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attenuator?

tooley

tooley

May 12, 2010
234
26
Wellington,New Zealand
www.facebook.com
#1
Hello all. I've recently got my marshall '74 superbass fixed and I played it last saturday and I've got a serious problem with this thing being way too loud. I barely have the volume past zero and It's loud enough to keep up with two guitarists and a drummer. So I'm woundering if anyone on here has any experance/advice with attenuator's. As I have none.

I'm running it into an Ampeg 610hlf and using an american standard p-bass. If that helps in anyway.
 
#3
Do you mean a power brake or a installing a master volume? Iirc your amp is 100w so a Marshall power brake could work. If you have a search there's quite a bit of info on both.

If you're going for the power tube distortion your best bet could be to halve your tubes, get some good advice on that, I don't know if it's quite as simple as pulling out one pair of output tubes.
 
#6
If your volume pot is just being cracked open and the amp is too loud, the first thing to do is to look at that volume pot and how it's been wired. verify that it's wired up properly, ie: that the outer lugs haven't been reversed, so that it gets louder, not quieter, when you turn it up. verify that it's a log taper pot, and very importantly, verify that the pot is of the correct resistance value for the application.

this assumes, of course, that there are no other wiring errors in the amp.
 
#7
I think It's just a very loud amp. My repair man said before he fixed it that it'll be loud. The volume pot's also do get louder when turned up. Didn't seem to jump at any point that I noticed. one of my guitarist's had abit of a play through it and he loved it. He also had the power up more then I did. Think he had channel 1 around 2 or 3.

I was talking to my guitarist's about attenuator's and they were saying something about the marshall one's having some bad rep. So Im just trying to find out is any one on here has any advice on them.
 
#9
If you're convinced that the amp is fine and functioning properly (I'm not), then the easy solution is to re-scale the volume control so that it provides a workable range. I'd also consider a master volume mod if you don't have one already.

I'm not convinced that your amp is functioning properly when you crack the volume open and the output is unbearable. That is to say, if the volume is unbearably loud when you crack the volume open, then I'm convinced that your amp is malfunctioning, and I'd be on the case of the guy who worked on it. What you describe is abnormal.

Was it like this before?
 
#10
I am by no means convinced it is working properly either (with over 40 years in repair and design under my belt). If it was an old 600 lb 1,000 watt tube amp I might expect what you are describing. You don't have the tubes or iron for that kind of "loud".

If it gives you a good feeling to reach 1/3 gain or so with the knob position low, more power to you ;). It just is not correct and you may have underlying problems that may crop up later.
 
#11
I'm not saying the amp is or isn't working propely. I'm just asking question's. my jcm800 bass series is also very loud. I have that set to alittle over 2 and it compete's very easily with two guitarist's using 100watt amp's and one is using a full stack. I also have a 400watt tube head and I've felt like the 100watter's can give that a run for it's money. The amp wasn't working properly when I got it so I can't really give a before or after comment on volume.

that's the reason I'm not just jumping to it's broken. I'm not saying it's not. I'm not a tech and I don't have 40years experance. I'm just giving my opinion and I appreciate yours. I had a guy come up to me after playing to comment on my tone and I commented on the volume. he told me he has the 50watt version and he said that's very loud as well. So if you have any advice on how to tell that the volume pots are faulty how can I test that myself? wretched excess say's something about cracking the volume open. Does this mean to crank the volume right up on the amp and see if I can be in the same room as It? I'm also not to keen to mod an amp of this age.
 
#13
Not necessarily "broken" just not right. If we were close at all I would happily walk you through this in person. Show you the proper procedures to keep you and your amp safe and happy, how to check the value against the design schematics and how to perform a sweep test on the pot.

Wretched Excess may be more inclined to do this over the internet. Last person I walked through some amp work short circuited some safety steps and turned a working amp into trash. I feel bad for him and don't want to feel that responsable in the event things "go wrong" again.
 
#14
B-string said:
Not necessarily "broken" just not right. If we were close at all I would happily walk you through this in person. Show you the proper procedures to keep you and your amp safe and happy, how to check the value against the design schematics and how to perform a sweep test on the pot.

Wretched Excess may be more inclined to do this over the internet. Last person I walked through some amp work short circuited some safety steps and turned a working amp into trash. I feel bad for him and don't want to feel that responsable in the event things "go wrong".
Click to expand...

But this is the interwebz, how can things possibly go wrong on it?

:hiding:
 
#15
Without actually hearing what the OP is experiencing, this is all conjecture. The amp may very well be working properly (or not). I do know that the Fender HRD I used to have had a very sensitive input gain control, not too unlike what is being described here regarding the Marshall, and that seemed to be the norm for the HRD, there have been a lot of complaints about the volume control not having a reasonable "working range".
 
#16
I also finished a Marshall 6100 not long ago that had an over-sensitive master volume. After replacing an output transformer with a shorted 8 ohm tap the master volume works more "normally". It was a bonus that happened, it was a little hard on output tubes and the customer wanted the 8 ohm tap (without blowing the HV fuses coming off standby).
 
#17
cool. does it help that when the volume is right down/off there's some bleed coming through. (I think that's also normal for the older marshall's) from memory it was very little from the zero posistion. I gigged with it and the volume was about one half up from 0 to 1 on channel 2 and one third up from 0 to 1 on channel 1. 0.5 and 0.3 if you will.
 
#18
tooley said:
cool. does it help that when the volume is right down/off there's some bleed coming through. (I think that's also normal for the older marshall's) from memory it was very little from the zero posistion. I gigged with it and the volume was about one half up from 0 to 1 on channel 2 and one third up from 0 to 1 on channel 1. 0.5 and 0.3 if you will.
Click to expand...

It is pretty common IME for older Marshall's to have bad pots. Most guitarists don't care as they like to crank anyway. There should not be bleed through with the pot full CCW (on zero).
 
#20
It might not cause you a problem, it could also cause you trouble. Without knowing what "out of spec" problem the amp has no way to be sure either way. Customer here in town picked up an old post plexi no one could or bothered to fix for cheap. It had a bad master pot and a weak driver/PI tube. Even with repairs he came out WAY ahead. :)
 

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