Marshall Power Brake

[metalchurch]

I didn't want to take over your thread Ventgtr, so I figured I'd post a new one.

I found a nice picture, and some vague info on ebay:



Marshall PB100 Powerbrake Inductive Speaker Attenuator! You want great, overdriven tone. Your tube amp sounds its best CRANKED. But you're tired of your neighbors calling the police. Or maybe you're in the studio and you don't want your amp bleeding into everyone else's mics. How can you get monster sound at lower volume levels? Simple...Put a brake on it, A Powerbrake!

FEATURES

* 100 Watt power handling capacity

* Unit will work with 8 or 16 ohm speaker loads

* Built in cooling fan for more efficient operation

* One input jack and two output speaker jacks

* Does not require any external power source or batteries

* Built like a tank (all metal construction), the best engineered attenuator on the market

Marshall Powerbrake PB100
You want great, overdriven tone. Your tube amp sounds its best CRANKED. But you're tired of your neighbors calling the police. Or maybe you're in the studio and you don't want your amp bleeding into everyone else's mics. How can you get monster sound at lower volume levels? Simple...Put a brake on it, A Powerbrake!

The Marshall Power Brake is the power attenuator that delivers great sound at low volume levels. There are other attenuators or load boxes available, but they don't provide the right type of inductive load. Your amp needs to think it's connected to a speaker. That's what the PowerBrake does. The other guys? At best, they cause your amp to sound thin and feeble. At worst, they can blow your amp's output transformer -- Ouch! Get the Marshall Power Brake. It's safer for your amp and safer for your ears.

[VENTGtr]

MC,

Ah, no prob man. Could'a Hijacked away. Seems on-topic to me. Ya know, I always
thought they were bigger.

Good info though. Thanks a lot.

[metalchurch]

Yeah, there's some explanation there, but it leaves alot up in the air.
I've read a good bit about it, and alot of people say it is a god send for tube amps, but if it fails, it will take your power transformer out with it.

I wonder what makes them fail, might be over heating?
And, how often do they fail.

Too bad there's not a better safe guard from that happening.

[metalchurch]

I also, thought they were bigger.
Here's a picture of one on top of a Marshall head, that gives you a better idea of the size.

[skipisode]

I used a Scholtz Power Soak years ago (still have it - but not using) through an Ampeg tube head. It was great for saturation at low volume, it did however get hot as stated and it seemed to cause me to need tubes replaced more frequently. It did help with getting tone out of the amp though.

[metalchurch]

Wow, it sounds like the power soak, and power brake could be more harm than good in the long run.
It sounds to me like it might be better for short term usage, like recording.

The average cost is around $400 add tubes on top of that, and a power transformer, and it seems like a potentially costly solution for a good sound.

Everything has a price, but that's a risk, I'm not willing to take right now, atleast until I find more out.

A cheaper, and safer alternative would be to just get a smaller amp, it seems.

[Banned]

Another popular one is the THD Hot Plate:

http://www.thdelectronics.com/product_p ... plate.html

A lot of gearheads prefer that to the Marshall, but I couldn't tell you exactly why.

Then there's the Ampeg VL amps, with a built in attenuator. I have a 50 watter. It has ludicrous amounts of gain in an 80s sort of way. (Meaning it doesn't have the tightest rhythm chug, but it shreds well.)

[bassist_25]

A cheaper, and safer alternative would be to just get a smaller amp, it seems.

Don't ditch your Marshall, but you may want to look into a smaller power amp. If you're really looking for a balls-out amp that's really tight and focused sounding, you may want to look into some of the VHT amps. old sKool had a couple of VHTs for a while that his friend lent him while his Simul-Class was in the shop, and he really liked them. He said that one of the amps was switchable between Class A and Class A/B power, which is really cool.

[metalchurch]

That's another topic that I have been a little in the dark about:

Class A
Class B
Class A/B
etc....
What do these mean?
Could someone explain this?

Thanks alot.

[skipisode]

Maybe I'll sell my Power Soak ?? Any offers?

[metalchurch]

I may consider it after I research this topic some more.
Does it come with tubes and an extra power transformer, or did you use all of yours already? LOL! kidding

What brand is it, and do you know how old it is?
I'll get back to you soon, thanks for the offer.

--edit: I re read your post, I saw it was a Scholtz.

[bassist_25]

Joe asked me to make a poll to see how many watts everyone's running here. He wants to see what a good median level of power would be to run in the local venues and not blow away the FOH. Please let us know.

http://rockpage.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=15757

[Ron]

That's another topic that I have been a little in the dark about:

Class A
Class B
Class A/B
etc....
What do these mean?
Could someone explain this?

Thanks alot.

There's some info here. http://rockpage.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=13596

[metalchurch]

That was absolutely perfect, thank you Ron.

[Sapo]

I was looking into these things back when I had my vintage Ampeg V4-B. Loved the overdriven tone that head would generate (the best overdrive I've ever heard out of any piece of bass gear - ever) but you could only get it at one volume - loud. Then Dave Sarge (amazing amp guru) told me that a power soak is tough on a head, so I scrapped the idea.