Bedroom Levels

[Slartibartfast]

I have one pedal....an ancient Tube Screamer which I have never used....so my knowledge of pedals is zero.

My question: For bedroom level tone should it be a volume pedal or attenuator? (Using either a 15 W or 50 W amp.)

Thanks.

[shupe13]

Bedroom Levels

I have one pedal....an ancient Tube Screamer which I have never used....so my knowledge of pedals is zero.

My question: For bedroom level tone should it be a volume pedal or attenuator? (Using either a 15 W or 50 W amp.)

Thanks.

Use the tubescreamer level to control the amp’s overall volume.


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[RockinProf]

Re: Bedroom Levels

Generally speaking this depends on a LOT of factors and a lot of them are super subjective.

To answer your question we need some context:
a) what are you going for something like George Thorogood where there's just a bit of raspy crunch, modern extreme metal where picking the notes out of all the harmonics is a challenge or somewhere in between?

b) what are you plugging in to? You said it's 15 watts, but is it a master volume or a high gain low watt amp?

c) what are you starting with? A traditional strat type guitar with low output pickups or a Slug humbucker that's kicking out 1.21 gigawatts into the front end of your amp?

If you're going for George Thorogood, have a vintage like pickups and you're using a non-master volume fender amp... I'd get a Weber Mini-Mass as that would dial in that power tube grit just right.

If you're going for popular extreme metal band sound, have a Soldano Astroverb and and mega output pickups... the tubescreamer might tighten the tone up a bit....

Give us a little more and we help a bit more.

[stratguy23]

Re: Bedroom Levels

Use the tubescreamer level to control the amp’s overall volume.

I'd disagree with this in that in my experience, level in a TS-type pedal only controls the degree of saturation. Overall volume is still set at the amp level.

Description of the 15W and 50W amps would help, too. For example, if it's a Mesa-type amp that relies mostly on preamp gain, you can put a volume pedal in the loop to control volume without affecting tone (for the most part). If your amp needs to be cranked up to get tone, then an attenuator would be the right tool for the job.

And if you have a solid state amp, master volume should be enough

[LLL]

Re: Bedroom Levels

I have one pedal....an ancient Tube Screamer which I have never used....so my knowledge of pedals is zero.

My question: For bedroom level tone should it be a volume pedal or attenuator? (Using either a 15 W or 50 W amp.)

Thanks.

If you have a tube amp and want good ("good" meaning cranked tube amp) tone, neither.

Need to slave or tap a line out to your DAW.

[Demanic]

Re: Bedroom Levels

Well, it depends on what you mean by bedroom level. I could imagine cranking a 50 watt in a bedroom if I lived alone on an acre surrounded by forest.

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[CaptainWhizz]

Re: Bedroom Levels

Dan from That Pedal Show said once that he used to play a cranked Marshall in his bedroom; however, he was in a different room with the door shut.

What's your rig?

[PFDarkside]

Re: Bedroom Levels

When I was living in the bachelor pad we all had guitar amps in our bedrooms. Bedroom volume was nearly stage volume.

[Jacew]

Re: Bedroom Levels

If you have a tube amp and want good ("good" meaning cranked tube amp) tone, neither.

Need to slave or tap a line out to your DAW.

How do you do that without attenuator?

Not all amps need power tube saturation to sound good honestly. I used to think like that, but not anymore.

[RockinProf]

Re: Bedroom Levels

Again, impossible to answer until context on style and other gear are disclosed. The idea of using load boxes and converting to digital... that's just cumbersome if you just want to rock out while the wife is watching TV.

[6stringerguy]

Re: Bedroom Levels

I don’t play in my bedroom, as I currently don’t have one but when playing at home the master is a 1 if I’m playing past 9pm, 3/4 if I’m playing in the day if the neighbours are around and 5/6 if the neighbours aren’t home

[Undone]

Re: Bedroom Levels

Too many good low wattage options out there to "settle" for bad bedroom tone. Yamaha THR10, Hotones, Joyos, Katana.......

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Bedroom Levels

My 120w Matamps sound great at 'watching TV' levels and better as you crank them up. Better than any low watt amps I've tried, and better than when they're hooked up to attenuators. A well-designed master volume sounds good no matter what.

[Aceman]

Re: Bedroom Levels

I run my Screamer into my Pro Jr. and tame the volume with the Screamer level control.

[Jacew]

Re: Bedroom Levels

My 120w Matamps sound great at 'watching TV' levels and better as you crank them up. Better than any low watt amps I've tried, and better than when they're hooked up to attenuators. A well-designed master volume sounds good no matter what.

I used to keep my TT at 15w always, because even after fixing the cold bias problem with 7w setting it sounded better at any volume.

Same with my Egnater now: It has variable wattage control I keep at full always because it just sounds better. Lowering the wattage seem to cause low mids to thin out. Master volume works much better.