Hi Matthew-
I would agree with you that setting the attenuators wide open is the best approach for most scenarios. I love the tone I get from running my cabs wide open, but the accugrooves are designed so that you can eq them any way you want to get the desired affect. I'll use the same cabs for playing rock, jazz, blues, reggae, hip-hop, acoustic, or whatever else. Unlike other cabs that have an eq curve "built in", the accugrooves sound is extremely versatile, if you're not afraid to experiment with the EQ. That being said, most of the time I run everything flat and it sounds killer!
Recently, just trying it out of curiosity, I got very cool results from attenuating the mids and highs. For example, on my el whappo, if I turn the treble to about 60% and the mids to about 75%, and boost the volume a little to compensate, the cab sounds like a very different animal. I guess it is because the bulk of the sound is coming out of the 15" woofer, but it sounds alot grittier, or more lo-fi or rumbly, or whatever you want to call it. It sounds like it's pumping out a lot more sub-bass, which of course isn't an "accurate" sound but I like that sound alot for certain applications.
Another example: I was looking for more bass frequencies from my 110 and 112 at low volumes. Often, I'll just boost the bass on my preamp, but that can sound too boomy. If I drop the attenuators to 50% or so, I get a super deep resonance at low volume, less like studio monitors, more like vintage B-15 or something.
For me, sometimes this works better than trying to accomplish by EQ'ing my amp. I'm guessing it is because the cab is still being given a full range signal, but just processing it differently. It creates an overall boost in the "heft" factor, not that the el whappo lacks anything in the heft department, but it is a very accurate and hi fi cabinet, as Mark says "audiophile on steroids". Thats the reason I love these cabs, they're super accurate, yet fat and juicy. So if I'm playing hip hop or Reggae, instead of rolling off the high's I'll drop the attenuators a bit, and get the perfect sound.
I'm always looking for more ways to make my gear as versatile as possible. This is just an alternative to using the preamp's EQ to achieve a more mellow sound.
It could be, due to the gear I use, perhaps other people won't really benefit from trying this. I use an Fbass BN6 and an acacia 5 through a demeter HBP-1 and a crest VS-650. That combination can sound a little crispy through any cab, and although the Accugrooves never fail to deliver, I find that sometimes I have to mellow out the tone either with the onboard tone control, or the demeter's EQ. I just started using the attentuators, and it has a very different yet very usable effect.
I hope that explains it better.
Jake
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