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D.I.Y. Vacuum Tube Guitar Electronics

Attenuation
Thursday January 5, 2006 by adam

Contents Coaxial Attenuators

ready to ship. 3dB,6dB,9dB,etc. Call toll free
877-288-6139
www.antennasystems.com
Overview
Resistive Stepped Attenuators
L-Pad Sound Fantastic - Only 40$ Eliminates PreAmp
Bridged-T for Purest Sound
mysite.verizon.net/vze4c5pt/
Reactive
Weber M.A.S.S.
Power Components (China)
Links Termination, Resistor & Attenuator DC-3GHz,
1W-5KW, Low Cost, In-stock
www.ainfoinc.com

Overview
Guitar amps are wonderful things, but theyve often got this little problem. Theyre loud. I got into building DIY
amps because of that. My Music Man HD130 was just ridiculously loud. I mean, were talking jet airplane kind
of loud here. Guitarists are constantly struggling with how to get great tone at lower volume. Amptone is pretty
much dedicated entirely to that and has a huge collection of information on the subject.

One method of lowering the volume of a cranked amplifier is to place a device inbetween the output of the amp
and the speaker or speakers its driving. This device is called a power attenuator. Its purpose is to send a reduced
signal to the speaker, which will result in a lower volume, while allowing the amplifier to work as normal.

Resistive
L-Pad
An L-Pad is a very simple, purely resistive, voltage divider attenuator. It consists
of 2 resistors, one in series with the speaker, and one in parallel with it. The ratio
between the 2 forms a voltage divider. Theres a useful L-Pad calculator which
you can plug an impedance and desired dB attenuation and it will spit out values
for R1 and R2. Or, Ive included a table below with the values necessary for -3
through -15 dB in 3 dB increments at 4 and 8 ohms.

Ive heard it mentioned that purely resistive attenuation seems to sound fine for low power amps, but higher
powered amps need a reactive load to sound more natural under heavy attenuation.
I built an L-Pad into the 8 speaker cabinet I built for my Moonlight. It has a single 8, 4 ohm Jensen reissue

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speaker and a rotary switch allowing for the selection of no attenuation, -6dB, -9dB, -12dB, and -15dB. Its quite
effective. The higher attenuation settings do sound fairly weak to the ear, but thats due in part to the fact that,
when driven by a 1W amp, the SPL at -15dB is extremely low. Ive excellent results close-miking the speaker
for recording at -9dB and -12dB.

dB Z R1 (ohms) R2 (ohms)
-3 4 1.17 9.70
-6 4 2.00 4.02
-9 4 2.58 2.20
-12 4 3.00 1.34
-15 4 3.29 0.87
-3 8 2.34 19.39
-6 8 3.99 8.04
-9 8 5.16 4.40
-12 8 5.99 2.68
-15 8 6.58 1.73

Bridged-T
A bridged-T attenuator is another purely resistive design, but one
which reportedly has superior sonic characteristics to the L-Pad.

FM Systems, Inc. has a page about the bridged-T. I found the link on
the Ampage BBS. In this circuit, the values of R3 and R4 are always
equal to the characteristic impedance of the whole thing. I.e. if youre
building one for an 8 ohm load, R3 and R4 are both 8 ohms.

FM Systems page describes the math for figuring R1 and R2. Ive
included the same table below for the Bridged-T as above for the L-Pad.

dB Z R1 (ohms) R2 (ohms)
-3 4 9.70 1.65
-6 4 4.02 3.98
-9 4 2.20 7.27
-12 4 1.34 11.92
-15 4 0.87 18.49
-3 8 19.39 3.30
-6 8 8.04 7.96
-9 8 4.40 14.55
-12 8 2.68 23.85
-15 8 1.73 36.99

Reactive

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Weber M.A.S.S.
Coaxial
The Weber MASS attenuator is extremely clever, and by most reports very effective at Attenuators
attenuating an amp while retaining most of its character and responsiveness. It uses an actual ready to ship.
speaker voice coil, without the cone, as a load for the amp. The amp reacts just like it would 3dB,6dB,9dB,etc.
Call toll free
driving a speaker because it is driving a speaker, just one which produces no sound!
877-288-6139
www.antennasystems.com
Weber sells complete attenuators and also just the motor as they call it, for DIYers who
want to build their own. Im considering building one into my Transatlantic build.
Stepped
The MASS comes in 25, 50, and 100 watt versions, and also a 10 watt Mini-MASS. Attenuators
Webers online store also has pictures of the bare motor: 25, 50, 100. Sound Fantastic -
Only 40$
Eliminates PreAmp
Links for Purest Sound
mysite.verizon.net/vze4c5pt/

Commercial Attenuators Power Components

WeberVST MASS (China)
Termination,
WeberVST Load Dump Resistor &
Dummy loads & attenuation amptone.com</a> * <a Attenuator
href="http://schematichvn.topcities.com/marshallamps/powerbrake.gif">Marshall
DC-3GHz,
Powerbrake schematic</a> (schematic heaven) 1W-5KW, Low
Red Baron 5W home brew w/built in attenuator & line out Cost, In-stock
www.ainfoinc.com
Making Fixed Resistive Attenuators, by Chuck McGregor. At live-audio.com
A Practical Guide to dB Calculations. At live-audio.com
CATV Amplifier
L-pad calculator
Upgrades
Webers L-Pad Design page 1 GHz, CTB, CSO
Bridged-T Pad Attenuator Design >75dBc, 50% less
Randall Aiken: Designing a reactive speaker load emulator Current, All Types,
Randall Aiken: Dummy Loads Revolutionary
www.4cable.tv
Randall Aiken: Tone Control Scaling
Attenuator schematic links collected from Aron Nelsons page
Power Soak Unit, from The Blue Guitar
Bruce Collins 8 ohm Volume Reducer and Line Out Box from The Blue Guitar
Load Boxes, Soaks etc (Stones Homepage)
A Reactive Load from Plate to Plate) with some very nice explanation too.
Isolation Cab Info
Isolation section at amptone.com
Randall ISOLATION
Folded Space Micro-Room
Demeter Silent Speaker
Auralex

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1. hi,

thank you for the bridge-T schematics. so easy. had fun in doing this for my vox. im a beginner in
electronics, you see.
bye.

damien/fr Apr 27, 04:22 PM #

2. Hi, I really like your webpage, youve done some cool stuff. I built an attenuator in a coffee can, check it
out at www.regiscoyne.com/ampwell

Thanks,

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Regis

regis Feb 6, 08:47 AM #

Commenting is closed for this article.

Copyright 2001-2006, Adam Alpern. All Rights Reserved.

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