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Thread: Bassman - Undervolting

  1. #1

    Bassman - Undervolting

    Hello,

    I have a fender bassman silverface from the 70s which is incredibly loud. This is totally fine when playing live. However, it's not practical for use at home unless I put the volume at a hair past zero. With covid, playing live just isn't going to be happening any time soon so now seems like a good opportunity to actually look into this as I've been meaning to for a long time now.

    I was wondering what my best option is for controlling the max output without modification and adding a master output or something like that. I'd like to be able to crank the volume to a decent level without it being ridiculously loud.

    The obvious thing that comes to my mind is a Variac.
    Has anyone had any experience with these and can you give you advice on what I should be looking for in terms of specs.

    Are there other alternative devices that I should be looking into?

    I'm in the UK btw, not sure if that matter much though.

    Thanks

  2. #2
    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Re: Bassman - Undervolting

    I think that by the time you lower the plate voltages enough to make the amp quieter the heater voltages will be too low. I would use an attenuator like a Hot Plate, or even better, a reamping device like Fryette Power Station.

  3. #3
    Forum Member ch willie's Avatar
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    Re: Bassman - Undervolting

    I'd hate to have a cool amp like that for only gigs and not at home too, but have you considered buying a good, low wattage, practice amp?
    If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison

  4. #4
    Forum Member DanTheBluesMan's Avatar
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    Re: Bassman - Undervolting

    A Variac is not the best way to make your amp quieter, it is probably one of the worst. As mentioned above, a lower power practice amp would be your least expensive option. There are various devices like the above mentioned Fryette Power Station, the Boss TAE (Tube Amp Expander), the UA OX among others. They tend to be fairly pricey but less intrusive than modding a vintage amp.

    I feel ya. I have non-master volume combos (Princeton Reverb, Princeton, Champ) all of which are too loud for the extremely thin walls of this apartment complex I just moved into before Covid hit. Now people are home 24/7 I have zero time to be able to turn up any amp, let alone a non-master volume tube amp regardless of wattage.

    I use my headphones through my audio interface into my Logic Pro X DAW. It's not the same but it sure is a lot better than nothing. As a bonus, I always have recording ready to go at the press of a button.
    "Live and learn and flip the burns"

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