clean headroom, and I couldn’t get the volume above 2 or 3 before it would be just too damn loud; not to mention, the tubes weren’t working that much at all at that level. Yeah, I could crank the volume then set the Master to about 1/2 to get some dirt, but the pre-amp only distortion of that amp never really appealed to me. So I used overdrive pedals to get that soft-clipping on the front-end, and especially looked to pedals that provided a bit of color.
But once I got an attenuator, the entire game changed. I was able to crank my amps to get both the preamp and power amp sections saturated. For a long while, I actually stopped using overdrive pedals altogether because I was getting all the drive I wanted. I still sometimes just go to my gigs with only a tuner pedal and just plug directly into whatever amp I’m using, though I’m now starting to introduce overdrives to add gain stages to my chain.
But that brings me to the crux of this post… I used overdrives because I couldn’t get sufficient grind at reasonable volumes. But once I got a real transparent attenuator like the PRX150-Pro (I had an AirBrake and tested several), I could finally hear what my amps sounded like fully cranked. But here are some things I discovered once I was able to crank up my amps that I’d like to share:
- I have 8 amps, and with the exception of two, once I cranked them up, I did not like their fully cranked up tone.
- A common thing that I found among all the amps where I didn’t like their cranked up tone was a certain harshness or in some cases “fizz” that was not at all pleasing to me.
- As opposed to getting rid of the amps, I swapped tubes and speakers until I was able to balance out their tone. For instance, with my Aracom PLX BB 18 combo, which is a replica of a Marshall 18 Watt Blues Breaker, the cranked tone was horrendously fizzy to me. So I replaced two preamp tubes with NOS Mullard and GE tubes, and to tame the natural brightness of the amp, replaced the stock Eminence Red Fang with a Fane Medusa 150 which really emphasizes the low-end. It’s now gorgeous, and I use that amp regularly!
The point to all the items that I shared was that once I was able to crank up my amps, most of them just didn’t sound all that good. Lots of folks who are new to attenuators complain about different artifacts being introduced by the attenuator, but based upon my experience, I think a lot of those “artifacts” have a lot to do with them never having cranked their amps all the way up. To me, it’s definitely a case of “you may not like what you hear…”
So if you ever do get a hold of an attenuator, and you crank your amp up, if you don’t like the tone, don’t immediately assume that it’s the attenuator. Especially with the latest generation of attenuators that are much more transparent than the traditional ones, the likelihood that they’re introducing artifacts is pretty low. Look to your amp first, and see what you can do to adjust it to deal with its cranked tone. Personally, I’d start with tubes first; especially replacing new production tubes with NOS pre-amps. I know, they’re getting more and more scarce, but I’ve gotten the best results in smoothing out my tone with NOS pre-amp tubes.
Guitar Gear 
Unfortunately no, I have not. The most I got it to was about 4 o’clock on the channel side and 11 o’clock on the master side. At that point the windows were shaking and I could feel the waves from the speaker pounding on me. In other words awesome. Unfortunately my wife did not think the same thing and after about 2 minutes it went back down.
I want to get an attenuator, but I think I will have to change the cable from the speaker as I have a combo and not a head and separate cabinet.
If your speaker wire is not hard-soldered to your amp output (most are not, and use a 1/4″ jack), then it’s a simple matter of getting a female/female adaptor to attach to your speaker cable. Then get a couple of good 12-gauge speaker cables. The first would plug into your amp output, then run into the in of the attenuator, then the second would run from your attenuator out, then into the other female jack of your speaker cable.
I got a nice gold-plated one at Radio Shack. Use it on all my combos.
Hey Goofydawg! I just received my Aracom today and have a few questions… First of all, I’m trying to hook the Aracom up to a Mesa Lonestar combo (2-12). Do I simply unplug my speaker cable from the amplifiers 8ohm jack and plug into the Aracom’s input? (left side of Aracom), then run a new 12gauge speaker cable from the Aracom’s output(right side of Aracom) to the now vacated 8ohm jack? I am not technically minded so I would appreciate your help! I don’t undrestand the whole female/female adapter scenario either. Is this for amps whose speaker cable is too short to reach the Aracom? I know these are silly questions but I don’t want to harm my amp, I really love it. Thanks. By the way, the Aracom manual suggests 16gauge speaker cable, any reason why you’re using 12?
Okay… lemme see…
I use a 12 gauge just because it’s just a heavier gauge and it means that I have more than enough to handle different output power. 16 gauge will work pretty much everywhere, but I like the heftiness of the 12.
As far as hooking it up to your combo, yes, you will run a speaker cable from your amp to the input of the PRX. For your speaker, you’ll have to go down to Radio Shack or other electronics store and get a 1/4″ female to female cable connector. Then you’ll plug in your speaker jack into the connector and your output speaker cable, then run that into the output of the PRX.
The female-female phono connector looks like this: http://www.kvconnection.com/product-p/t-spf.htm.
So your amp speaker’s cable will plug in one end, then your speaker cable that runs from the PRX will run into the other end.
So… disconnect my speaker from 8ohm jack, run new cable (12gauge!) from vacated 8ohm jack to input of Aracom. So far, so good GD! This is where I’m still abit confused. The EXISTING speaker cable from the Mesa’s speaker has about 12″ of extra length when diconnected with an angled 1/4″connector that will reach the Aracom right side that says ATTENUATOR OUTPUT TO SPEAKERS. Do I just plug into this? I don’t think I need the female/female connector and another 12gauge speaker cable, do I? (I’m just setting the DAG on top of my amp). Appreciate your time! Our Father ROCKS! 😉
If it’s long enough, you won’t need the connector. But I found that more often than not, you’ll need more length than that. If it works for you with the PRX sitting on the floor behind your amp, go for it, but I always like having the PRX elevated, and that requires the connector and a cable. 🙂
Thanks Brendan!
Hey Brendan! Hooked up the Aracom as per instructions… WOA! SMOKIN’! Didn’t know the Lonestar had such huge huevos (have never had the amp past 10 o’clock on the dial). Thanks to you and your glowing review of the Aracom I am now thoroughly enjoying my amps huge 3-D tone (I still like to run the amp just below thd and add abit of either my Ecstasy, Boiling Point or OCD). Thanks again Brendan for taking the time to down-load pics for me (didn’t need the female/female adapter as my speaker cable had an extra ft. of length). Hope all is well with you! Peace!
Great to hear! It’s amazing when you finally hear what an amp can do. 🙂
GoofyDawg
When you mention good 12-gauge speaker cables what brand do you like. I’ve seen some rediculous claims about cables like in one of your recent posts. Also when using an attenuator is it better to keep cable length to a minimum ?
I use good ol’ copper cables from Rapco. They cost about $20 for a 4 ft. length (less if on sale). I have, in the past, constructed my own cables, but it’s so much easier to just buy them. As far as lengths are concerned, my previous post included a table of length vs. gauge. The thing to worry about with speaker cables is resistance so, yeah, in general I’d keep cables as short as reasonably possible. But as I use 4 ft 12-gauge cables, I’m well within tolerances, and it offers me the most flexibility with different outputs.
hi, i have an 15 watt egnater tweaker head and a 1-12 cab from whitebox engineerig that has an eminance maverick speaker with their new fdm technology. http://www.whiteboxeng.com/ this fdm stuff is essentially a built in attenuator at the twist of a dial at the back of the speaker magnet.upon the first or second day of playing with this setup(both items new to me) i was fidling with the settings on the tweaker and playing a bit of stuff as well as turning the volume up and upper at the same time thinking “what’s wrong with this stupid head, why isn’t it getting LLoud” ….when after a while it dawned on me the cab was set for max attenuation.turning the fdm to zero and and hitting a string way to loud. so to sum things up this eminence fdm tech really works and keeps your tone the same at different volumes.
Nice! I’ve heard a lot about those speakers. If all you need is moderate attenuation, these are an ideal solution!
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