TUBE AMPS' MASTER VOLUME | What it is, what it does & how to use it 

Get an attenuator and buy any amp you want. Dial in the master by ear and to taste. ANY amp can be a bedroom amp. More watt usually sounds best 👍 I have 50 to 120w tube amps in my room. Master is around 7. Attenuated.

Always interesting to ponder the way various guitarists get their sounds. In theory, if you could get your sound at the preamp stage, then you should be happy to just amplify that cleanly w/o added distortion in any power amp section. Bottom line to me is whatever sound you prefer, turn knobs till you find it then you will know. :) And use ear plugs. hahah

Just love your videos, could spend all day, every day, just watching and listening. Great instructor and brilliant player to boot, with drool-over gear too! That made a lot of sense to me, on a topic I've been confused about all my life! Many thanks and keep up the good work. Season's Greetings.

Great explanation on sound. Sometimes, the simple things get confused the most. Have a great weekend 🤘 🤘

Thanks Euge for confirming my understanding of the MV. Another great video. Greetings from Down Under.

Love to watch you play. You get a lot of personality and taste from the Paul and of course, the amps

Greetings from Vancouver. Love all your videos. Great playing and such a great educator. I learn something with every video.

*Bloodbath in Paradise…. I don’t see many people jamming this song but it was the song that got me into playing guitar again a few years ago. 🏆🔥🎥🎸 I try hitting my power tubes hard to get a slightly muddy sound but boost to tighten it up. 🎶🏆🎩 Great explanation of the master volume control. I keep mine high but still crank my JVM205H amp. 🎶😂 Enjoy your weekend!*

Thanks euge uve really helped me to get a crisp rippn tone man !!🤟🤟👍👍

Ha Guitar Man, Euge hope you are doing great. Kerry in Houston, Texas here checking in. You know, Mr. TSL 100. I like you're explanation of the master volume. It helps a lot to have it. I finished my radiation treatments last month and am doing good. I just wanted to say hi to you. I've been watching your videos and I needed to let you know how much I appreciate you man. Keep up the good work. You really know how to get some good tone and watching you play that guitar is always a joy. Take care my guitar friend. All the best!!!

Meanwhile me using the plexi as a bedroom amp 🤣

That was a great video! Thank you. I would be curious to see the same kind of thing with solid state amps.

Great breakdown of what is taking place.

As always Euge, very good info. I look forward to watching your videos. 💯💯🤟🏽🤟🏽

Excellent video Euge. I have a Genz Benz El Diablo set at 50 watts. I only play at bedroom level now but I really wanted to go back to Marshalls as they were my amps in the 70's. I tried the Studio JCM 800, DSL 20 and SV. I didn't like any of them. They just didn't have any headroom. For what it's worth, the DSL 20 made in Vietnam I think was better quality the the UK made ones. I set my amp up as bearable as possible but use an SD1 and it is a killer sound at bedroom level.

Great explanation of the master volume Euge I find 3to5 on my Marshall 100 watt tube heads,that’s why I use a Reviera rock crusher attenuator it’s a must for playing at home. Euge your playing is Unreal I hope CYHRA comes to USA .

Great video. Learned a lot from this one.

Really enjoy how you educate. You do it so well! Your tones that you get are constantly incredible no matter which amp you choose (although the bad buy will always be #1 to me).

Great subject!! 🤝👏😁 THANK YOU for a priceless knowledge, Euge!!!!

Thanks this helped me alot

Great info in this video. Thanks. 👍🏻

Great video man!! So far, except from my Bluguitar Iridium, the only other tube amps that I can play at my condo with a good tone are my Peavey Ultra Plus and 3120. Both have a master volume on top of having a gain AND a volume knob on each separate channel so while not being an attenuator I found a sweet spot to have the amps sound good at bedroom level :)

Thank you Euge great tips. I use a Waza tube amp attenuator with my Bogner Uberschall so I can dime the master volume.

Finally, now I know! Thanks man!

Hook up a reactive load box attenuator. Crank the Master Volume. Adjust the attenuator to a manageable volume. It sounds better than just using the MV to control volume levels. When you get that power tube distortion it is glorious.

This is great! I learned something today, you get my sub

My main amp is a vht Pittbull 100. I keep the master volume at 1:00 and use the channel volume for my actual volume. It sounds pretty good at any volume level.

Nice demonstration. For bedroom level volume I went for low watts tube amps (Firefly 1.5W and DSL5CR with upgraded speaker). You said that the high-wattage amps sound weak at low level but I wonder if it can be compensated with EQing. I think this is why Marshall added a “Deep” button to its low watt models.

Great job 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻

This is very interesting. I’ve never thought about a master volume controlling power and not volume. Make sense though. If you can, will you do a video on a Fryette Power Station and how to set it up correctly with your amp. As always awesome video and playing 👍👍

Great video!

You should definitely review the marshall mosfet 100, its like the solid state jcm800

thx man

Happy T day Euge Way cool Jr dude in my book, if you ever come to USA, MI, Detroit-you can stay in Imlay City, Mi for free at recording studio/house. Rural beautiful scenery with cool neighbors and no volume limits

Euge you are the Don

Very helpful, normaly I used my Mesa with master on 12 but nowadays I use i on 10-11 because it sounds cleaner

Great video. Really informative. Thank you. Have you ever tried the Fryette power station products?

I have Marshall JCM 800 1W version (tube amp). You can put in on 0,1W and it's still quite loud for bedroom playing if cranked.

Nice info, Euge. As someone who never use tube amp for drive, I have no clue of this things 🤣

more is more ;) good video , thx

Kiitos taas kerran euge! Tätä koitan aina sanoa, mutta nykyään usein kuulee, että modernin metallin koko saundi tulee etuasteesta. Et välttämättä halua saundiin päätteasteen säröytymistä, mutta nimenomaan vähän sitä lämpöä ja POWERIA 😊

Awesome video good information. What do you set your pre amp volume at?

I hear ya Euge nothing worst than fizz. I bought a slash sl5 when they came out and put a mullard in it and run it through my 16 ohm jcm 800 412 At 5 watts cranked i have the perfect household volume. I can get the anvil clank and the woody violin sounds, absolute BLISS with an archer od in front. Back the volume down, i don't even use the mesa mk3 head for clean anymore.💪🎸

Hey bro, I left you a few comments a while back d****** around asking if these videos got you laid lol. That was kind of my dark humor. This is a great explanation of the master volume on a two amp. Bravo. You are getting my subscription.

❤ for bedroom playing Marshall JCM 800 2210 whit boost ideal.

We recorded an album once when we ran a marshall with the master on almost 10. Cus it sounded best that way. About 140 db in volume in the room xD

Superb

i really like your videos！🎉

Your right brother . I got the 50 watt EVH 6l6 and that thing is too loud for the bedroom but that amp actually sounds great at bedroom volume even though it's not near it's full potential . I do get to crank it every once in a while . We jam outside at my sister's in the summer and it'll damn near drown out the drums with the volume on 3 . Lol

When you increase the MV you’re actually hitting the phase inverter tube harder, not the power tubes, which I don’t think will change the tone much unless you’re really cranking it. The phase inverter in modern amps is still a 12ax7 tube, so it’s more that you’re getting advantage of another preamp tube stage instead of suffocating it with the MV pot resistance. That’s why you can get so much gain from a cranked Plexi: the distortion doesn’t come from the power tubes but from the 12ax7s (included the phase inverter). Also (I’d say mostly, from a tone perspective), when you’re setting your MV at

I bought a Bugera PS-1 attenuator for my Diezel VH4 (I only play at home) and wow...I was so impressed with how well it sounds and keeps a lot of my tone. I am able to raise the master volume to around 11PM and push the tubes a bit. Also makes my VH4 with a Diezel 4X12 decent at bedroom volumes. Of course not perfect but decent. Master volume without the Bugera does not sound great as the Diezel is too damn loud lol

I'm telling you Euge....when you dial back that gain, with what sounds like some low output pickups, your tone is spectacular. This sounds unbelievable. Great mids, biting, and articulate. It's a shame that there's still really nothing that represents a speaker with a lot of air moving through it. It's that percussive punch, that I have yet to hear any plugin, or modeler replicate.

Can’t emphasize enough how great a purchase my Boss TAE was. It was pricey but it gets all my unruly tube amps into their sweet spot at whatever volume I want, or no volume and lined out to my interface. To your point, the sound of any of my amps is so different if I’m trying to keep them at a reasonable volume with just the master volume (even when it’s getting too loud for bedroom levels the sound still has very little body) versus using my TAE to let them rip and attenuate the volume to whatever I want and the sound is rich and full.

Master volume of Peavey Triple XXX works very good.

1:55 with subs: "now you know that uh two bamboo fire like this PVP from 50" - roger

It's sometimes a bit tricky whether I should turn its the gain or master volume I should turn up or down. I'm using helix for JCM 800 rock tones and I usually have the gain at around 6 and the master at 3. I notice that when I turn up the master , it does add a bit more clarity, maybe a bit more brightness, but then I have to turn down the gain to around 4 else its too much distortion for me which I would prefer using an 808 for that.

Super🎉

Now I wish I hadn't sold my 5150 2 years ago. Needed the money though because of Covid.

Hi Euge i just bought a used Randall KH120 but it sounds "muffy", as if it sucks the tone ive tried multiple stuff with attenuator with out gain full etc. but i couldnt find the problem. The Clean Channel is alright theres no problem there just on the High Gain Channel. Its an Solid State Amp. Would you mind helping me? 🙏 As always great tips again im glad youre here 🤘🏼

Awesome explanation, thanks! After a couple of different guitars and amplifiers in the room, (in that moment) I don’t always hear the difference that matches my memory. I was thinking about selling my attenuator, but thought there was a subtle difference with my Marshall JVM410H when dialing the masters higher by 1.5-2 to push the tubes so I kept it just in case. (Plus the Mezzabarba Trinity 100 is really loud through a 4X12 cabinet if the masters are adjusted similarly!) The Friedman BE-100 Deluxe has a system volume and dual masters so I have somewhat of a point of reference. Makes me wonder if I could run one of the others through the built in attenuator of the Mesa Boogie TC-100 to help preserve the hearing as long as possible, but keep the tones.

My 120-Watt full valve Bugera 6262 Infinium (there's no master volume and I had dreaded about it before ordering ) definitely doesn't sound week with 2x12 v30. Actually it sounds absolutely massive (muffled but still absolutely fat and wide with amazing bass) even with volume at 0 lol. It actually is easier to control than my Marshall DSL1 @1W full power mode. The knobs on my 6262 are very controllable. If you dream about big arse full valve amp, go for it... Test it... You'll never know if you do not try it. I was super positively surprised with this amp and was in fear that since my DSL 1 Watt was so loud I could barely play it @ volume just below 1 I must be insane that I want a 120-Watt monster. Yet, I wasn't and I play/practice/learn @ 4 a.m. with a person sleeping almost next room to mine/ Basically whisper volume. I normally play @ +-85 db which is somewhere @ 0.5-0.7 /10 volume. Almost identical to the DSL1. I wanted to check this BIG IRON BIG SOUND kind of thing and to be honest... My Joyo Zombie II does almost exactly the same if not better. The thing is... a 120-Watt full valve amp is like the end of the line... You just don't crave for anything else (bigger) and I might keep it just for that... So I don't crave for that big full valve amp any more... I have plugins, small DSL1 valve amp, a Zombie II hybrid, will get a modeller again soon too probably but... Nothing really gives you that immediate plug an play experience. It's hard to explain but valve amps have this magic that almost everything else doesn't. And I am not talking here about the sound quality or anything. It's just the experience of powering it on waiting for valves to get hot before you hit them with higher current, etc. Little things. Basically gives me the most joy and the most time actually playing. For recording, convenience and even sound quality (at my room volume +-85db) I would definitely pick plugins and modellers but none of them feel as powerful as this BEAST. They might sound meaner, mightier, bigger etc. but they just aren't lol It's like a small kitten trying to do angry voice they might even get really scary but they still come from a small kitten... if you know what you mean. Now when you play with the real LION you feel respect and the whole experience is just on a hell lot of different level. Try everything, see what gives you the most joy and actual amount of playing and fun. There are no rules. I bet you could even record an amazing album @ 85db there are just no boundaries in art. but again... I barely can play a few beginner songs but I've tested a lot of things in my 5 years of guitar playing and I know a thing or two. Do not take what someone else say as something that will be also true for your. Listen, gather information. Test it. Develop your own opinion. p.s. I wanted full analog effects with full valve big arse big iron amp with 4x12. Got it all except for 4x12... (kind of sad and next time I will know to go BIG or go home... - because you will never be fully satisfied, especially if you go only half-cocked, scared, half-measured, etc.) and now I want small all in one modeller because I hate tap dancing on effects, heavy 2x12, heavy big amp. But I am glad I have tried and now I know. I might keep all that as a deterrent to not miss it buy again. Worked with DSL1 for a while but big arse amp was always in the back of my head... Now that I have it... There's nothing else I really want// well Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier with Mesa 4x12 but I think my Bugera 6262 with 2x12 will keep that desire at bay/

What about an amp like the Marshall DSL40cr or DSL100hr that have both a master volume AND a separate volume for each channel? Do the power tubes still get the current if you crank the master volume and then control the "loudness" with the respected channel volume?

Can anybode help me? I have a marshall origin 50 with a great attenuator. If i were to use this amp live, i would be playing clean, dirty, and distorted. How would i go about making the clean tone as loud as the distorted tones? And how should i set the tone to begin with, i really like setting the master at 6, and gain at really anything. If i want cleans, i turn gain down, but this drastically reduce volume.. and if i have it that way, when i add pedals, i get crunch again, but the volume gets much louder again.. Is there a "best" method to set the settings, so the volume doesn't changr THAT much? What i found was really crankinh the gain and turning down master volume gives me the most stable volume, but the power tubes are then not working very much and the tone is not as good as when the master is set high.. 😢

Hi...I've been playing guitar for years, and it's only now that I've started to think about how parts of the amp interact. Anyway, this might be a very obvious question but do you think there's anything to gain (no pun intended😂) in having the master volume up and using the channel volumes lower to create the tone and overall volume? I'm using an ENGL SE/FE at the moment, and the channel vols are all up around half way and the master is low, as you can imagine.

so should master volume be up higher and then channel volume (if you have it) be lower? What is the typical interplay between the two when amps have both?

So what about situation, when you have both - Volume knob (for each Channels, usually in pair with Gain knob of course) and Master Volume knob. What Volume knob (Channel Volume) exactly does on this situation?

Could you please do stero cabs and how to run 2 amps heads at one time nobody has anything on this

Great great great

Thanks for the video Euge. I have a 100 watt Marshall Lead 100 Mosfet , solid state head. Would you say the effect of the master volume would have the same or similar effect? Mine has 3 volumes. 1 Master, 1 Normal, and 1 labeled as boost. Thanks :D

Wild sounds through the Softubes, Euge! Just purchased, but I would like to know what you are playing the Amp Room through to get that volume? Just audio interface to monitor speakers? Speaking of which, have you checked out IK Multimedia’s new precision monitor speakers? They’re not cheap, but I am sure they are worth it. I am loving Neural DSP’s plugins, so it will be interesting to compare the Softube plugins against the likes of Neural DSP’s Soldano and Gojira virtual rigs, which I have bagged while they’re 50% off. What do you make of Polyphia btw? Very different! 🤘Loving your sick playling, as always!

I have a question to you.Which of small 20w or 30w amps would cope with the drummer during rehearsal?I have PRS MT 15 and I wonder if that one will do the trick?

Do you think it's possible to get vintage JTM and lead Marshall non-master tones on a master volume plexi?

One thing bothers me. If you put volume pedal (or hx stomp) in amp loop (serial of course) and reduce the volume then you must rise the master. But i asume that doesn't mean that you can reach amp sweet point (even if master pot is at 12.00) cause volume is reduced before master. Btw i have evh-5150-iii-50w-6l6.

Euge, what tuning do you use in this video? Thanks!

During the videos are you monitoring through your speaker monitors or through a cab or both? I think its good to know so as to understand if we (approximately) hear the same as you.

I hate noodling but your noodling is all killer noodle away bud !!!

So is a post phase inverter master volume mod a good mod for my 2203 to make the power tubes work at a lower volume??

I can barely turn up my master volume on my Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier and it’s already loud, is that normal?

I'm already imagining the thousands of dollars (preferred currency accepted, I hope) flowing through your amps and out of your speakers to the stage and into the crowd. I would book a ticket right away. :)

😊❤

Zakk grabbed you right by the Hair did he not Hippie? I could almost see your neck just about to snap, then he let loose of ya. lol Nice Video!!

Current... currency... same thing. :D

DSL 1 watt head!!!

.🤟 🎶 🤟.

he would sound good through a cardboard box, its in his hands. but a great video had no idea how all that works

JHS volume pedal in the FX loop, you will be able play at bedroom levels, and it's only about $45.00, that truly acts as a final master volume in the power amp section

That's not what i wanted to hear. 😉Where's the St.Rock?🧐😎😊 I was interested to hear the difference of Master Volume vs Attenuation. I think, while you can drive your amp hard(er) with an attenuator, you sacrifice sound. It just colours the Tone and Feel of the Amp/Cab in an unpleasant way. Even when it's just in the signal path between your amp and cab w/o attenuation, because of the different impedance curve of the load and load-box components. I always prefer to use the Master Volume. I hope it's clear, what i wanted to say. 😊

One thing many people don't realize is that for every 3db increase of volume, you are doubling the requirement from your power amp. This is why "RMS" is the biggie in actual power and not some cheap chinese (stereo) amp system boasting "150w!" but sounds like shit and actually hurts when you turn it up to what would be considered a loud volume compared that coming from a high headroom, true 100w RMS amp. Pump the same db out of this compared to the shit amp and its enjoyable and doesn't hurt. It's because the distortion from the cheapo trying to achieve a loud volume is what hurts. Explains why guys go, "holy shit listen to how loud that guitar amp is at 1w!" it's because its 1w RMS.

Euge, you've started pronouncing 'V' instead of 'W' ,when did that happen?! 😁

If you're not in the same room as your cab then you're not a metal guitarist - oh yes, and is there an ENT specialist, out there, that knows anything about tinnitus?

Just play louder Man. Let your band figure it out!😉

You don’t skate

Hey Brotha. can I get that office chair in the States (US)? Tectake. great video! M