I show you how with just a couple components and some soldering you can build your own Guitar Amplifier Attenuator. L-Pad: amzn.to/3ivjskI Website article with schematic: merwinmusic.com/2020/08/12/how... / merwinmusic
Hey I remember watching your Minecraft The Beatles video a long time ago when I was younger and I just wanted to let you know that video was my childhood
Turn it into an "Active cooling" Attenuator by having 2 PC Case fans in a Push -> Pull configuration on either side of the enclosure (You would have to figure out how to power them though) just be sure to add more holes and a thin dust filter.
good stuff. For the vent holes, you could probably check how much area removed on vents on attenuators for sale, then drill out a similar area as a starting point.
I'm thinking some holes on the bottom and the top would help to cool it too. As the heat goes out of the top it would pull cooler air from the bottom through the device.
I like to play Cake to demo my gears too :) also I discovered that attenuators existed like 10 minutes before seeing your video. Thought I'd mention that too.
Thank you very much for this! I will try this. I have an affordable amp that I could use to test it out on. What about part quality? Some affordable attenuators make the amp lose a lot of top end.
Looks like a great project. The only thing I think that I would do on my own...... the vent holes..... I would drill them towards the TOP of the box. Heat rises. So when it gets hot inside the box that heat is going to rise INSIDE the box and will have to work its way down to the vent holes to get out. Thinking even more.... I might open up a hole in the top and put an open screen in it. NOW you will have convection on your side. Heat will rise out the top....causing cooler air to be drawn IN from the SIDES and help with the overall cooling effect. By the way...if I did THIS.... I would KEEP the air holes on the side low where you have them..... so that the incoming air comes in LOW inside the box. Very good project though! Well done!
I made one, and added 2 micro fans on either side taken from a building automation unit I replaced. It works well. I plan to make an improved version with higher quality audio components and a nicer housing to match my stack.
@StefGraffiti i used some bits from a chinese klon pedal, and just use the 18v off my pedalboard power supply. I dont really use it much now, and never got around to redoing it with better components, but i will soon.
I need a 16ohm attenuator to lower in-between full and -20db. I plan to place it after the full output, on my Two Notes Torpedo Captor 8. I run silent. But, when I use the speaker of a 16ohm cab. I only need -10db only for live. -20db is too much, fine for when I want to be way quieter. 0 db is a bit too loud for my dry only cab.
Cool project! Great inspiration! What if i wanted to build one for my Super Twin Reverb with 180Watts (385RMS) 6x 6l6 tubes? What parts could I consider? It is min 4 Ohms minimum. But these are build to survive so the trans takes 8 Ohms as well. And i think about i making sleeves in the top and bottom or maybe a coolvin from a CPU cooler.
Hi there! Thanks for a great video as always. Liked and sub'ed 👍 I'm building one just like this now! But I have seen some people on forums saying that it won't actually handle 100W amplifiers. You're using it with your Fender Showman right? And that's a 100W amp if I'm not mistaken? Have you had any issues with your L-pad? I mean sure, the L-pad probably won't survive if the amp is on full volume and the attenuator is completely turned down.. but it can handle say volume at 12oclock and attenuator also at 12oclock right?
Guitar speaker cabinets usually have just a 1/4 inch jack. So instead of one 1/4 inch cable from amp to speaker cabinet you use two with this box in between.
Great vid, thanks. One question though, could you use a trimmer cap instead of a regular cap to add even more versatility to how you want the attenuator to behave in regard to tone?
You use a 8 ohm 50 W resistor, will multiple 20 W resistors also work for a total of 8 ohms, like 4 ohms at 20 W in parallel? And, are in input and output jacks self grounding?
Question, I made one and am getting 5ohms and 8.7ohm readings, was your resistor bang on? I noticed mine read 9.4 ohms so I think that's what's throwing it off.
Anyone have experience using the diy M2 reactive attenuator from the marahall forums? It has resistive stages but has an inductor in the beginning that gives a reactive load. The guy that designed it fine tuned it so the amp 'sees' normal apeaker impedence. It has 3 switchable stages of -3.5db, -7db, and -14db, or a combination of the 3 for almost -25db of attenuation. i usually run -7db and it sounds excellent
I have a Fender Champ 5 watt clone with 2 input jacks, but the so called low input doesn't do the trick for me. Would it be to put the L-pad directly in the amp
This is great, thank you for sharing! Have you noticed any change in tone when using this? The reason I ask is that when looking at the more expensive (active) solutions, it seems like they all claim to work better than simple passive units like this one. In A/B comparison videos, the difference always seems minimal to me but the price difference is massive. Curious about your thoughts on the matter.
I haven't noticed anything besides Fletcher-Munson curves. Also I feel like that is what the tone controls on the amp are for. Everyone always assumes that any bit different is bad and useless, but really you just work with what little difference it makes.
@@MerwinMusic Cool, thanks for that! I was leaning toward this view already from the demos I watched but it's nice to hear this from you too. Also, kudos on the Silvertone! I used to own a 1484 but sold it when I moved from the US. It's the only amp I miss :-)
Hi, on the schematic for the 8 ohm only version, I see a gap between the tip of the INPUT jack and the wire that goes to Position 3 of the L pad. Should the tip of the input jack be connected to position 3? Or did you mean I should install an on-off switch between the tip and position 3? Not really sure, am new to electronics. Any help is appreciated.
Maybe i'm kicking in open doors, but i just want to point out that when youre talking about speakers its not resistans its impedance that is depending of frequence.
Hello. Does it decrease the tone?? I bought Two attenuators, they decrease the tone !!when I disconnect the attenuator, I have to turn down all my EQ’s and the tube amp sounds bright and Fresh !!!
I've build a few but never with an L-pad I've just used switches to introduce -6db or -12db of attenuation, I've been looking at these L-Pads but the specs are pathetic, do you have any idea on the amount of attenuation that's possible with it turned all the way up?
How much difference does the attenuator make in terms of tone? How the speaker isn't a purely resistive load. It has inductance and capacitance. To me, that will make the response of the amp a bit different. While you are still using the speaker, you have changed the resistive component, therefore the response should change.
To me it still sounds good with the attenuator. Maybe it doesn't sound exactly the same, but if it doesn't sound bad who cares. The benefit of being able to play at an appropriate volume outweighs the possible negatives of tone.
I hav 1 of these and while it does lose some high end its nothing i cant put back with the amp eq . Also kno tht as u turn up the attenuater in volume the high end starts to come back . This thing is great .
wattage is an absolute power figure. in the laws of physics, energy is neither created nor destroyed. Our amps are no exception. That being said, a 100W amps power will be divided between the various loads. so, if there is a resistor, an equal L pad and a speaker, where the speaker is cut to say 20W, this leaves 80W equally divided between the L pad and the resistor (in 4 ohm mode) for a figure of 40W to each. 40W+40W+20W = 100W You can compute this per your own needs rather easily. The likelihood of needing anything of greater spec is remote
I put some jacks on an l-pad but when I test it with a multimeter it behaves confusingly. My speaker is rated 8 ohm and If I put a meter across it I measure about 7.8. If I put the speaker in to the attenuator and measure the amp side I thought I would see a constant 8 ohm regardless of the position of the dial. But it varies from 4 to 40 and goes short at the ends of the track. So is it broken or did I wire it wrong or is something else going on here that I don't understand? I have seen threads from other people where they found the same thing with their multimeter and then when they hooked it up with their amp it worked as expected. That seems a terrifying risk to take with my output transformer. Can anyone explain what is going on?
It's been awhile but I believe mine read 8ohm over the whole sweep of the L-pad. The fact that it reads short tells me something is not wired right or something is wrong with the L-pad.
No point. The master volume on those vs series amps is adequate. Absolutely no point since it’s a solid state power section. You’ll gain nothing tonally from cranking it through an attenuator. The point of the attenuator is to let you crank the tube power section of an amp, which in itself has a unique colour. I have an old vs102r somewhere.
For my amplifier it still works great. When I built my own cabinet I put one permanently inside. I have yet to figure out an attenuator that works on my children...
A simple rheostat design like this not only rolls off all the treble ; it will kill all dynamics and sound like crap. Only reactive load attenuators will retain these aspects of your tone. And he's right ;done incorrectly it can be toast for transformers.
Because they're NOT the same thing. Weber uses a reactive load, an actual speaker motor in their attenuators, and they have treble and other EQ compensation.
That's not true. What you're talking about is the fact that the tubes will wear out quicker, but that hasn't got anything to do with the attenuator at all. It's just due to the fact that you're cranking them for extended periods (ie when you're playing). The same will happen without an attenuator (though, it'll obviously be a lot louder when you play).
