Lone Star Special Master Volume Question

[fHumble fHingaz]

Hi,

I'm new here, & I have a question regarding the final master volume control on my wonderful new Lone Star Special.

Having had many other amps - various Marshalls, a Fender & a THD, usually the setup is that the master volume simply increases or decreases the volume level of the power amp section.

Of course, with the Lone Star Special, when I set each channel's individual master volume high it introduces output-stage overdrive. This is logical, but what I don't understand is how, when I decrease the final overall volume control, this same sound & feel appears retained even at a very low actual volume.

I am familiar with power attenuators - is this something along those lines or a different setup? Am I simply imagining things or is there a technical explanation? (By the way- I really like this - great tone at a low volume!)

Thanks

 

[ylo]

I have not seen the schematic, but I suspect that the MV comes AFTER the phase inverter. This way, the phase inverter gets driven hard and can introduce some compression and distortion even at low power amp output.