Tube Amp Question

I am not familiar with your amp, so I do not know if you can safely pull out a tube. I do know this can be done on many amps.

Why not just invest in an attenuator? Then you can really crank the amp and keep volume down.

I often recommend Weber because they are very reasonably priced and work well. I own the 50 watt Load Dump and am very happy with it.

There are other brands that are probably better, but they are fairly expensive.

Weber Attenuators

Well, the amp is, in all likelyhood, a class AB amp, so that each of the driver stage and output stage tubes only put out half of the signal. Therefore, aside from not working, and probably destroying the amp, you'd only get half of the signal, and that signal would be at the same volume. Correct me if i'm wrong, but this seems like a bad idea.

Well, the amp is, in all likelyhood, a class AB amp, so that each of the driver stage and output stage tubes only put out half of the signal. Therefore, aside from not working, and probably destroying the amp, you'd only get half of the signal, and that signal would be at the same volume. Correct me if i'm wrong, but this seems like a bad idea.

Almost my thoughts exactly. Chances are close to zero that this would work -- significantly better that it might cause damage.

I second what Wes said. Can't vouch for webber but you're definetly describing a situation that requires an attenuator.

I often make recommendations on gear on GuitarNoise. And often I will recommend companies like Weber, Behringer, or Danelectro.

But most of my recommendations are based on the assumption that many regulars on GuitarNoise are young and do not have loads of money to spend on gear, or fairly new to guitar and are not willing to spend big money for the top makes.

So, I try to recommend what I truly believe to be quality and economical equipment.

The old saying, "You get what you pay for" is generally true. The more expensive equipment is usually of better quality. And if someone can afford that, I think a person should buy the best quality gear available.

But there is a lot of competition today, and there is some very good equipment available at very reasonable prices. Not the best maybe, but pretty darn good.

So, this is what I usually recommend.

Thanks everybody for the help. Actually that exactly what I was thinking- a free alternative to an attenuator... But I guees it doesn't work, at least on my amp.. :cry:

an alternative to tube pulling and an attenuator is an overdrive pedal. you can get the creamy dirt by cranking the drive setting and the low volume for bedroom playing by lowering the output of the pedal.
adjusting the amp vol and pedal output you should be able to dial in something that will 'excite' your ears and let the baby sleep too.

I bought the Weber attenuator and it really does make a huge difference in volume. I can crank the amp giving much longer, thicker sustain at low volume. It does cut the highs and lows off a bit so that's not cool. But at midnight practicing in a basement it makes sense. As a matter of fact, a bass player and I jammed from midnight to 2am two weeks ago on a Friday night. It was late so I left all my gear set up there. When I woke up Saturday I went over there and we jammed.

Since there was noone in the house I told him to crank his amp and I did mine. At first I had the attenuator on as I did the previous night. I hit some chords. Then I yelled over to Tom "Check this out" and fliped the attenuator off. VERY, VERY loud. :shock: The amp was cranked. I explained to him that tube amps need to be played loud to get more of that tube feeling. He said he finally understood why I got the attenuator and when I could never quite get the amps natural volume down before I got the attenuator.

It's a pretty cheap investment.