THD Hot Plate Or Marshall Powerbrake

[Larry]

I recently purchased a Marshall TSL 60 with 1960a Cab. It truly brings my Axis to life. But I'm only able to get the tone i desire by crankin' that bad boy till my ears bleed. I know i can use a power attenuator but which one? I have looked into the THD Hotplate and Marshall Powerbrake. The Powerbrake costs about $200 USD more than Hotplate. So as always i leave it up to this forum to spend my money.

Hotplate

Powerbrake

 

[jazzbo jim]

I don't mean to throw a monkey wrench into the works but....have you considered Weber products?
Great company, Great customer service, great products and great prices.
I use a Mass 50 to tame my 800 combo.works nice!
Good luck

 

[Larry]

These are just the two i know of. If you have any more please feel free to educate me. Do you have any links to the Weber ones?

EDIT: Is this what you are talking about? https://weberspeakerscom.secure.powweb.com/weber/mass.htm

 

[jazzbo jim]

Yes. I trust you will find the prices competitive and I will vouch for the design and build quality.
www.webervst.com

also, check out the fender discussion page and see what those nerds have to say.

 

[brentrocks]

i have never seen these items before...how do they work/what do they do?

 

[blackspy]

I'll vouch for the THD. It sounds great, doesn't change your sound until you start getting into the extreme attenuation levels. It keeps me from going to jail whenever I plug into the 5150.

 

[blackspy]

i have never seen these items before...how do they work/what do they do?

Basically, you place them in the signal after the power section of your loud tube amp, and before your speakers. It allows you to reduce the overall voltage that hits the speakers, reducing the volume. So, in my case, amp_speaker_out->hotplate->cab. So you can crank your amp up, and get the tubes really working and sounding great without deafening yourself or others.

 

[Beavis5150]

I've tried the THD and I liked it. If I hadn't already dropped big $ that day I would have bought it. I'll score one soon.

 

[Tim O'Sullivan]

The Marshall is probably designed with Marshall maps in mind. Mind you the THD is excellent.

 

[robelinda2]

i've tried the THD on my Marshall Bluesbreaker and Fender Deville, it works great! Much better tone.

 

[Steve Nukather]

The THD is my favorite. Be careful though, Marshalls do not have robust output transformers these days. They've been known to blow easily at higher levels...

 

[Tim O'Sullivan]

The THD is my favorite. Be careful though, Marshalls do not have robust output transformers these days. They've been known to blow easily at higher levels...

I dont think Marshalls are robust at all these days!

 

[AVH]

I use the Hotplate. I haven't tried the others.

The HP works great. It does have a very slight affect on sound but you really only get to notice it when it's cranked and bypass it. I find the bright and deep switches pretty much useless and altering the tone too much (in a bad way). I just adjust the amp settings instead. I also find the preset db settings not much use as I'm pretty much on -16dB all the time but for others it may be useful depending on how much volume you can use.

And most important of all....it has the pretty bulb!!! Nothing like watching glowing tubes and the bulb! You need the lightning to go with the thunder!

 

[blackspy]

^^ Bear in mind, a lot of the perceived difference in the sound at high levels of attenuation, are just the differences in volume. It seems to sound a lot different, but it's mostly the exact same sound, turned down. Not to mention it's reducing amount of voltage the speakers get and not driving them as hard. In some cases, the speakers need to get moving to sound right.

I agree with you about the bright/deep switches, I can't seem to get a decent tone out of them either. However, I actually don't like the bulb all that much, it looks too flashy for me... and I've got one of the earliest Hotplates, while built a little better than newer ones, it lacks a switch to turn the bulb off. I've read somewhere that the bulb system in them is actually a weird sort of noise reduction circuit.

 

[candid_x]

My son was interested in getting a Power Brake for his Marshall. After reading these reviews, he’s opted to look further.

Reliability: 1
well after a few days i noticed a weird smell.thought it was just wearing in but then after a few weeks i turn on my lovely priceless original vox and pop boom.....nothing. turns out i blew my transformers and as some of you will know the original ones cant be purchased anymore,the re-issue ones only work if you install a solid state rectifier.so im left stuck with a broken vox.MY BABY it was. the glue holding something on inside melted and the part fell off ,or so ive been told by my tech.this put a no load situation, as explained above.my amp just couldnt hack it.

Reliability: N/A
(Update to the review I submitted on 4/21/98)
This happened with BOTH of my units... after playing my Sovtek Mig-100 through it continuously for 15 minutes I noticed a weird smell from it. Opening it up I found a capacitor was overheating: way too hot to touch and the plastic covering on it was melted. Also, another part (an inductor coil) was starting to melt the glue that was holding it to the board. My conclusion: not all of the parts in this thing can handle a 100-watt guitar amp cranked through it. Consider yourself warned. It seems to handle a 50-watt amp with no problem.

Reliability: 5
I am an amp tech and have inspected the insides of two PowerBrakes that I bought, one new and one used (I think about 2 years old). The level of construction inside is very good. However there was a problem in both units: the hot-melt glue they used to secure an inductor to the circuit board did not stick, so the inductor was held down only by its two soldered wires. Not hard to fix but if left the way it was I feel it would eventually break loose. This would be a disaster because the inductor is wired in series with the main load resistor: broken connection = no load = fried tube amp. Also, on the used unit one of the solder joints of the inductor was never correctly soldered; the enamel insulation wasn't cleaned off the inductor lead and was preventing the solder from attaching well. I'd say the guy who had it before me was lucky. Or he had a transistor amp, which wouldn't have cared.

 

[Tim O'Sullivan]

My son was interested in getting a Power Brake for his Marshall. After reading these reviews, he’s opted to look further.

Reliability: 1
well after a few days i noticed a weird smell.thought it was just wearing in but then after a few weeks i turn on my lovely priceless original vox and pop boom.....nothing. turns out i blew my transformers and as some of you will know the original ones cant be purchased anymore,the re-issue ones only work if you install a solid state rectifier.so im left stuck with a broken vox.MY BABY it was. the glue holding something on inside melted and the part fell off ,or so ive been told by my tech.this put a no load situation, as explained above.my amp just couldnt hack it.

Reliability: N/A
(Update to the review I submitted on 4/21/98)
This happened with BOTH of my units... after playing my Sovtek Mig-100 through it continuously for 15 minutes I noticed a weird smell from it. Opening it up I found a capacitor was overheating: way too hot to touch and the plastic covering on it was melted. Also, another part (an inductor coil) was starting to melt the glue that was holding it to the board. My conclusion: not all of the parts in this thing can handle a 100-watt guitar amp cranked through it. Consider yourself warned. It seems to handle a 50-watt amp with no problem.

Reliability: 5
I am an amp tech and have inspected the insides of two PowerBrakes that I bought, one new and one used (I think about 2 years old). The level of construction inside is very good. However there was a problem in both units: the hot-melt glue they used to secure an inductor to the circuit board did not stick, so the inductor was held down only by its two soldered wires. Not hard to fix but if left the way it was I feel it would eventually break loose. This would be a disaster because the inductor is wired in series with the main load resistor: broken connection = no load = fried tube amp. Also, on the used unit one of the solder joints of the inductor was never correctly soldered; the enamel insulation wasn't cleaned off the inductor lead and was preventing the solder from attaching well. I'd say the guy who had it before me was lucky. Or he had a transistor amp, which wouldn't have cared.

Doesnt surprise me for anything made by Marshall these days!