Dr. Z Air Brake Attenuator - Use with Stiletto Ace?

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Ace_Man

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Does anyone have any experience the Dr. Z Air Brake with a Stiletto Ace (or any other Mesa combo amp)? I am considering buying one to get cranked power-tube tone at a volume level that won't cause a divorce.
 
I've been using an Air Brake with my Deuce for over a year now. It's become part of my rig for at home, band practice and gigs. I love it.
It does knock the volume down but if you have never used one before you may be a little let down. It won't quiet it down as much as you think.
I mean, if you expected to have your Ace cranked in one room and you wife in another room watching The Apprentice. You might want to keep that divorce attorney's phone number close by. :lol:
 
Glad to hear it, thanks! Hopefully I can get it down to a bearable level and still have good tube saturation. I think the unit goes down to 1 watt, so that ought to do it. For use at home I assume you don't dime the channel volume, but how far do you crank the volume to get good saturation?

P.S. Maybe I can convince the wife to at least watch tv upstairs! :roll:
 
I use a TubeJuice Max50 with my DC-3 and it works great as well. Found it used on here for $60 shipped!

I use the parallel out on one of my recto cabs to run both cabs through the attenuator set at 4 ohms using the 4 ohm out on my DC-3. Works like a charm. Just beware... too much attenuation leads to altered tone... mostly in the highs.
 
At home I'll run my Deuce at 50 watts. I have my Masters on both channels at 1:00. Then I set my Output right around 7:00-8:00.
The Air Brake has 4 settings plus another setting called "Bedroom". With number 1 having the least attenuation, I use the number 4 setting.
I don't use the max setting "Bedroom" because like MusicManJP6 said, it starts to alter the tone in a negative way.

That keeps me shape in good with my wife.
 
I tell my wife to put the ear plugs in and hang on for dear life.....

JK

We've been married for 19 years and she still puts up with my addiction to volume :twisted: (for the most part).
 
Got the Air Brake today! Still playing with it, but I found one nice trick. Using the 4ohm speaker output on the Ace through the Air Brake and then into the 8ohm speaker allows the Air Brake to run a little cooler and I also like the tone a little better.....it took a little of the harsh bite off. It's very sensitive to how you set the channel volume vs. the Output volume and different combinations result in very different sounds. The saturation on the power tubes sounds great with my Les Paul. Definitely glad I bought this.
 
The Ultimate Attenuator seems to be one of the best out there, but they are pricey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJmUMshxE2o&feature=related
 

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