Hey guys, I have been looking for practice/home use marshall tone amp for a few weeks now and recently found an ad that is selling a Trinity 18 W TMB combo with custom Trinity-built 2-12 (Clestion Blue and Avatar Hellatone) with a Stephen's VRM. Since the amp has MV and an attenuator, I thought I should be able to get a fair amount of classic rock (no metal) crunch of out the amp at pretty low volumes in my house, but would like your opinions on how this setup would work? The combo costs $1000.
Can a 18w Marshall clone with an attenuator be used for home use?
- Thread starter JCzuR
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dystrust
Well-known member
Re: Can a 18w Marshall clone with an attenuator be used for home use?
Attenuators are great for taking the edge off in terms of overall volume, but they're not a cure all for bringing a stack down to bedroom volume. I use a THD Hot Plate with my Marshall and it sounds pretty good up to 8db of attenuation. Beyond that it starts to affect the tone and feel of the amp, and on 16db or more it sounds a bit strange. I know that 18W isn't the same as 100, but we're talking about a difference of around 7-8db given equivalent speaker efficiency. If you add in the attenuator, that's 16-20db maximum which will bring that 18W amp down to around 80db. If you can get away with that much SPL at home, the attenuator should be fine, otherwise you need to look into other options. If volume is a primary concern, you're best off with solid state or a modeler. I recently acquired a Marshall Lead 12 mini stack and it's awesome for playing at home. It's also surprisingly loud for the moments when I want to crank it.
Attenuators are great for taking the edge off in terms of overall volume, but they're not a cure all for bringing a stack down to bedroom volume. I use a THD Hot Plate with my Marshall and it sounds pretty good up to 8db of attenuation. Beyond that it starts to affect the tone and feel of the amp, and on 16db or more it sounds a bit strange. I know that 18W isn't the same as 100, but we're talking about a difference of around 7-8db given equivalent speaker efficiency. If you add in the attenuator, that's 16-20db maximum which will bring that 18W amp down to around 80db. If you can get away with that much SPL at home, the attenuator should be fine, otherwise you need to look into other options. If volume is a primary concern, you're best off with solid state or a modeler. I recently acquired a Marshall Lead 12 mini stack and it's awesome for playing at home. It's also surprisingly loud for the moments when I want to crank it.
dystrust
Well-known member
Re: Can a 18w Marshall clone with an attenuator be used for home use?
I actually looked into wattage & efficiency numbers for those speakers, and 80db may be a bit optimistic depending on how hot you run the amp. That particular 18W Marshall clone has a pair of speakers that are rated at 100db sensitivity. Running full-tilt it'll put out somewhere in the neighborhood of 22-25W, which will produce 110db @ 6ft with no attenuation. With the Hot Plate, you're looking at 102db with slightly noticeable tone loss and 98db with noticeable but not horrible tone loss. If you can use the master volume and keep total output to 1W, you're looking at 98db @ 6ft and 90/86db with the Hot Plate. If you swap speakers to something less efficient (like Greenbacks) that'll drop it another 3db.
So you're looking at a realistic best case closer to 85db.
I actually looked into wattage & efficiency numbers for those speakers, and 80db may be a bit optimistic depending on how hot you run the amp. That particular 18W Marshall clone has a pair of speakers that are rated at 100db sensitivity. Running full-tilt it'll put out somewhere in the neighborhood of 22-25W, which will produce 110db @ 6ft with no attenuation. With the Hot Plate, you're looking at 102db with slightly noticeable tone loss and 98db with noticeable but not horrible tone loss. If you can use the master volume and keep total output to 1W, you're looking at 98db @ 6ft and 90/86db with the Hot Plate. If you swap speakers to something less efficient (like Greenbacks) that'll drop it another 3db.
So you're looking at a realistic best case closer to 85db.
Gearjoneser
Gear Ho
Re: Can a 18w Marshall clone with an attenuator be used for home use?
Don't forget that an amp with a nice base tone can be used with a mild OD to simulate a cranked sound. All the gain doesn't necessarily have to come from the amp.
Don't forget that an amp with a nice base tone can be used with a mild OD to simulate a cranked sound. All the gain doesn't necessarily have to come from the amp.
dystrust
Well-known member
Re: Can a 18w Marshall clone with an attenuator be used for home use?
Not really. I'd call it maybe acceptable depending on how much you ride your volume knob. A problem I've found with pretty much any attenuator is compression; the amp will still clean up when you roll back the volume but it may no longer be loud enough to be usable.
Not really. I'd call it maybe acceptable depending on how much you ride your volume knob. A problem I've found with pretty much any attenuator is compression; the amp will still clean up when you roll back the volume but it may no longer be loud enough to be usable.
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