Studio Diary #31: Attenuators Colour The Sound

This photo shows the front panel of my Fryette PS-100 Power Station attenuator. To one side, we can also see a glimpse of my Two Notes Captor too.
The Two Notes Captor and Fryette PS-100 Power Station

Attenuators are one of the reasons we can enjoy valve amps at home without upsetting the neighbours. I’ve never really thought about how they affect the overall tone … until now.

In this blog post, I’m going to look at the two attenuators that I have – the Two Notes Captor and the Fryette PS-100 Power Station – and work out what they sound like. And I’m including some sound samples, so that you can hear the differences for yourself.

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#TweedTalk 2: First Impressions: Universal Audio Fender 55 Tweed Deluxe Amplifier Plugin

#TweedTalk is my occasional Tuesday column, where I talk about all things related to tweed amps and tweed-tone pedals.

In the recent Black Friday sales, I finally picked up Universal Audio’s Fender 55 Tweed Deluxe amp plugin to add to my collection of tweed tone options.

Is it going to get much use, or am I going straight back to the real amp? Here are my First Impressions.

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First Impressions: Mad Professor Super Black Pedal (Straight Into A Power Amp)

It’s not every pedal that gets not one, but two First Impressions posts here on the HomeToneBlog. In fact, I believe this is the first one that I’ve done this for.

How does the Mad Professor Super Black preamp pedal sound, when I run it straight into a power amp? Let’s find out.

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New Arrivals: July 2021

This month has been a very special month. A couple of purchases I’ve been working towards unexpectedly all came together at the same time. And then I learned that you really do need to be careful what you wish for!

The second-hand market remains pretty flat. I did miss out on one of my bucket-list pedals though. It’s going to take me a while before I stop kicking myself over that one. I managed to pickup another great BJFe-designed pedal instead, so it wasn’t all bad 🙂

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First Impressions: Fryette Power Station PS-100

My new Tweed Deluxe amp is a bit of a dream come true. Being a vintage amp circuit, it’s also a bit too loud for regular use at home. If I’m going to enjoy it, I need a way to turn it down.

My tool of choice for the job? Fryette’s Power Station PS-100. Why did I pick this over the considerable competition? And does it actually do the job? Read on for my research notes and First Impressions.

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Load Box Shootout – Vintage Tones

Another one from Michael Nielsen tonight. He’s done a great video looking at how several popular load boxes sound for vintage tones.

Around the 7 minute mark, he talks about a surprising aspect of load boxes – that they drive the amp harder than the real cab does. He then goes on to show the captured waveforms side by side. There’s a few surprises hiding in there too.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Michael’s video.