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Lordathestrings
Gear Guru
Joined: 01/18/01
Posts: 6,242
Lordathestrings
Gear Guru
Joined: 01/18/01
Posts: 6,242
07/18/2009 3:18 pm
I haven't played that particular amp, but I can tell you that tube amps generally don't sound the same at lower volume. Good, but not the same.

If you love the sound of a simple guitar + cranked-amp rig, you won't get it a bedroom levels unless you find something with some special circuits that allow the output stage to be overdriven at low levels. This is not the old Master Volume type, but a more recent development based on the Power Scaling concept. Basically, it reduces the voltage available to the output tubes, so they clip at lower levels. This can sound pretty good, and allows you to adjust the volume to suit the room, but it does add cost. And despite marketing claims, it never sounds quite the same. Loud music of any kind simply feels different than the same music played at lower volume.

A 30 Watt amp is much, much too big for bedroom playing. Even 5 Watts, cranked, is likely to be too much for any kind of apartment.

You could use an attenuator to reduce the sound levels, but the cost involved is that you are still inflicting full-volume wear & tear on the tubes while playing 'quietly'.
Lordathestrings
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