9 Solutions For When Your Tube Amp is Too Loud
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- Опубліковано 12 чер 2024
- The sound of real tube compression and tube saturation is a glorious thing! While nothing quite gets the adrenaline going like the sheer volume in a powerful cranked tube amp, here are some workarounds to help us get similar results at a lower overall volume.
Timecodes:
00:00 - Intro
00:44 - Attenuators
01:26 - Attenuator Down Sides
02:42 - Amp in a Box Pedals
03:52 - Amp in a Box Pedal Down Sides
04:09 - Master Volume in the FX Loop
05:00 - Compression
06:10 - Lower the Input Gain
07:29 - Low Power Switching
08:27 - Speaker Efficiency
09:36 - Speaker & Cab Configuration
10:05 - Amp Placement
When i was looking for an amp, i always saw people asking around if a given amp " was good to play at home " and then i usually tought "why wouldn't it be?"... Until i got mine, even though its 'only' 30W, wow... I keep it on the opposite side of my room and use noise cancelling headphones with the amp on 10% volume, so, lessons learned!
I can't deny that the power makes it sound amazing, but for anyone that lives in confined space, that's something very important to consider.
I have 100W Marshall jvm 410h with 2x12 cabinet. The beauty of it that is if you want to play quietly, just don't turn the knob up to eleven! 😂 But when you want to really get going, there's plenty of power there ready to be used. And if you want to boost your quiet sound, add some good distortion pedal before the preamp.
A 100 watt Marshall is hardly a good low volume amp solution even if you do have one that costs $3000+ dollars and has ten volume and gain knobs on it.
I find it better at low volumes actually. It goes too bright when cranking up.
My 40watt Fender amp is surprisingly loud. It never needs to ever go past 5, and at that, it's REALLY loud.
I was so surprised by this from 40 Watts, i don't get how people can go on about cranking up 100w+ amps.
If i crank mine up to 7 or more, it really physically hurts.
I have a Fender Twin a crazy gain stage and haven’t EVER in my new apartment gotten any noise complaints and never been told to turn down live or in studio.
Keep your volume at 2 or lower and use your Overdrive pedal volume to control your actual output and saturation.
You do not need to “crank it to the sweet spot” with this amp. If you still can’t hear yourself one of your other mates is either too loud or you are not cutting enough in the band mix.
Hi Michael, just found this channel and watched a few of your videos. The playing is so tasteful it almost takes away from the informative content!
A subtle loudness thing for me: most modern fender amps at least have hard metal feet, presumably for better coupling to the ground. I found that adding rubber feet to my amp made it feel less loud/bassy, especially on hard floors.
Hi! Good to hear you're enjoying the videos. Yes the metal feet are mainly so they can be slid across the floor if you need to move them. I think Fender calls them 'glides'. It'd make sense that the rubber feet might give a bit more isolation like you say, thanks for sharing. I actually put rubber feet on my Pro Reverb too, mainly to get it a bit higher so it doesn't hit the top handle of my extension cab when I place it on top.
About 12 years ago, I decided that I needed an affordable amp for playing out. After lots of research, I ended up going with a Fender Mustang III V1. It was plenty loud for gigging but too loud for the other band members. So, I bought a volume pedal. However, backing off the volume had the same effect as backing off the guitar's volume. I was able to solve the problem by running the volume pedal through the effects loop. The Mustang III is a modeling amp, so when I have the amp cranked up and I back off the volume, it still sounds great but quiet. So, without losing that sound, try running a volume pedal through the effects loop.
I love tube amps with a master volume for this reason, super helpful.
That being said, I am finally able to gig with a Twin Reverb due to the Tone Master. It’s unbelievable…has the “attenuation” but also the DI with a speaker on/mute option so it pleases anyone and everyone. It’s light. And don’t even think about turning it up all the way on it’s 85w setting…you’ve been warned. Lol
I like your series of videos very informative that make me want to return now and again, cheers
Great sounds throughout. Well done !
I’ll have to try the compressor at the end of my row of OD’s and distortion pedals, but before the modulation, delay, and reverb. I’m not a fan of jumping volumes when I press an OD pedal.
I have found a little miracle pedal to cure low volume setting on my amp. When you use a full 100watt Marshal 1959 model Plexi thorough a 4x12 Marshall cab cranked you get excessive bite from the pleasing presence from the power amp transformer. The cabinet will start to resonated and it will give you low end thump. The GUPtech Quebec EQ Enhancer has just two knobs. One gives you a punch right at the cab resonance frequency and the other gives you that presence bite. I use it as an always on pedal. Even at the lowest volumes playing clean I get a very full and rich sound . When using Fuzz boxes or high gain Overdrives I not only get that punch and bite, but the pedal tightens the sound without any loss of the extra breadth it provides. Impressive, better yet it is only $100.00 USD.
Good video, much needed.
Very helpful. Thanks a lot !
Want a twin? Get a Deluxe for cleans and a Vibro Champ you can crank all the way up. And an A/B switcher.
Sweet guitar collection
I have a Marshall dsl 40cr and Boss GE-7, thanks for the tip. 👍
Ya get a quilter solved all my problems and sounds awesome
This was great = very informative. I use a Strat into a 65 Princeton with (3) drive pedals Barber Gain Changer SR > Fulltone OCD > Thorpy Fallout Cloud (all set to low-gain) and can mix & match for some Killer-tones. oNe LovE from NYC
Two Notes Captor is a great tool that lets you run a cab simulated signal to the PA while setting your amp however loud you want it to be without worrying about overloading a mic. It can also attenuate 20dB if you want to keep the stage volume down.
Closed back cabinets react different than open back cabinets in terms of volume and tone worth to check. Engineers and audio specialists gives certain attention to the room reflections hence the cabinet on the floor would reflect some frequencies differently than high place or support. So an audio treatment to your space can help a little. Also a cabinet close to the wall can increase 3dB in loudness perceived. Position matters in some cases but people buy tube amps for their "peak sound" which end up being a little bit louder than necessary for practice. That's the purpose of solid state amps they sound exactly the same at any volume level. If you are into pedals that's a good call.
I'm using the JHS Little Black Amp Box in the FX Loop as a master volume, works great in my Orange amp.
I use this on my Fender Blues DeVille with pretty good results.
Is it working on an amp without an FX loop ?
No it needs the FX Loop to go between the Pre and Power Amps, otherwise you need a real attenuator that goes between the Amp and Speaker@@poitequentin
@@GuitarsAndTea okok thanks you !
I have a 6-watt tube amp. Problem solved.
Attenuator!!! The best solution
Some things you missed:
Using a reactive load + speaker simulation, taking the output to a separate full-range monitor, or directly to the PA.
Using a plexiglass screen in front of the amp.
Installing a post phase-inverter master volume (requires modifying the amp)
Giving up and using a digital modelling amp...
Amp placement makes a huge difference and massively impacts what people set their amps to.
Watch any live footage from professional touring bands and you'll regularly see amps on flight cases or on top of other cabs, which are possibly empty or not plugged in to start with.
That said, it's a good way to quickly test an engineer: put the amp on the floor, stand over it and adjust volume & treble to suit what you're hearing (Both will be ridiculous FOH). If they only tell you to turn down instead of going to grab some chairs or beer crates if its not practical to lean the amp against a wall, then you're dealing with someone who isn't an audio engineer.
pedals - the best solution. You need just a clean amp. And you can work with almost any amp at any venue to get your tone… Huge amps are really for the celebrities these days, with a crew that can handle at that heavy stuff
How about a variac?
Hmmm, how do you get both speakers working when you stack the Fender? The normal speaker is 8ohm, and if you add any other speaker it won't be 8ohm anymore, or do you just play it at the 4ohms when both are plugged in? Love your stuff by the way.
Hey thanks! And yes, good point. The extension speaker output on the Custom Pro Reverb doesn't work in the same way as the older Fender amps. It automatically switches to a 4ohm output setting when an extension speaker is connected so there's no ohm mismatch when you use two 8ohm speakers.
@@MichaelBanfieldGuitar Ok, I wish my Fender did that! So that brings about another thought. I've always wondered how it would sound if one of the outputs was sent to a load box, (or at least through an attenuator,) and the other left with a speaker. In theory, it should halve the output (or reduce with an attenuator). I'm not sure of the electronics here and how it would be affected, but the dominant speaker should hopefully not be too affected. I don't know. But good to see Fender doing this. Maybe they didn't want to make this mod to their 'classic' amps in case people called them out on it, but I think it's a good idea.
Freaking out now, haha. Have always had my Victory Kraken going into the -20db input of my Torpedo Captor and then back out to the cab. Is the high enough attenuation to be affecting the power tubes? Another great vid btw.
Can someone please tell the drummer to bring the level down though?!?
Don't think I've met one that doesn't want to deafen everyone. It would be nice to have some sound space to hear my guitar.
Sound engineers also set drums really high. They soundcheck them first, and usually have drums VERY prominent in the mix. Too many gigs where I've not even heard the other instruments (guitar, keyboard, piano, saxophone, etc) for drums and bass.
Some of these solutions could get rather expensive. An alternate choice might just be to buy a separate a low-power tube amp in the 1-15 watt range from brands from Blackstar, Marshall, Fender, etc.
A good attenuator is only about $200, and even a 5 watt tube amp can be pretty loud, just buy the attenuator
Attenuator is the best thing for stage use. Even for stage these days a 15-20 watt tube amp is too loud for stage. For home, just forget tube amps. Get a Boss Jamstation.
What is this... This too loud? I'm quite familiar with the concept of too silent but never stumbled upon something being too loud. Weird.
I have an outdoor gig this Saturday. It's a Guy Fawkes Night event that's gone all woke, with no bonfire, and "low-noise fireworks" (whatever they are). I suspect the band may be the loudest part of the event, and with this in mind, will be using a Fender BDR, which should do the trick!
You need to turn the amp right up and play along to the fireworks by making the bang noises with muted string hits or something. That Blues Deluxe will be up to the task I'm sure. Have a great gig!
@@MichaelBanfieldGuitar Well I have to say, I was wrong about the woke, quiet fireworks: they were _much_ better than loud ones! I'm converted. We had to traipse across a muddy, waterlogged park to the bandstand, to do this, with freezing cold hands: ua-cam.com/video/ofjmzE7WG68/v-deo.html. It was worth it, because the gig was great fun, and the audience seemed to enjoy what we did. And I still didn't get the BDR's volume above 3.
Earplugs....problem sorted!
theres a thing called a volume control. all amps have em
Lots of amps don’t have a volume (master volume) only a gain. Turning it down affects the tone and overdrive. Hence me watching this video .
My favourite solution is to tell people to shut up and stop making their problem my problem 😂 Just kidding, I'm not that selfish! I generally practice at home with a Fender Princeton cuz it gives a great tone at low volumes, altho I'm lucky to have a separate out-building as a music room so I can turn up a bit.
Too loud is indeed too loud but sound engineers have assumed too much power, just saying. Particularly the all bass no treble ..or mids …contingent. One thing the presenter missed is mastering a softer playing touch to take advantage of the amp dynamics and available headroom without making the amp too loud. And tilt back legs are great, it puts the sound in the players ears so they can hear better at lower volume and redirects the more directional highs and beamier mids away from the listener
Should have used that attenuator on the guitar tracks in this video ffs.
Very strange that speaker sensitivity (db/w/m) seldomly is mentioned. A 85 db/w/m speaker does not get louder than 85 db regardless the power you put into it.
@michelv This is not at all how speaker sensitivity works. A speaker that has a sensitivity of 85db simply means that putting one watt into it will produce 85db SPL at one meter. Every doubling of the wattage increases the volume by 3db so: 2W input = 88db. 4W = 91db. 8W = 94db. 16W = 97db. 32W = 100db. 64W = 103db. 128W = 106db. A speaker with a sensitivity of 85db is a rather low sensitivity and would be the kind of number you might find on a hifi speaker rather than a guitar speaker. Guitar speakers range from low 90's to over a 100db for sensitivity and the sensitivity is not necessarily connected to the wattage rating as is claimed in this video. A 12" Celestion Blue is rated at only 15 watts but has a sensitivity of 100db while a Celestion Creamback 12" is rated at 65 watts but only has a sensitivity of 97db.
Why not buy a smaller amp ? As you need to replace power tubes what about the transformer in your amp ? Most tech would tell you the same thing buy a smaller amp . Don't risk damaging your amo . . Low volume you can't drive a cabinet or a 12 inch speaker
This is such a lead guitarist problem. 😂 The usual solution for us mere mortals is not to turn the gain to 11....
Too loud?? Bedroom level???? WHAT???!!
Solution #1.
Stop being lame and turn it up more.
Uh, just turn the volume down. Did this need a whole video?
Really?
They have this NEW thing, called a "Volume Knob"!
I added a master volume to my amp. The tube preamp distortion sounds better than any pedal I’ve ever tried. It wasn’t super hard, only basic soldering skills required. I understand not everyone can or wants to do this.