Lowering Wattage?

[KevinLand]

I used to have a Marshall JCM 2000 DSL. I sold it for a lower wattage amp, but before I did, an old repair guy who used to work on it for me told me i could have removed half of the tubes to make it less loud and powerful. Now I've got a Fender Hot Rod Deville 2x12 and love it, but it's also starting to get too loud. Does anyone know if i can lower it's output so i get better sound of it?

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Lowering Wattage?

It's surprising when you think you'll go down in volume by getting a combo, then it turns out to be as loud as a halfstack. Your amp is one of those amps. I've bought and sold a lot of amps, and have had both a Hotrod 2-12 and 4-10 go through my hands. They're loud!

One piece of gear I've bought that is a good thing to own is an Alesis Nanoverb. Besides the fact it's got reverb and FX, the input and output volume controls make it a cool little unit to put in loud amp's FX loops. Anytime I've got a loud amp, I put the Nanoverb in the loop and use it's ouput control to act as a secondary master volume. I only paid about $65 used for it, and I keep it in my Marshall Jubilee's FX loop so I can use that amp at home. I get the amp's fundamental sound, but can control it's output by using the Nanoverb output. Plus, I can mix in a nice reverb, which Marshalls rarely have. Use any rackmount FX unit you have that has it's own output volume. It's not exactly an attenuator, but it helps to harness the volume.

 

[thucydides]

Re: Lowering Wattage?

The tube removal thing assumes four power tubes; you remove the two inner, or the two outer tubes.

I think your current Fender has only two 6l6s, correct?. In that case, to the best of my knowledge, tube removal will not work.

I haven't used the nanoverb trick, but another method would be to get some sort of power soak. I haven't used power soaks, but there are a number of power soaks made, and I'm sure someone on this board can help you w/that.

There is also a thing called power scaling (Reeves amps use it), but I don't know if that is available in an outboard unit.

Good luck!

 

[greco]

Re: Lowering Wattage?

Try this link for power scaling. Warning...not the cheapest method of reducing volume/power.

http://www.londonpower.com

Good luck

Dave

 

[KevinLand]

Re: Lowering Wattage?

thanks everyone i'm gonna look into these

 

[RiffRaff]

Re: Lowering Wattage?

also keep in mind, pulling two power tubes and going from 100 to 50 watts isn't going to cut the volume of the amp in half, it's still going to be loud either way. If it's really an issue you might want to look into an attenuator.

 

[myxolidian]

Re: Lowering Wattage?

Going from 100 watts to 50 watts will be hardly perceptible in regards to a volume drop. However, it *will* allow you to get the tubes to break up a bit more, at relative volumes.

To be 1/2 as loud as a 100 watt amp, you'd need a 10 watt amp. And that's still pretty damn loud.

How low are you trying to go? For bedroom levels, you'd need about 1/4 watt, which is still enough to drive a 4x12. To tame the amp a bit for gigging, look into an attenuator.

 

[ES350]

Re: Lowering Wattage?

There are lots of other ways to lower 'output'---less efficient speakers, preamp tube swaps, etc. As far as getting a 'better' sound out of a Blues De Swill, good luck.