Variac Voltage

rgorke · Post by **rgorke** » Tue May 26, 2015 9:55 am

I have been dialing the voltage on my amp up and down to determine if I hear any differences. There does seem to be a sweet spot. I would imagine that each amp has its own sweet spot depending on a number of variables primarily the PT and how it reacts to varying voltages.

My sweet spot is 80-85 volts. Below that the amp seems to get too smeary....if that is a word. Higher than that the tone is a bit more brittle sounding.

I thought this would be helpful for guys that say "90 volts sounded like crap, using a variac doesnt work." Well, 90 volts may not work for YOUR amp, but maybe 80 or 85 volts does.

rgalpin · Post by **rgalpin** » Tue May 26, 2015 3:13 pm

Played my Super Lead outside with a band yesterday. Live drums. Keys, acoustic, bass, another electric gtr and bunches of vocalists with their voices cranked up in the monitors loud enough to hear clearly over the drums. All that, just to give you an idea of the volume in that setting... I ran my Super Lead (with 2 tubes pulled) dimed with the variac at 65 volts - using a 1x12 with my 8 ohm Stan Spec in it. Perfect volume. Nice amount of grind when I needed it - available just by rolling the guitar vol up to 10 - super clean and nice by switching to the neck single coil pickup and rolling the volume back a bit. Just ran a one repeat 330 ms delay and a Boss Chorus for slinky moody stuff.

It's a great way to setup. No attenuator making you feel like some kind of an attenuator guy - and I think the delay plays nicer with the amp at the lower voltages because it doesn't get as cut up in the pre amp because the pre amp section is tamed a bit by the lower voltage. Everything about it is fantastic to me. 65V volume plays nicely with a live kit in a controlled band setting where your guitar tone is not the only thing going on in the mix

- if you know what i mean - a little sad but true - as in, not a Funny Money gig. haha!!

redozzman · Post by **redozzman** » Tue May 26, 2015 3:49 pm

the key word is in a band situation. I bought a 50 watt friedman, I got it used for a good price, I hoped it was going to be the answer to all my gear lugging problems. It has all the modern conveniences loop, two channels ect.... Well I play in a band with another guitar player and the amp sounds great by it's self but in a band situation it gets lost!I have been finding myself having to run the volume up more just to hear myself, Prior to that I was running my Metro 68 spec with the variac and GE eq pedal for boost and a hair more drive,along with a echoplex and I was tired of lugging the little bit of extra equipment. Long story short, You can't beat a plexi variaced for cutting through the mix at any volume. I love the Friedman by its self but it gets lost when playing with guitar player who is mid heavy in their sound.

JimiJames · Post by **JimiJames** » Tue May 26, 2015 4:27 pm

Kool thread.

Try again to incorporate the GE eq pedal. You're not needing volume gain more than you need to cut through with frequencies. Try setting the EQ with the mids bumped a tad; with everything else the same. Yes, it will slightly change your tone, but not much - just enough to cut through. Wouldn't want to tell you to play through a 4x10, now...

rgorke · Post by **rgorke** » Tue May 26, 2015 9:01 pm

I still need to use an attenuator in the house so I can stay married and not make my kids deaf by age 10.

rgalpin · Post by **rgalpin** » Tue May 26, 2015 9:13 pm

roger, 4 tubes? oh wait - your are at 80V or so - yeah - it gets real loud real quick when you get up above where i'm running it. have you tried pulling two tubes though - just curious how much it would cut the volume in your amp. i have still never tried 65 volt type settings with 4 tubes. but i want to.

dirtycooter · Post by **dirtycooter** » Tue May 26, 2015 9:56 pm

I lose clean tones down that low on the variac. Loses that spanky clean though it does clean up. Where that sorta reintroduces itself is up higher in voltage and then too loud again. But up higher I get more clean overtones in dirty wide open mode. Its like too low it gets a case of the fizzle slightly. Even though its way cooler than any fizzle from any other kinda of fizzle producing amp out there. Its straight up plexi fizzle lol. Hence why I got the fryette PS coming to help manage the two aspects and tie them together. But the purity of tone just dialin it down is still amazing. Hope the PS translates it all well.
Do you lose clean clean variac'n down that far?? Or you getting more grit in the clean than not? As in Fools intro?

OnTheFritz · Post by **OnTheFritz** » Tue May 26, 2015 11:30 pm

Curious about this because people are talking about wall voltage. Vintage amps were designed to see 110, and now it's 120 VAC. No mention of vintage or new production/clones.
Point being, what is the plate voltage that seems to be the sweet spot? The Variac voltage would obviously be different in a vintage 12 series, vs a new clone.

FL6 · Post by **FL6** » Wed May 27, 2015 8:16 am

redozzman wrote:the key word is in a band situation. I bought a 50 watt friedman, I got it used for a good price, I hoped it was going to be the answer to all my gear lugging problems. It has all the modern conveniences loop, two channels ect.... Well I play in a band with another guitar player and the amp sounds great by it's self but in a band situation it gets lost!I have been finding myself having to run the volume up more just to hear myself, Prior to that I was running my Metro 68 spec with the variac and GE eq pedal for boost and a hair more drive,along with a echoplex and I was tired of lugging the little bit of extra equipment. Long story short, You can't beat a plexi variaced for cutting through the mix at any volume. I love the Friedman by its self but it gets lost when playing with guitar player who is mid heavy in their sound.

What about your speakers? I've had the same problem over the years with various amps and one day at practice there was a Randall 4x12, tried it out and it was completely different. Good tone, cut through everything. I never found out what speakers it had but man was it an eye opener. I'm on a speaker kick but I find it's tough figuring out what you'll like without simply ordering and trying it, then there's the breakin period. It's a pain.

guitar007 · Post by **guitar007** » Wed May 27, 2015 8:52 am

Can you post a link to a pic of the Randall cab model you played?

FL6 · Post by **FL6** » Wed May 27, 2015 9:33 am

guitar007 wrote:Can you post a link to a pic of the Randall cab model you played?

It was years ago so I don't remember. I know it was a straight cab with a grill cloth fabric, fairly beat up. I'll see if I can find out more.

guitar007 · Post by **guitar007** » Wed May 27, 2015 12:15 pm

A Google image search may help? I'm just trying to track down what speakers came stock on that can.

FL6 · Post by **FL6** » Wed May 27, 2015 5:55 pm

guitar007 wrote:A Google image search may help? I'm just trying to track down what speakers came stock on that can.

That's what I mean, I can't remember what it looks like exactly.
It would be close to this one, minus the Satan part.
http://www.randallamplifiers.com/wp-con ... TAN412.jpg

rgorke · Post by **rgorke** » Fri May 29, 2015 9:01 am

I'll try and answer some of the questions....

I'm not sure there would be a huge volume difference with 2 or 4 tubes. Remember the difference between 50 and 100 Watts is only 3 db at full voltage.

yes, I do loose a lot of the ability to clean up the tone by rolling the volume off. It gets thin and spanky when I roll the volume down. My JTMP 50 is a very versatile amp that I keep at wall voltage (~115v). It goes from hard classic rock, nearly VH but more AC/DC to clean and warm just by rolling the volume down and also switching from bridge to neck pickups.

dirtycooter · Post by **dirtycooter** » Fri May 29, 2015 4:48 pm

I am wondering if Ed wasn't dicken with the variac voltage for some particular parts. Up higher for cleaner parts and lower for more sag and sizzle on the gainier things. Totally possible in the studio. There are colors on the variac dial to be had.
Maybe along with tube switcharoo as well. 3dB can be considerable.

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