Power-soak for tube guitar amps

[cruisemates]

I am really struggling to get a great lead guitar sound in my home because I don't have a decent room to use for isolation for a loud amp. I have a couple of tube amps here, a Fender pro Junior and a Marshall ValveState. But they are TOO LOUD for playing in the same room as I am recording in, and even for isolating them in the home I am in. Even this little Fender is LOUD at 70 watts, and to get the best sound you really need to crank it.

Anyone know a safe/easy way to power-soak the output of these amps (especially the Fender, the Marshall isn't mine) so I can crank it to full power but not annoy the neighbors? My goal is to isolate the amp and run cables to it, but to monitor my playing from the monitor speakers.

I was thinking of buying a power-soak device, but are they any good?

How about alternatives: maybe attaching a smaller speaker to the Fender, and then putting it inside of a big box or cabinet I could bury with blankets and still have plenty of room to mic it? Or building an amp iso-box out of wood with holes for cables.

Anyone out there ever come up with an ingenious home remedy for this problem? What if I took an old speaker and tore the cone off (for a power-soak) and then added a really small speaker parallel to the coneless voice-coil, or took a powered (volume-controlled) speaker from the headphone output?

Looking for any real solutions people have found for this problem.

[tele_player]

There's plenty of lore about power soaks killing Marshall amps, and plenty of people who use them. I've heard good things about the M.A.S.S. Attenuator from www.webervst.com.

[albee1952]

You can use an iso-box which has a speaker and mic inside a box that has lots of foam to contain the sound. Personally, I pulled 2 runs of 12 guage wire from my music room to the basement and have mic lines coming back up. I keep my VOX next to me but not much sound gets out of a concrete basement. I used to use a 150 watt 8 ohm variable rheostat years ago but it would certainly kill a solid state amp like the Marshall. There are a couple of speaker emulators available (maybe a used ADA unit). It isn't mandatory to play super loud to get a big sound. Jimmy Page did lots of tracks on a Supro with one 12". You can always go direct with a POD or Vox ToneLab, or use NI Guitar Rig on a direct track.

[cruisemates]

I have also heard that power-soaks can be a problem, but my Fender is all tube. I could run long lines, but with these AZ single level homes my garage is about 75' away, and it would take an electrician to hide the lines. This is a small, single 10-inch speaker, but with 70 watts and just two knobs (volume & tone). It sounds really good but you have to crank it on full. In my last home I had a bathroom I could use, but my fiancee won't let me turn my current loo into a permanent amp room.

Even with the Marshall I'm borrowing that has pre-post volume controls, it really doesn't sound right unless you give it some volume. I tried out a Boogie and thought the same thing, you need to crank it to get the best sound.

For my Fender, how does the 150 watt 8 ohm variable rheostat work? I was thinking about that.

I know I could try a POD and/or emulator, but what I want is a Mick Ronson type sound, or Leslie West on "Mississippi Queen" and most of what I hear on non-pro recordings is that solid-state, over-processed direct sound of "just another guitar solo any one of 10,000 graduates from Jack Black's School of Rock could have played".

But I also don't want to spend $1000+ on a Marshall 1/2-stack and $500 building a box to isolate it.

[cruisemates]

That M.A.S.S. is cool, and what is funny is that I was just thinking out loud when I said "tear a cone off a voice coil" but that is exactly what the M.A.S.S. is.. picture

Found some notes at various boards: "Having said all that, at a festival gig some years back we were required to isolate a cranked 100 watt twin from the mostly acoustic stage sound (with a 30 min set-up time) We ended up shoving it backstage surrounding it with chairs, setting the mic and burying the whole thing in shipping blankets - the thing is, it worked great!"

Another thing to mention: I just bought an sm-57 on Ebay for $60 and the guy was nice enough to send not only the mic, but a mic cable, clip and leather case all for $60. Bonus!

[nikki-k]

THD Hot Plate

They make 'em for different impedances- get the right one (of course).

Or, grab a Scholz Power Soak.

Above all, quality cabling, correct kind, good jacks/plugs.

[Paul14]

One comment on the Hot Plate: I borrowed one from Make n' Music here in Chicago, and tried it out on my Marshall TSL, a '67 Twin and on my MkIII. It works fairly well with the distortion cranked, but if you are going for a clean sound I found the THD to be completely useless. It just ruined the tone of the amp.
I returned it the same day...

...another $0.02

Paul

[fredsparky]

Find an old Tom Shultz power soak. I used to use one and it was fine. Get's hot though. Also, put your Fender in a closet with a blanket on it and mic it w/ an SM57.

Mike

[Paul14]

I have pretty much the same situation where I live. My solution has been to put either a Fender Deluxe or my old Boogie MkIII in my closet, put a 57 right on the cone, and cover the whole setup completely with as many blankets and comforters as I can find. It works really well, and comes out sounding like a Marshall Stack.
If that doesn't work for you, get a Palmer speaker simulator. Those are pretty much the best way to record guitars direct, and they sound great.

My $0.02

Paul

[exo iii]

cruisemates
if my memory still works right, the valvestate only uses preamp tubes, no power amp tubes
the power stage = solid state
that means that cranking the amp doesn't do anything for your tone
and a power soak on that particular amp will do nothing for you
your crunch should sound the same at 1 as it will at 10

another option, get a variac (dimmer switch) - eddie van halen used to do this in the 70s
it sounds great but it kills tubes dead
and you run some risk of electrocution...