My take on eresseraca's Load Box idea.

[SpaceShipOne]

Since I have my Palmer, I looked at hotplates but I just didn't have the money and don't need an attenuator. So based off the idea eresseraca had and the schematics he posted, I ordered parts and came up with this...

Metal box, two 100 watt, 16 ohm reactive resistors wired for 8 ohm, bolted to the case. Simple 1/4 in. jack and a fan.

Works perfectly fine. The only problem is it gets HOT if you have the tubes realllly cookin. These can burn out and you never be able to tell so I went the safe route and put a fan in. No problems with sevier heat anymore. I'm loving it. Try it out!

 

[kjrocks]

Re: My take on eresseraca's Load Box idea.

Looks like a cheese grater

 

[ErikH]

Re: My take on eresseraca's Load Box idea.

Well, now. Isn't that just a nifty little device. Very cool, Jacob. Nice work putting it together. I think I need to do some research on those reactive resistors.

 

[sosomething]

Re: My take on eresseraca's Load Box idea.

That's a cool idea - just a speaker load simulator? It converts it to heat, kind like a hot plate, right?

Is this for direct-out purposes only?

 

[Pierre]

Re: My take on eresseraca's Load Box idea.

I guess so. But unlike a hotplate it doesn't let any sound out. You plug this into your amp and it's like having a speaker, except no sound. Then you use a DI out. So you can cook the power valves.

Aren't a lot of DIs situated after the preamp, not including the power amp?

 

[ErikH]

Re: My take on eresseraca's Load Box idea.

You hook the speaker out to this box. It converts the power coming out from the amp to heat.

The DI is at the tail end of the preamp, usually before the phase inverter, sometimes after depending on the manufacturer. It's just a simple line level signal.

 

[Pierre]

Re: My take on eresseraca's Load Box idea.

Oh doh. haha I was thinking of something else sorry. Yeah this is just for silent recording. No power valves omelette.

The New Marhall JVM has a standby switch that allows silenced DI recordings. Awesome feature I say.

 

[sosomething]

Re: My take on eresseraca's Load Box idea.

hmm....

Any real useful application for recording a pure line-out from the preamp? I can't imagine it sounding very good without some kind of power-amp sim and cabinet emulation, and at that point you might as well have just gone the modeling route from the beginning...

 

[SpaceShipOne]

Re: My take on eresseraca's Load Box idea.

Oh doh. haha I was thinking of something else sorry. Yeah this is just for silent recording. No power valves omelette.

The New Marhall JVM has a standby switch that allows silenced DI recordings. Awesome feature I say.

True but this is not how I'm using it unless I missed something. The speaker out goes into the palmer then out of the palmer into the load box. Lovin it. I can get accurate tone quietly!

 

[sosomething]

Re: My take on eresseraca's Load Box idea.

I guess I wasn't factoring in the Palmer. I'm not very familiar with that unit or what it does, exactly... Care to enlighten me?

 

[SpaceShipOne]

Re: My take on eresseraca's Load Box idea.

I guess I wasn't factoring in the Palmer. I'm not very familiar with that unit or what it does, exactly... Care to enlighten me?

No problem!

PDI 09 - "THE JUNCTION" A DI box designed especially for guitarists, for use with line level preamps, or to be connected between amp and speaker, enabling direct-to-mixing-desk recording without microphones. Integrated filter circuits simulate the authentic "speaker" sound. Tone can be varied between "Mellow", "Normal", or “Bright”.

 

[sosomething]

Re: My take on eresseraca's Load Box idea.

Does it sound good? Does it attempt to emulate power tube saturation, or is it just a clean DI?

 

[SpaceShipOne]

Re: My take on eresseraca's Load Box idea.

Does it sound good? Does it attempt to emulate power tube saturation, or is it just a clean DI?

It sounds incredible! It doesn't need to emulate saturation because it's coming out of the tube amp, and with a dummy load I can turn the amp all the way up or close.

 

[sosomething]

Re: My take on eresseraca's Load Box idea.

But... I thought you were using it between the pre and power amps? Are you running your speaker-out into the Palmer?

 

[SpaceShipOne]

Re: My take on eresseraca's Load Box idea.

But... I thought you were using it between the pre and power amps? Are you running your speaker-out into the Palmer?

Yes, that is what you are supposed to do to get the full tube sound.

 

[sosomething]

Re: My take on eresseraca's Load Box idea.

OK gotcha. I thought you were running it from the line out or loop send. What you're doing makes a lot more sense.

So you must have your load box receiving from one of your speaker outs and the Palmer hooked up to the other one, right? Sounds like a pretty good recording set-up. Are clips on their way? I'm curious about hearing the Palmer.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: My take on eresseraca's Load Box idea.

I use an old heatspiral from a washingmachine....
Put it into a bucket of cold water if it needs to run a longer sessions
And no the water does not come near anything that can cause a meltdown...

 

[firebirdV]

Re: My take on eresseraca's Load Box idea.

You might want to consider putting some extra holes on the top or sides so air can flow through it, I can imagine those resistors getting pretty hot.

A washing machine coil is genius; it's already waterproof and you have a dense, cheap fluid to conduct the heat away.

 

[SpaceShipOne]

Re: My take on eresseraca's Load Box idea.

OK gotcha. I thought you were running it from the line out or loop send. What you're doing makes a lot more sense.

So you must have your load box receiving from one of your speaker outs and the Palmer hooked up to the other one, right? Sounds like a pretty good recording set-up. Are clips on their way? I'm curious about hearing the Palmer.

I put a clip up on the clips area but it was of before the load box and I could't get the tone good because of a piss loud cab. I have a new song I'm working on that will be done in the next day or so. My bass player is coming today to lay down his parts. Keep an eye out.

 

[BigAlTheBird]

Re: My take on eresseraca's Load Box idea.

I gotta say I'm impressed! Nice work Jacoby.