How to have a high gain out of tube head but at lower volume

[spycam]

Hello,
I have a question. Now i'm rehearsing with a Peavey Revolution 122 100 watts combo, we have a small studio where we don't even mike drums and speakers, so i'm playing at about 10-20% laudness. However the tone is not satisfying me and i'm going to buy 100 watts all tube guitar amp head and a 2x12" cabinet for it.

Question: since i'm playing high gain metal music and want to use just tube drive, but can't really crank the gain knob at a decent setting to have really nice tone (tubes should get decent gain to make a nice tone), how do i use decent gain and have that high gain tone out of the cab at lower volumes? The head has the switch from 100 watts to 5o watts but i am not sure what it will give me...

If you have suggestions for me, please tell me, as i'm concerned to have a good sound at the rehearsing studio, but can't overdose other instruments with heavy volume...

Thank you

 

[ochants76]

Switching from 100 watts to 50 will give you a db or two less when it is cranked all the way up.

Use a hotplate. http://www.thdelectronics.com/products/hotplate.htm
or weber power attenuator.
problem solved.

 

[billcraftmetal15]

Get a hotplate/powerbrake.

Its basically a big resistor you put in between the speaker jack of the amp and the speaker, and you crank up the master volume on the head to get your power amp breakup, then you can adjust the actual volume to the speakers on the hotplate.

this is the THD one which is apparantly quite good:
http://www.thdelectronics.com/products/hotplate.htm

edit: dang...you beat me lol.

 

[ryanojohn]

Get a hotplate/powerbrake.

+1


and yea the THD one sounds great


or buy a badass 30w head, like the Badcat Hot Cat, and just crank that beast... mmm soooo good

 

[s34nsm411]

i have a hotplate and honestly the sound that comes out of an attenuated amp isnt that much different from the sound of a quiet amp. if you want to play quiet youd be a lot better off getting a podxt for just jamming by yourself

a lot of the nice high gain sound comes from cranking the speaker cabinet. when i have the attenuation very high it does not sound good, but when i lower it gradually to 0 attenuation it sounds better and better (albeit a lot louder)

 

[colonel kurtz]

ditto^

i have an amp that has an attenuator built-in, and it doesn't sound THAT much better than running it with the master turned down

but who knows - maybe the hot plate and such work better than the onboard attenuator i've used