Using Axe Fx as attenuator with tube amp

[Erik Hammero]

One of my setups is running the AFX 4CM with my 100w tube head and, as always, there is this problem that it's getting to loud for home use.
I discovered that if I just turn the volume of the Fx loop block down the the volume drops to whatever you want it to without messing with the input gain. I can now run the tube head at 10 and still have whisper volume if I want to.
This may be mentioned somewhere else also but I couldn't find anything about it,so I thought I'd just put it out there just in case.
But please put the bypass option of the Fx loop block on mute and not thru. If you are running the amp on 10 and you accidentally bypass the Fx loop block and it's on Thru, your house might explode.

 

[Bakerman]

I can now run the tube head at 10 and still have whisper volume if I want to.

This doesn't work like an attenuator. Turning down the amp master volume would likely sound exactly the same. Either way, you're reducing the level hitting the power section.

But if anyone else wants to try this, you could just turn down the Output 1 knob instead of reducing FXL block output level. This will also reduce/avoid the issue of a thru-bypassed FXL or other preset suddenly being too loud.

 

[zenaxe]

This doesn't work like an attenuator. Turning down the amp master volume would likely sound exactly the same. Either way, you're reducing the level hitting the power section.

This. You are using the AxeFX as a Master Volume. The AxeFx sounds better at cranked tube amp tones than my actual tube amps with the master down, FWIW. You may want to experiment with turning the AxeFx power section amp modeling on and bypassing your amp's preamp, you may like it even better than using the amp's preamp at all.

 

[5150]

Yeah, it's just decreasing the volume level of the signal before it's hitting the power amp.

There was this seller on eBay years ago -- heck, maybe they're still around -- that sold a "device" that was marketed to make your amp sound better, if it had an effects loop. It was just a volume pot. If you stuck this thing in the loop and turned it up, the pot would "attenuate" the signal prior to it hitting the power section. Then to compensate, the master volume on the amp had to be turned up to get volume back again. It gave the impression that the amp was "cranked" because the master had to be turned way up, but because the incoming signal was turned down, the power amp was not distorting and adding it's color to the sound -- it wasn't *really* cranked.

Some people swore it made their amp sound better. And perhaps it did. Raising levels in certain points in a circuit can yield different and possibly better sounds. But this wasn't attenuating the output of a power section in the traditional sense.

 

[GreatGreen]

Yeah, doing the 4CM thing actually just gives your amp another (usually better) master volume control.

I know of several amps that sound like weird garbage with the volume set anywhere between 0 and 1, or even 2. The 5150 head is a good example of this. At zero, you hear a small bit of treble from like 2kHz and up, and that's it. Then as you turn the volume to 0.5 or so, all you hear is bass and it completely overpowers the treble. Then from master volume set to 1 and onward, the signal evens out, but by then it's a lot louder than is acceptable to play in something like an apartment.

With the Axe-Fx in the loop, you could turn the 5150's master volume to 2 or 3 which is enough to give the power section enough juice to evenly cover its entire frequency band, then you can turn down the Axe's Output knob which just decreases the preamp signal going to the poweramp. Full frequency band representation at TV volumes or less.