dr. z airbrake vs THD hotplate

[esandes]

i've narrowed down my attenuator selection down to these two and i'm wondering which one is best for a marshall. i'm leaning more towards the airbrake because of this demo on youtube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTL7QIWXRcc

it sounds like the attenuator doesn't take away from the tone at higher attenuation levels. plus it's not ohm specific.

i know there are alot of good ones but these are the only two i'd like to focus this thread on. it's too bad the koch loadbox 2 was discontinued.

i'd like to hear some opinions from experience on one or both of these two.

[GuitarDoc]

Re: dr. z airbrake vs THD hotplate

That's an impressive video. Love the bedroom settings on the Dr Z. Also noticed that the Dr Z keeps the tone nice and bright, doesn't get muffled sounding.

A little pricey, but seems to work great.

[Simon_F]

Re: dr. z airbrake vs THD hotplate

I had a Hot Plate for a couple of years. I didn't use it for bedroom volume but for making a loud amp manageable at rehearsal and small gig volumes. The tone was great but there was one issue with it that will prevent me from buying another one....

At low volume (-16dB setting) there is a knob to let you fine-tune the level, but at the higher volume settings there isn't. So you're stuck with big steps in the attenuation level : -4dB, -8dB, -12dB.

I frequently found myself in a situation where -4dB was too loud and -8dB wasn't loud enough. If I ever buy another attenuator I will make sure to get one with fine control over the entire range of output level.

[esandes]

Re: dr. z airbrake vs THD hotplate

airbrake it is