Forgot How Loud Tube Amps Are

I play a Blues Jr. in a 30-member jazz big band. Easily cuts through the whole horn section if I turn MV up past 3 or 4. Great little amp.

For everything else I love the Axe, lets me play all those other giant amps at reasonable volumes or on headphones.
 
I accidently did something to my Fender Twin when I first got it about two years ago, and it made a noise that almost blew my ear drums out. To this day, I don't know what I did, but it scared the crap out of me, and actually caused me pain in one of my ears. Obviously the volume was turned way up. 85 Watts of dual Celestions will do that to you. I am now very careful around tube amps.
 
Geoff said:
This has me thinking maybe I'd use my real amp (Mesa Lonestar Special) more if I had an attenuator. I use it mostly now for jamming with a few others in the basement, and it actually sounds pretty decent turning down the master volume, unlike other amps I've used before. Of course last few years I'm playing the AXE 99% of the time with headphones/FOH. Can anyone recommend a cost sensitive attenuator or load box? Or should I just stick with the master volume on this amp?
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I have that same amp. On the 5 watt setting it's running in Class-A mode, so the power amp will break up earlier, but even a 5 watt amp is pretty loud. Turning the master volume down doesn't really help because the Fletcher Munson Effect kicks in so you'll have to tweak the tone controls.

As mentioned earlier, a good attenuator will help; Don't buy a cheap one that's only a resistor as they can cause problems. I have two ToneKing amplifiers, and come with their Ironman II attenuator built-in. It'll adjust the lows and highs as you reduce the volume to help compensate for the Fletcher Munson Effect at the lower settings, but, even so, the amp won't sound as full as it will at full volume. They're great attenuators but making an amp sound like it's at concert level when it's at whisper level is asking a lot.

There are stand-alone versions of the Ironman II. It's not cheap, but it's highly respected because it works very well.

https://www.toneking.com/products/attenuators/ironman-ii-mini/#right
and
https://www.toneking.com/products/attenuators/ironman-ii/

I use my AF3 or FM3 with headphones at home to keep the volume from annoying my significant other; It's a way to keep the peace, and with the headphones I'm in my own little virtual concert stage... depending on the amp it sounds like the guitar is about to go into feedback which is pretty amazing.
 
sprint said:
I always assumed they slyly swap the 3k$ Gibson with a 150$ Chibson prior to smashing but I donno, in The Who's case they seem to have adopted it right from the getgo when they had no smashing budget of any kind + Moon would smash his drums which were not easy to swap out with cheapies so that must've gotten expensive.
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Daltrey said in an interview that they had four sets of gear and would try not to break anything beyond the point of repair. It was left to the techs to get things working again between shows. Still, they were massively in debt until the mid 70s.
 
Love love love this little guy. It is pretty cool in that it can take just about any combo of tubes as it is one pre, one power, and one rectifier. Currently my fav is a 5751 pre, 6V6 power, and 5Y3 rectifier. The Niveus is similar to the 5F2A from what I understand but isn't a true copy (like the White higher fidelity that he also makes). I don't know the particulars, however. One Vol, one Tone.

But man, 7 watts can still be loud! I keep a cel blue in there.

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Just an edit because I have to share - MANY years ago I was SO happy to finally get a real Marshall amp - It was a 6100LM. I was in Okinawa, and believe it or not I had it shipped over. Later, in Hong Kong I found a used Marshall JCM2000 2x12 cab and thought ...FINALLY...I can rock.
I had a dual amp setup - a Fender HRD and the Marshall. Gibson 335 and Lonestar Strat. Pedals. OH MAN. Crank it, right?

No.

I couldn't play it at "real volume" anywhere but one outdoor gig we did for a Christmas thing. Found these old pics circa 2001..

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I would use half power, triode mode on the Marshall...even had the yellowjacket tube things to reduce the volume but man that wasn't the SOUND of Marshall, of course. Sigh. Led to my DR Z. amp phase (still have one), some rack stuff, Matchless collection, sigh. POD XT LIVE rig...

Wish I would have gone with Fractal long ago.
 
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Every once in awhile, I crank up my H&K Triamp Mark III and damage the neighbors shingles, siding, and bricks....
Their animals don't fare too well, either.......
 
William Mims said:
Every once in awhile, I crank up my H&K Triamp Mark III and damage the neighbors shingles, siding, and bricks....
Their animals don't fare too well, either.......
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