Question about tube amps with master volume
Oh, Jimmy
Posts: 957
I always heard to push the tubes in an amp with a master volume control you crank the master, and fine tune at the channel. I have been reading and it appears I had it back asswards. before I tweak with my sound too much, whats the correct way to push the power tubes.
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I don't know about other amps, and I think I'm understanding the question correctly, but here's how it is for my amp, a Fender Blues Junior. To push the power tubes, you'd crank the Master, and fine tune with the regular volume knob that controls the pre-amp, with or without the FAT switch pushed in. If you wanted to push the pre-amp tubes, crank the regular volume knob and adjust with the Master. Hope I answered it correctly and made sense!
I prefer a mixture of the two, because otherwise it's earth shattering loud. When practicing, I usually use the pre-amp volume and gain to get saturation. When playing live or in rehersal, I adjust accordingly to get a good level of saturation.
Marshall makes one called a Power Break, Dr. Z makes one called an Air Break, and THD makes one called a Hot-Plate (I like the THD version - http://www.zzounds.com/item--THDHP). You just need to get a version that matches your OHM load.
But remember, if you really saturate your power tubes, they do wear-out faster - Cheers . . .
- Ian C.T. vom Saal
<b><font color="red">CONTACT ME HERE</font>: www.myspace.com/ianvomsaal</b>
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That's what Nigel would do in Spinal Tap!
Like Ian said. An attenuator is great if you have a big amp. You ar absorbing some of the energy instead of sending it to the speakers.
I like these, too:
http://www.tedweber.com/atten.htm
Don't be mankind. ~Captain Beefheart
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On a side note - most of the big amps were designed back when there weren't very good PA systems - the amp needed to be loud enough to fill a stadium without being mic'd. That's why it's so difficult to get that good tone on many amps without killing yourself volume-wise (think about a Marshal Plexi, or any or those hand-wired Marshall's today - they are very loud amplifiers) - thus the ATTENUATOR came about, because they wanted to use those amps in smaller clubs without killing everyone with the volume.
I sometimes use a small Fender DeVille 4x10 - it has way to much volume (and it's only 60-watts). My best setting with a full band has the volume cracked over 2 (on this amp 1 is actually 0, so that truthfully makes it barely over 1 - how do you get any tone like that). Well, if I want to turn this amp up at all I need to use an ATTENUATOR - I wish the amp was only 30-watts - then I could crank it easier.
I'd recommend wearing hearing protection if you play in an enclosed space or lengths of time (remember, most of those old rockers are almost deaf because of amp volume). I'm young and I've had bouts of hearing loss from playing exceeding loud on large venue stages when I could have just mic'd the amp instead, and from also playing loud in small enclosures. I'd recommend a lower wattage amp that you can just mic when you need more volume than it produces - honestly, it's rare to need more volume than 30-tube-watts. I might just get a VOX AC-30.
Anyhow, have fun - Cheers . . .
- Ian C.T. vom Saal
<b><font color="red">CONTACT ME HERE</font>: www.myspace.com/ianvomsaal</b>
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i think the mini-mass is pretty much part of my amp's tone now. it almost sounds wrong without it.
mind you, i'm really crunching down on the volume. that is until i move.
i have for clean channel: volume, bass, mid, treble in this order
and for crunch channel gain , volume, bass, mid, treble.
after all there is the master and reverb i allways thought that cranking up the channel volume was the way to crank the power tubes so i used the gain know at minium volume at max and the master low to compensate the loudnees
but reading this thread i red that i may turn down the channel volume and push the master up?? to crank the power tubes?
Yup!
The master volume is just about always after the preamp and the tone controls, and before the power tubes.
When you crank down the master, you can crank up the preamp volume to distort the preamp tubes.
To crank the power tubes,,,, you gotta both volumes up to get the power tubes working.
That is usually TOO loud!!
You can't just turn down the volume of the final output of the amp or you will cause smoke and/or other expensive and noisy disturbances!
The attenuator goes between the output of the amp and the speakers and creates a dummy load on the output of the amp. When you turn down the volume of the attenuator, it's sending a less load to the speakers and absorbing more of the load in a motor or electronic "sponge"
Ian's right. Old stage PA systems were mainly for vocals and keyboards, so the stacks of marshalls you saw then were to blast the whole audience!
I used to play guitar on tour a lot with bands in the 70's and 80's and I say "What" a lot.
WEAR GOOD EARPLUGS!!!!
WHAT???
Thank the Grateful Dead for being one of primary bands to develop better stage sound. They had teams of hippie scientists working with them to improve the sound for their fans and other bands followed suit.
The Dead, The Stones and Pink Floyd always went for the best, and loud live listenable rock and roll owes a lot to them!
Don't be mankind. ~Captain Beefheart
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