Power soak for low watt amp (—PF-50t with Bugera PS1?)

[keyofnight]

I've been using a PF-50t with the PF-115HE for a while, and I enjoy it as a bougie practice amp and for recording. There was a time when I was able to turn it up and enjoy it a little more, but those days are temporarily suspended. Now I have a baby girl, and while she loves watching and listening to me play bass, I don't want to blow up her ear drums.

I know that the PF-50t can run silently if I unplug the speaker. I've tried to use a recording device (Tascam DR-100MKii) and a pair of headphones for silent practice. It's a little bit of a pain in the butt, and I like being able to hear myself through the cab.

I've seen folks use load boxes / power soaks like the UA Ox Box, Two Notes Captor, and Bugera PS1 to attenuate the speakers output while keeping the amp cranked. Will the Bugera PS1 (the least expensive one) get the job done? Do you folks have experiences with it? I don't really need anything more than the amp's post-transformer DI to record, so I don't really need anything like the features on the Captor, so I figured I'd go minimal. Thanks for the help, folks.

 

[Wasnex]

Have you ever used a power soak? I have not used the Bugera, but specs suggest it should be sufficient. However that doesn't necessary mean you will like results.

I do have experience with an Aracom PRX150 DAG. This is a pretty high-end attenuator. My observation is the tone and feel starts to degrade once you cut the signal more than about 3-4dB. Anything over about 6dB feels fairly flat and disconnected. 6dB is a fairly obvious volume change, but it's not a huge difference when the volume is already low.

This perception may be more tangible for the player. I suspect a listener would find the resulting tone far less odious.

Rather, than spending money on a power soak, if I wanted OD I would gain up the preamp and turn the master down.

If possible try it for yourself before making the purchase.

 

[keyofnight]

Have you ever used a power soak? I have not used the Bugera, but specs suggest it should be sufficient. However that doesn't necessary mean you will like results.

I do have experience with an Aracom PRX150 DAG. This is a pretty high-end attenuator. My observation is the tone and feel starts to degrade once you cut the signal more than about 3-4dB. Anything over about 6dB feels fairly flat and disconnected. 6dB is a fairly obvious volume change, but it's not a huge difference when the volume is already low.

This perception may be more tangible for the player. I suspect a listener would find the resulting tone far less odious.

Rather, than spending money on a power soak, if I wanted OD I would gain up the preamp and turn the master down.

If possible try it for yourself before making the purchase.

Okay, good, that's exactly what I wanted to know. Right now, I use the preamp on Broughton's HPF+LPF to saturate the amp's input. I then turn up the gain on the amp to just before breakup. All of that gain staging sounds great, but I really can't get the master up beyond a tiny little nudge before feeling like I'm too loud. If 8 o'clock is "off," I can only get to 8:15.

I'll see if I know anyone locally who has a load box I can try.

 

[Roland GR 88]

Attenuators that use a dummy speaker coil will roll off a fair bit of treble response. This may or may not be an issue with you. The volume control may not be very linear either. My experience is with the similar Weber models and while they worked as advertised they were tone mushers and not always easy to find the right volume due to the narrow range within its sweep.
I used these for the same reason you have and eventually sold them as I found that running a compressor at the end of the chain with a high ratio kept the volume even and I set the gain to match the time of night appropriately.

 

[meisi]

I like the Weber attenuators. I have a mini mass for guitar that I use with my champ tube amp as a 5w guitar amp it is still very loud for living rooms.

If you play with any dirt, be sure to size your attenuator appropriately. Weber FAQ has a bit on this.

Unfortunately as someone with 2 under 2 at home - you're gonna be wearing headphones when anyone is home. Relish in your loud moments with the family out.

I also bought my sons those baby ear cans you see at monster truck shows. They love them. Think they're like dad wearing a head set.

 

[Stylee Mousse]

I use a weber mass with my 90 watt Traynor Bassmaster for my guitar rig. It does darken the tone some but I kinda work that to my advantage as the Traynor (especially pre bright cap mod) can be piercing.

If I'm just too lazy in the studio when writing to swap amps I can run bass through this rig attenuated and the speakers are fine up to shouting levels.

At home I use my Ampeg SB-12 fairly quietly, or headphones from a mini mixer.