Cutting Tube Amp Power (Fender Hotrod Deluxe)
Grand Foobah
Someone suggested to me that there were power tubes available to cut the wattage
of my 40 watt Fender Hot Rod Deluxe in half (Another person suggested that I
could just pull one of the two power amp tubes out, but that sounded extremely
assy).
Is there such a thing as half watt power tubes or a way to accomplish the
wattage cut without buying a whole new amp? And if so, does anyone have a
pointer to where I could get these things?
Thanks all!
-Gary
PMG
<grand...@fubaria.comcom> wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>Someone suggested to me that there were power tubes available to cut the wattage
>of my 40 watt Fender Hot Rod Deluxe in half (Another person suggested that I
>could just pull one of the two power amp tubes out, but that sounded extremely
>assy).
Pulling tubes isn't a good plan for your sound in an amp with only two
output tubes.
YellowJacket adopters would allow EL84 tubes to be plugged in. That
would give you about half the watts, and change the sound of your amp,
but it WON'T make you half as loud.
Cutting your watts in half doesn't make you all that much quieter.
Just the same as having twice the power, wouldn't make you twice as
loud.
I can't tell you how YellowJackets would sound with your amp. For
whatever reason, Marshall users tend to like them more than most
Fender users do.
I've never personally used YellowJackets.
>
>Is there such a thing as half watt power tubes or a way to accomplish the
>wattage cut without buying a whole new amp? And if so, does anyone have a
>pointer to where I could get these things?
>
>Thanks all!
>-Gary
The company is THD. http://www.thdelectronics.com/
Pete
--
And all that was left
was to test it. --Dr. Jekyll
Jim Anable
You might also want to check out the smicz TAD, which would give a noticeable cut in
volume when it distorts: http://www.smicz-amplification.com/tad.html
Grand Foobah
Thanks guys,
I was looking to lower the breaking point of the 40W to get something like a
Twin sound. Thanks for the info and the pointers!
-Gary
Aki Rintamäki
> Jim Anable says... Thanks guys,
>
> I was looking to lower the breaking point of the 40W to get something
> like a Twin sound. Thanks for the info and the pointers!
> -Gary
I installed a "Governor" pot (push/pull) to my Blues Deluxe, which helped
the aggressive curve of the volume pot. The Governor is standard in most of
the Sundown amps. I have understood that this doesn't bring power amp
distortion, but works pretty much as a master volume.
http://www.hut.fi/u/arintama/Sundown_Gov-RMS.jpg
I don't think there is a way to get a 100W Twin sound by lowering the
breaking point of a 40W amp. It is a different thing to modify the sound
than to modify the volume level and behaviour.
-Aki.
PMG
<akirin...@despammed.com> wrote:
>Grand Foobah <grand...@fubaria.comcom> wrote:
>
>> Jim Anable says... Thanks guys,
>>
>> I was looking to lower the breaking point of the 40W to get something
>> like a Twin sound. Thanks for the info and the pointers!
>> -Gary
>
> I installed a "Governor" pot (push/pull) to my Blues Deluxe, which helped
>the aggressive curve of the volume pot. The Governor is standard in most of
>the Sundown amps. I have understood that this doesn't bring power amp
>distortion, but works pretty much as a master volume.
>
>http://www.hut.fi/u/arintama/Sundown_Gov-RMS.jpg
That's odd. So is that a double pot or something?
>
> I don't think there is a way to get a 100W Twin sound by lowering the
>breaking point of a 40W amp. It is a different thing to modify the sound
>than to modify the volume level and behaviour.
>
> -Aki.
I agree. I didn't know how to respond to his wanting a Twin sound by
lower his output. It seemed like the more logical thing to want would
be a more powerful amp if he wanted a Twin sound, but I'm far from a
Tin expert.
Aki Rintamäki
> On Sat, 3 Jan 2004 15:38:01 +0000 (UTC), "Aki Rintamäki"
> <akirin...@despammed.com> wrote:
>
>>http://www.hut.fi/u/arintama/Sundown_Gov-RMS.jpg
>
> That's odd. So is that a double pot or something?
No, the 220kohn resistors are there in all tube power amps. The governor
is just the one pot that combines the edges of those 220k resistors.
My amp tech told me that the RMS-system is not necessarily a good thing
to do, so I tried the governor first. And since it did the job
adequately, I left it there.
-Aki.
Porky
each with their own unique sound. The dual-pot system attenuates each
side seperately, while the "governor" uses a single pot to increase
phase cancelling between the two sides of the push-pull power stage. I
copy the schematics from the "trainwreck pages" in the Gerald Weber
desktop book. Master volume is not the same as using a power soak, of
course.
A third way to cut power is by shorting the screens so the power tubes
are in triode mode.
Power soak is the user friendly way to go, butt.. can be hard on the
amp if overdone, the enemy being heat from driving the power tubes
hard for long periods of time.
Cheers
Porky
Stratmanik
done by Kevin OConner...it is not any of the above stated methods and is
very impressive...it runs around $150.00 plus labor...previously, I had used
different attens. for years....from home made to Alessandro...some are ok
and some are crappy...but, scaling is a horse of a different color...my
impression is that it works with the transformer...and Kevin knows
amps...super nice guy also....hope this helps someone....JmsDvd
"Porky" <juan_...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:e72e0ed3.04010...@posting.google.com...
Aki Rintamäki
> Scuse me for butting in, but no one has touched on the "power scaling"
> mod done by Kevin OConner...it is not any of the above stated methods
> and is very impressive...it runs around $150.00 plus
> labor...
I bet it is a one hell of an attenuator, but for 150$ + labor, one REALLY
has to lave one's amp to invest that much. Compared to a 10$ push-pull pot
and soldering two wires, that is. Besides, that is not a solution for
people living somewhere else.
-Aki.