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I would also be careful about the '100W' rating - that's electrical power, not a cranked 100W amp which can put out up to double that.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I have built a number of load boxes up to 0.5kW continuous rating and there are few wrinkles. Give me a PM if you like and I might save you a bit of time, cash or burnt pinkies (or even worse? Something of 'er's indoors!)
Dave.
I've been looking around the net at different L-pad schems, trying to work out why I need big resistors rather than just the actual L-pad when I only want to build a simple 8 ohm jobbie for my 50w Marshall (no bypass switch per ICBM), but when I get my head around it I may well be in touch, cheers!
Added to that, a fully distorted guitar amp will put out much more than its rated clean power, usually up to about twice, although probably not quite continuously - so really, you can't use a "100W" (ie 25W) L-Pad with much more than about a 15W amp safely since it can be putting out around a continuous 25W on average.
Hence to build a 100W attenuator you need three 25W resistors and and a "100W" L-Pad, and even then it will be close to the limit with a 60W amp as Almach has discovered, even using 50W resistors (although not very heatsinked).
This is why commercial attenuators are big, heavy and expensive - there really isn't an easy way around dissipating this sort of power, at least not if you want to have the output controllable.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
This would be just an experiment, but at the same time I have zero interest in bollixing my amp
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I recently acquired a Tweed Champ style amp built by @4114Effects that sounds sweet and is very responsive to pick attack and to the volume pot but obviously benefits from being turned up a little more than I can justify at home. With my previous amp (Blues jr.) I'd just stick a pedal in front of it for hair or drive but with the new one this feels like taking away the magic.
So what would I need to build to get the sound of this little 5w amp at 5-7 on the dial, but with the volume it has on 2?
I haven't built pedals before but do my own guitar wiring so I assume I should be ok on that front.
Those in a simple metal enclosure with two jacks should work fine.
If the amp is an 8-ohm output then the L-pad alone will be enough.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Edited to add: I suppose this: http://www.theguitarmagazine.com/diy/diy-workshop-build-your-own-attenuator/ takes care of the wiring diagram and instructions
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein