Yet ANOTHER attenuator thread

**thesteve** · 07-31-2006, 08:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Major Tom

You mean he had a failure using the HR D and the "100 watt" L Pad?

Indeed. He did it with the one you sent to me on the HRDlx that I sold to him.

Brent · 07-31-2006, 09:12 PM

Maybe I'm wrong, but I understood the question about using two L-pads to be the scenario of, say, two 100 watt L-pads on maybe a 100 watt B-52 amp or 150 watt something or other with the OP's thinking being that two 100 watt L-pads should be able to handle that much wattage. In that situation I wouldn't think that having two should make any difference in power handling because the first one the power hits has to be able to handle ALL of that voltage. It's not going to be evenly divided between the two L-pads and then combined again to be sent to the speakers. If you have a stereo amp it might be sensible to use one on each channel, but each one would still need to be capable of handling ALL the power going to that channel.

As for tone suckage with the attenuator... At bedroom volumes there is a very noticeable cut in the upper mids and highs and a slight cut in the lows, but once you're at a decent (but not bedroom) volume the tone definitely evens out again, only now your tubes are nicely saturated. I rarely use a completely clean sound and always like at least a little bit of grit in my cleaner channel, so being able to push the tubes on the clean channel to overdrive is very nice on my Classic 30.

**thesteve** · 07-31-2006, 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brent

Maybe I'm wrong, but I understood the question about using two L-pads to be the scenario of, say, two 100 watt L-pads on maybe a 100 watt B-52 amp or 150 watt something or other with the OP's thinking being that two 100 watt L-pads should be able to handle that much wattage. In that situation I wouldn't think that having two should make any difference in power handling because the first one the power hits has to be able to handle ALL of that voltage. It's not going to be evenly divided between the two L-pads and then combined again to be sent to the speakers. If you have a stereo amp it might be sensible to use one on each channel, but each one would still need to be capable of handling ALL the power going to that channel

the objective isn't so much to increase handling as much as it is to reduce heat. Because the L-pad design basically works by being a giant resistor and generating tons of heat in it's attenuation, it makes sense that as you attenuate more, you generate more heat. Thus, by using two attenuators in series you can feasible attenuate less with each attenuator but still get the same overall volume reduction. Instead of one attenuator generating all the heat, each generates half of the heat.

at least that's the impression I got from him.

RipVanWinkle · 07-31-2006, 09:22 PM

Firstly for Brent:
Well...I AM getting the HRDlx.

And I remember Kato talking about his burning out...but it was probably a fluke. If MT has ran his through 80+ watts (hopefully Im not way off) with no problem, then I think my 40 would not be a problem.

Now.

I also will be getting a 2x12 cab. The speakers are Celestion Vintage 30s. Im not sure the ohm rating and all that stuff, but what would I do in this situation...have one for the internal speaker and another for the external?

And Steve:

Im not really THAT worried about heat...but I thought if the idea of using 2 Lpads was a good idea, then a posative side effect may have been reduced heat.

**thesteve** · 07-31-2006, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RipVanWinkle

I also will be getting a 2x12 cab. The speakers are Celestion Vintage 30s. Im not sure the ohm rating and all that stuff, but what would I do in this situation...have one for the internal speaker and another for the external?

you have two options here:
1) Use two attenuators and attenuate both the internal and the external speakers. I believe this is Tom's setup with his mongrel Peavey Bravo 2x12.
2) only use the external speakers.

the HRDlx manual (available at Fender's site) and I also believe a sticker on the inside of the cabinet have instructions on how to properly hookup the speaker outputs.

Brent · 07-31-2006, 09:52 PM

Yeah, depends on how it's wired. If the power goes into the internal speaker and then out to the external then one attenuator would be all you needed, but if it's split to the internal and the external then you'd need the two. I would think there would be a way to get in front of both the internal and external speaker wiring so only one pad was needed, but that might be more trouble than you want to mess with.

**thesteve** · 07-31-2006, 09:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brent

Yeah, depends on how it's wired. If the power goes into the internal speaker and then out to the external then one attenuator would be all you needed, but if it's split to the internal and the external then you'd need the two. I would think there would be a way to get in front of both the internal and external speaker wiring so only one pad was needed, but that might be more trouble than you want to mess with.

it definitely could be done given that the speakers were all the right impedances.

of course it also might mean that you have a cable inside your cabinet flopping around whenever you aren't using the cab.