homemade noize

I was looking up info on DIY L-pads & attenuators because I could use a little less volume at home sometimes. I found this creation the Ampwell House Guitar Amp Attenuator I definitely dig the design aesthetic. I had forgotten the utilitarian goodness of the empty coffee can.

L-pads are easy attenuators to build. And being in between the speaker and output transformer the are great for tube amps. You can keep the volume down enough to keep you spouse from killing you or the neighbors calling the cops and still have the wonderful overdriven sound of a saturated power tube and OT. The is some tone and definition loss especial at low low power. There is not really a substitute for a speaker moving a lot of air. Put it still is better than for some than using a solid state or that master volume knob(you just can’t get power section distortion with it turned down.)

Here is some info on L-pads & attenuators including some calculators to pick the right resistors:

Weber
BCAE
Guitar Nuts Amp Myths (a must read covering more than just attenuators)
Amptone Attenuators FAQ
Wikipedia

You can also great L-pad ready to go from parts express. They are basically supper duty potentiometer. For those need a 4 ohms L-pad a 8 ohms stereo wired in parallel will get you to 4 ohms. There are intended for Hi-Fi speaker balancing but work perfectly for guitar amps. The can mount in almost any kind of enclosure(like coffee cans.) You should get one with a higher wattage range than you need.

There also are some great commercial attenuators that try and combat the tonal loss:
Weber
Hot Plate
Marshall Power Brake
Koch Load Box