YMI5150?

I've recently learned about these products and have questions for those who have experience using them.

My rig:

NOS pretube modded TSL601 driving a 1960AX (4x12 Greenbacks)

Use:

Noodling at home (no recording/gigging)

Goal:

Have the ability to get close to Ed's early tone as well as others but his is the most intriguing to me, while playing at reasonable levels. It doesn't have to be newborn/apartment quiet but not all out either.

I know his chain was basically guitar, time based effects, a Plexi with dropped input voltage via Variac, an eq in front and behind the plexi, a dummy load, another eq, a SS amp, two cabinets.

My question is what is gained by a dummy load into yet another amp over just using a hot plate between the plexi and the cabinet?

For my use, will a hot plate get me there or do I need the second amp? I see in theory that his rig turned the whole plexi into a preamp and some unique tone may be achieved by having the power tubes contribute to the preamp signal.

I'd like to keep it simple but would really love to capture that raw distinct tone from the first 3 albums.

Advice appreciated

Cheers!!

guitaryellow

Your at home you don't need that. TSL voicing is more modern and far removed from the plexi. The closest you'll get is with the clean channel and a good pedal. The clean has the most natural voicing and is much to dial closer to plexi. (In my opinion only!)
I have a TSL100 and a 1959SLP in to a 78 4x12 with green's. Work's for me, hope that helps.
Back the gain off and up the main volume, then boost with a pedal to get desired effect.

YMI5150?

Interesting approach. Have a pedal in mind?

Riffraff

There are many OD pedals available that will get you there. I did what you are trying to with a 1959SLP, hotplate & Mosvalve power amp feeding a 412 cab. I used an SD-1 in front of the Plexi or a Route 66. The key is to max the pedal's volume and keep it's gain setting at zero or just above. It works well for getting that all out cranked amp tone when playing at home at low volume. You can go through power tubes faster this way though. I would set my HP to load and just run the line out to my SS power amp so I could get the grind going and have complete control of the volume. I also ran a wet/dry rig in a similar way by putting a delay pedal between the HP's line out and the power amp. In this application I was just using the HP's line out as a loop because my amp didn't have one. I set the cab to stereo and run the dry signal to one side and the wet SS amp signal to the other. I've done the same thing with my Vintage modern because I feel it sounds much better than just sticking the pedal in the loop.

guitaryellow

Excellent advice with the pedal, the volume on the pedal can be set with the amp and then turned back slightly to give a perceived soak effect.
Any pedal that will boost also, I use a BD2 with the gain super low, a Marshall bluesbreaker also or nirvana is a BD2 with the H20 (Monte Allum) mod.

clintonb

I think the biggest advantage is that you can then add effects like delay and chorus. You can also EQ the sound a bit more either with an EQ or the controls on the the other amp.

I believe the Ultimate Attenuator is basically a dummy load and solid state amp in a box.

wkcchampion

I have a Weber Mass 100 and it's perfect, really. The tone loss is very very slight, and it also has a treble boost in case u lose some high end (I don't need it). It also work as direct line out. I can play my AC30CC2X at bedroom level, can u believe it?

butrus

Cant speak of TSL,
but the way I use my 2210 at home is to set HP to load and from line out to Velocity 150 into 2x12.
Much better results than using HP alone for heavy attenuation.
This way I can run my amp at 7 and sound great at bedroom volume if needed.
Also can fine adjust volume with line out volume and volume on power amp.
Its not the same result as runing OD infront,cos the amp yust doesnt sound right at 0ish...

Jesstaa

Don't think I saw anyone answer this, but they might have, I'm really tired

The point of the dummy load is to act as if it has a cab connected so that you can just get the sound from the SS amp connected to the amp, dummy loads are a few resistors attached to a speaker cable to emulate a cab, without the sound of course.
Attenuators drop the volume so you can get power tube distortion, or in the case of NMV amps, to get distortion all round, at a low volume.

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LesBalls

Ed used a dummy load for volume reasons and because a plexi doesn't have an effects loop. He ran the head into the dummy load so he could run a line level signal to his effects powered by a separate power amp...for Ed it was the H&H solid state power amp that used (now outdated) MOSFET technology which was basically an early attempt at making a solid state piece of gear sound more tube-like.

This setup turned Ed's plexi into a preamp for the entire system.

An attenuator with a line out will accomplish the same thing if you have another amp to drive your effects.

Also, it is my opinion (and only mine) that getting an attenuator and cranking the power section of your TSL...(Master on 7 or 8...preamp at noon) and then hitting the front end with an OD pedal...not a distortion pedal and not one of these "amp in a box" pedals...but something like a tubescreamer or SD1...level on full gain to taste but usually very low.

This will get you WAY closer to Ed's sound than buying some "plexi" pedal and using into your clean channel.

Also, almost as important as the amp setup....Get a Seymour Duncan pickup!!! Try the JB, Custom Custom, or the EVH wind from the Custom shop. This will help you more than anything in my opinion.

Having said all that....take it from me...you're never going to sound like EVH....I'm not either although I have chased that tone just like you!!!! However, you can get close, or closer than you are now, by trying what I mentioned above.

Wilder Amplification

Dummy loads are resistive...not inductive like a power soak. Dummy loads these days are only used for testing at a single frequency. They don't react to signal frequency by changing their impedance with frequency like a speaker does, and since an output transformer is made to work with an inductive/reactive load at multiple frequencies, playing your guitar through an amp hooked up to a resistive load can be harmful to an amp.

Power soaks on the other hand are inductive and supply the correct load to the amp just like a speaker does. It reacts to multiple frequencies by changing its impedance with frequency just like a speaker would. Your amp don't know the difference.

Most power soaks today are inductive. The THD Hotplates are great for the fact that they have the adjustable line out for running through time based effects. Some guys even run a 100 watter on full tilt through the power soak with full attenuation (no sound going to a speaker at all) and then run the line out of the Hot Plate to their time based effects (i.e. chorus, flanger, delay, reverb, etc etc) and then run that to a seperate power amp, in effect using the amp as their "overdrive pedal". Setting up a pedal such as the Tube Screamer as a clean boost by cranking the level knob and setting the boost amount with the overdrive knob is a cool trick for slamming the amp's front end for sort of a footswitchable "lead/rhythm" tone.

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Jon Wilder
Wilder Amplification

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