Power Soaks and Marshalls

[yngwie308]

Hello all hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving with no familial drama !!
I am soon receiving a Power Soak and have never used them before.I decided to place this in the Marshall section as it is how this device works with Marshall's that interests me.
Those who know me know I have the 2005 Marshall 1959HW head massaged by George with a Dagnall Clone OT and various component and valve upgrades.
I will be using my newly arrived True Replica 1982A cab with the incredible Celestion Creamback G12H-75 speakers.
I have been told that there are extensive instructions on the chassis box. I know it is one that has a solid-state switch.
The person I am getting it from told me that I should set my amp output selector at 8 ohms even though it is a 16 ohm cabinet on the other end..does this sound right??
I have heard these devices are easy on the OT's and valves if one doesn't slam it with tha amp on 10 all the time, ect.
Please any suggestions would be appreciated as I am a virgin in respect to resistive loads on my Marshalls.
Also any inside factoids or your results using one would be greatly appreciated.
I know that the tone will be affected slightly but the good outweighs the bad I hear
I can't wait to hear these Creambacks really go through their paces!
The current owner, no pun intended, didn't tell me if it is one that you plug in the front or the back, not that that has any bearing on the matter.
Sooooo please tell..HELP!!
Thank's in advance guys
yngwie308

[demonufo]

Which Power Soak? Scholz?
The Scholz is a resistive load box rather than a reactive load, and is going to give you far from transparent results.

Personally, I'd much rather use an Aracom. Or Alex's (908ssp) Attenuator is another good option.

I don't know about easy on the OT. Even a speaker load isn't easy on the OT when belting an amp hard, unless reducing plate voltage/current considerably. Even slight mismatches can make results very unpredictable at high levels. There is no reason why a well designed proper attenuator should not present a similar load to a speaker. Resistive load boxes do not really do that.

[chrisom]

What's your assessment of the THD Hotplate- and any differences in feel or tone between using the 8-ohm or the 16-ohm model (w/ a Metro/Plexi amp head)?

[neikeel]

What's your assessment of the THD Hotplate- and any differences in feel or tone between using the 8-ohm or the 16-ohm model (w/ a Metro/Plexi amp head)?

My Hotplate is kind of ok with a plexi, better on -4 or -8 but not great lower than that, but useful on the bench as a load! I have a Sequis Elemental which is a little better than the Hotplate but neither is as good as the Alex which seems to keep the playing dynamics much better even at more extreme attenuation.

[Strat78]

If you are talking about the Scholz power soak, It is primitive compared to what's out there these days. I bought mine back in 1980 and sold it a couple years ago for $300, now people are practically giving them away. Luckily I pretty much dimed it at gigs so it was not effecting the tone of my 50w that much, otherwise at lower settings it was a nasty tone suck. An Alex attenuator is pretty good, or even a Marshall Power Brake (with the Ralle Mod). Still, all these attenuators at lower settings change the tone and even at higher settings seems to effect the guitar/amp interplay in a non musical way.

[chrisom]

I guess what I'm asking is what would be the noticeable differences in tone/feel running an 8-ohm Hotplate vs. running a 16-ohm version?

[bdc]

I tryed a Schotlz box one time and I thought the results in tone were better than the THD....

I havn't tryed every attenuator out there......but I think anybody would agree that the less attenuation used, the better the tone. If one is going for 100 watt cranked amp/power tube distortion tone, it's gonna take a lot of attenuation to bring the beast down to a club acceptable volume. Thus compromise in tone, and end result not a true cranked amp tone.

I like attenuators better with 50 watt amps where less attenuation is needed.....You get minimal tone suck and the attenuator actually helps in a positive way regarding noise.....I use Airbrake with 1987 heads.....Excellent attenuator

That said, there are a lot of attenuators out there I have never tryed, I do find the hot-plate w/ 100 watter not to work for me.....Maybe other attenuators work better w 100 watters.....but regardless a 100 watter will require more attenuation in the end.....No problem for me I'm a 50 watt guy....

[chrisom]

I guess what I'm asking is what would be the noticeable differences in tone/feel running an 8-ohm Hotplate vs. running a 16-ohm version?

[EddyInChicago]

IMHO, the best attenuator is the Tone King Iron Man ( http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifie ... attenuator" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ). Absolutely TRANSPARENT!! Good luck

[demonufo]

I guess what I'm asking is what would be the noticeable differences in tone/feel running an 8-ohm Hotplate vs. running a 16-ohm version?

Unless anybody happens to have two identical cabs but one with 8ohm versions of the same speakers, one would never find out.
Personally I found the hotplate to be worse than a well-serviced Powerbrake also. But neither was good enough for me to want to keep.

[VelvetGeorge]

Attenuators have come a long way since the Power Soak, but they do work.

Every one I have ever looked at had bad solder on the power resistors. As routine maintenance you should warm up all of those joints.

george

[chrisom]

by demonufo » Mon Dec 16, 2013 12:54 pm wrote: Unless anybody happens to have two identical cabs but one with 8ohm versions of the same speakers, one would never find out. Personally I found the hotplate to be worse than a well-serviced Powerbrake also. But neither was good enough for me to want to keep.

I'm not talking about the scenario you described, but thanks for answering. When I bought my 8-ohm Hotplate, it sounds fine running the amp at 8 ohms into an 8-ohm load (full stack), as long as I don't over attenuate. The same guy that sold it to me had a 16-ohm Hotplate which he kept, and I wondered how my amp would sound or feel using the 16-ohm Hotplate with the amp set at 16 ohms into a 16-ohm load (one cabinet w/ same speaker type)?

In short, it's the same as asking what's the dif between using a full stack vs. a half stack with the amp impedance set correctly in both cases, except I'm attenuating with a Hotplate, 8 ohms and 16 ohms respectively? And I do like the product. Anybody have any insight into this? Thanks and Happy Holidays!

[demonufo]

I suspect in this scenario the biggest difference you are going to find is;

a) the difference between one and two cabs.

b) the difference between using the 8ohm tap and the 16ohm tap on your amp. The 16ohm tap is using all of the secondary coil, and will in theory have a slightly wider bandwidth. This may or may not be noticeable.


Depending on how your impedance selector is wired up, there may be differences in Negative Feedback coming into play, also.

[yngwie308]

I have since received my Scholz..sorry Power Soak and find it works well in the mid position on the load switch.
I am using my 20 foot 12 gauge speaker cables which help and my Metro True Replica cab has a total of 280 watts with the four Celestion G12H-70 speakers. I used to use a full stack and this is my first go after all these years of two cabs, including my last HW cabs of using a single 16 ohm cab.
I find the increased power handling of the cab helps with attenuation, I plan on using not much resistive load with my set up and I like the results.
Sure the reactive loads are better technically but for my budget the Scholz is working just fine.
I have on order from Sweetwater the ultimate in the signal chain, a 15' Vox white coil cord!
yngwie308