Practcing at home/Roadster/Stiletto

[SimpleMind]

How do the Mesas, especially Roadster/ Stiletto sound at lower volumes/ when practicing at home- do you recommend using a lower wattage practice amp or are they fully capable of producing an ok sound at "bedroom" level? :x [/url]

 

[Russ]

Full size tube amps of 50 watts or more are not bedroom amps. You will never attain all of their goodness without getting them to gig level volumes. However, you can power down some amps but be forewarned that even 25-30 watts is loud enough to gig with. I personally don't like quiet levels on my DR. It is ok with my Mark IV because it can be taken down to about 20 watts but it still sounds best pushing even the louder in the garage levels in the middle of the day. You can take the RK down to 30 watts and the Roadster to 50. The Stiletto lowest power is 50 watts but you can take the Deuce or even the Trident all the way down to 50 also. Most large amps sound like crap down at low volumes. That is just how it works. A better bedroom jammer would be an Express that you can take down to 5 watts. Being that db's are not linear your db level will only approximately double going from 5 to 50 watts. Going up from 50 to 100 yields about 3 db's. The 5:25 or 5:50 would be great amps for both bedroom and gigging at smaller venues. I guess it depends upon your perception of ok sound and bedroom levels too. A 50 watter pushed will have Johnny Law knocking on your door via neighbor complaints. A 100 watter pushed will basically summon him directly for you.

 

[cant play pool with a rop]

Their awesome practice amps at home, as long as nobodys home!

 

[SoCalSteve]

I think the Stiletto sounds great at low volume. The master volume design works superbly and doesn't have a sudden jump in volume from quiet to loud like some amps do.

 

[ashjn]

The 5 watt setting on the Express is still loud enough to piss some people off.

 

[SimpleMind]

Thanks for answering. How does a Hotplate help for that matter? And which Hotplate/ Powersoaker would you choose?

 

[voodoo_child]

Thanks for answering. How does a Hotplate help for that matter? And which Hotplate/ Powersoaker would you choose?

I use a THD hotplate - it certainly is a great gizmo, but be aware that it is not a miracle worker - at very low volumes (think someone watching TV), i still find it sounds pretty bad.

Primarily I just use it for putting the master a couple of notches higher than I otherwise could. It still ends up being pretty loud.

 

[domct203]

I use a Hotplate as well for pratice. It's OK, but like the above post stated, it's no miracle worker.

As far as bedroom levels, check my signature LOL.

Dom

 

[Rocky]

I am a little puzzled as to why people seem to think that they MUST get cranked tube tone practicing alone at home....it doesnt make sense to me.

5 watts cranked is to loud for cranking at home. Imagine a trumped being blared REALLY loudly...that is 5 watts folks....that is pretty damned loud. I have a 5 watt Bad Cat and when that thing is cranked in my house, and I have a decent sized cellar that I have my guitars and amps stowed away in, it is REALLY loud. Way to much for a long term practice session.

Home practice is one place where, in my opinion, you should be able to use anything.

 

[voodoo_child]

I am a little puzzled as to why people seem to think that they MUST get cranked tube tone practicing alone at home....it doesnt make sense to me.

If you spend a lot of $ on an amp, it makes sense to want to play it as much as possible. Even if it is just noodling around at home. So I can understand why people often ask how a particular amp performs at low levels, or enquire about devices like attenuators.

 

[Rocky]

I still question the definition of bedroom/apartment levels. There must be a LOT of noise complaints and grounded kids in the guitar world. People say that a 20 or 30 watt amp is great for a home practice amp....those are really loud. Set to a whisper there isnt much difference b/w a 30 watt amp and a 100 watt amp.

Even with an attenuator one cant get any sort of TRUE cranked tone without waking up housemates/neighbors.

 

[ashjn]

I still question the definition of bedroom/apartment levels. There must be a LOT of noise complaints and grounded kids in the guitar world. People say that a 20 or 30 watt amp is great for a home practice amp....those are really loud. Set to a whisper there isnt much difference b/w a 30 watt amp and a 100 watt amp.

Even with an attenuator one cant get any sort of TRUE cranked tone without waking up housemates/neighbors.

+1

 

[SoCalSteve]

I really don't see why you would spend the bucks on a Hotplate when you have a master volume amp. The amps sound fine at low volume, high volume, all volumes.

The Ace is my only amp now and I use it on a daily basis at home even when people are in the living room watching t.v. Even at low volume it sounds better than a solid state practice amp.

 

[lockbody]

I really don't see why you would spend the bucks on a Hotplate when you have a master volume amp. The amps sound fine at low volume, high volume, all volumes.

The Ace is my only amp now and I use it on a daily basis at home even when people are in the living room watching t.v. Even at low volume it sounds better than a solid state practice amp.

*Maybe it's just the new Stilettos, hmmm... /8 *

While I agree that most Mesas/Boogies sound good at low volume than many solid state and digital devices, I'm still thinking about getting one for the Stiletto. There's a sweet spot on the ouput just above the comfort level for our room. I think a Hotplate used just to knock the volume down a skoosh without affecting the tone would be just the ticket.

I don't think I would ever use one to lower the volume down to bedroom levels. When you're jamming in your bedroom you just have to make some compromises. That's what they make the garage for. :lol:

 

[SimpleMind]

How about recording at home then. Do you use your 100 Watt tube amps an attenuator and there you go?

 

[voodoo_child]

I really don't see why you would spend the bucks on a Hotplate when you have a master volume amp.

It's pretty simple:

I've played plenty of amps that sound better with the master at 12o'clock than they do at 9o'clock. (or 3 o clock vs 12 o clock etc) An extra 1/4 turn can often make all the difference in terms of saturation, sag, harmonics, tone.

A Hotplate often allows the master to be a couple of notches higher while keeping the volume more or less the same.

 

[Russ]

If you attenuate you sacrifice cone movement thus air movement thus some tone at a new lower final volume. While attenuators allow you to run your amp itself hotter your speakers never get to really move as if they were actually being pushed. This makes for a slightly different cranked sound. I personally don't care for it and so I don't care for attenuators.

 

[voodoo_child]

If you attenuate you sacrifice cone movement thus air movement thus some tone at a new lower final volume.

I'd have worded that as 'if you play quietly, you sacrafice cone movement'.

If you accept that someone has a fixed volume limit, then the speaker will be pushed exactly the same whether they use an attenuator or just turn the master down.

 

[Russ]

I guess I could have said, " compared to the non-attenuated level " Having your masters up is where you get your power tube saturation. Pushing your speakers is where you get that edge of your seat sound from where it seems like your speakers are getting ready to come unglued. The combinations of these two sounds are what really give that cranked sound that you are typically trying to achieve at lower levels using an attenuator. Volume ceiling or not, attenuating anything sacrifices tone during this process.

Using an attenuator isn't the same thing as turning down your master, sorry.

If you use your attenuator wisely, say max attenuation of 4 db's and still manage to get breakup because you are still pushing your speakers that is probably fine provided your attenuator isn't sucking your tone to begin with but they all do to some extent.

If you use your attenuator to make an arena rock amp into a bedroom amp you are never going to get the capabilities of that amp to come out. In this case, you should be using a smaller practice amp and have no real business using the beast in there anyway.

 

[lockbody]

Pushing your speakers is where you get that edge of your seat sound from where it seems like your speakers are getting ready to come unglued.

Seems like this would be less of an issue with high-efficiency speakers like EVs and the sort.