Koch LB120

Very easy to use

Setup: Ernst "the Rover" preamp, Marshall 9200 Poweramp, Brian Moore C90 guitar.
I wanted the to have the ease of plugging direct in the house PA, no mics, always the same sound quality.
So many positive reviews about this product but it is defenitly been the worst buy for me in years.
Miking up sounds so much better, the Loadbox used as a speaker simulator really kills your dynamics, maybe sounds just a bit better than the red box in my opinion, which also eats your dynamics.
As a power attenuator it works fine.
bought it, used it for live DVD recordings, wish I used my sm57.
when I heard the DVD I was shocked and very dissapointed, I probably had too high expectations.
It's just a too big tone comprimise.

"Build as a tank"

I live in Holland, spoke on the telephone once or twice with Koch, very heplfull and kind people.

I play many styles, from rock like music to Holdslike fusion
played for more than 25 years, I am selling the Loadboxes right away.

Mine is the Loadbox ][.

It's pretty darn easy. It requires no power so you just hook it up to your amp like you would a speak, and then run a speaker cable out or DI. The manual is pretty basic - so that could be a little more clear. Don't wanna go pluging in the wrong cable in the wrong place.

Amazing so far. I've run a Eganter Rebel 20 through it and it's genius. I've also run the amp from my Epiphone Valve Jr through it. Next up my Fender Pro jr. Pretty much what you put in you get out. This is an IDEAL STUDIO solution for people who want to monitor without a loud guitar cab and don't have an amp iso room.

Monitoring straight through my DAW, it sounds like a well mic'd amp. Not exactly the same, but that's a matter of taste... mic placement, etc.

So far so good. No moving parts. The attenuation is achieved by output jacks and different percentages. 1, 2, 15, 40% etc. Great design.

haven't needed it.

It's pretty great. I was skeptical. I like that it is an Attenuator and a DI in one, and can do both at the same time. The THD hotplate is only and Attenuator and the Palmer PDI-03 is just a DI. It's great to have the flexibility of both and the Koch sounds great.

It's quite easy to use.
It could have a rotary knob to select the load instead of unplugging

I'm using it with a 60W Fender Prosonic cascade amp that has a lot of gain and just one volume pot on the clean channel.
I expected to have a crancked soud at low levels but unfortunately the sound was the same that lowering down the volume amp.
It does not sound bad, but I could not get the sound that the amp gives at full range. Not even similar.
I also tried it as a guitar preamp for silent recording. Again the sound you get is the same sound that using the effect send from the amp.
I think that this loadbox is adjusted for 100W stacks. Otherwise I cannot understand the positive oppinions about the sound from the other fellows.

It's well done and seems reliable

It didn't cover my expectations so I returned it to the shop.
I think that anyone shoud try it with his equipment before buying or be able to return it.

Very simple, just pay attention to what your doing.

I use one for my '67 Superbass Plexi and one for my '62 Vox AC-30 TB.
Sound quality: very transparant. I tried the THD hotplate, but this one is just simply better.

Only had these boxes for 2 months, looks pretty solid to me.
But be careful using it. Don't connect it wrongly cause it may hurt your amp by doing so.
Would gig without a backup.

Very helpful, great guys.

I mainly play rock/pop & blues. Check out my website if you like. It's at: www.rubenhoeke.com

The Koch Loadbox LB 120 suits me just fine. Great unit. IMO better than the THD or the Marshall Powerbreak...Haven't heard the Mass Weber though...

It's great to turn the amp to '11' and let the tubes do the talking!

I use a boss overdive (OD-1 or SD-1, volume full, drive 2) on top of the natural amps overdrive for solo's...man I'm in tone heaven for sure.

I would buy another if it were stolen

Doesn't affect your tone like the Hot Plate. The speaker emulator is nice, I like having it built into the loadbox alot! It's perfect for recording silently late at night with my soundcard.

David Love of David Love Music dot com contacted me directly and spoke of overheating/frying the Loadbox 120 with amps over 50 watts. He said this isn't a problem with the Loadbox 2 as it has a built in fan. Apparently this can be fixed easily by replacing the capacitors and I have a guitar tech so I don't imagine this will be a problem. However, if I was depending on using this attenuator live I would be quite freaked with the reliability factor.

David Love also gave me a different, cheaper price that I would be able to get from the retailer but the retailer: MacAulays Music of Cambridge Ontario, Canada insisted on charging me the $399, I was ok with this as this price was still a good deal and MacAulays has fantastic customer service. Despite all this David Love was very personable and went the extra distance to actually get this product in my hands, i'm quite happy but still would have liked to get it for $20 cheaper.

I really like the Loadbox, Koch makes fantastic products and I will most certainly pick-up one or two of their amps if they comp me some $$$ as i'm a performing artist.

It's design is simple and very functional.

The unit I purchased is a slightly older model that is being phased out the Loadbox, not the Loadbox 2, the price is still more than that of the Hot Plate but sounds like its worth more than double the money. The fact that it does not alter your tone at all with extreme attenuation settings and has wonderful speaker and mic emulation puts it right over the top.

Ok... what the heck!

First of all, I am a Canadian consumer and spoke with a Canadian distribution sales representitive directly. This wasn't a funny/animated music shop characret but the man who sells the product to the music shops. He knows his stuff, he told me that the only difference between the Loadbox and the Loadbox 2 is that the Loadbox 2 has a fan built in to keep the capacitors cool as they overheat on the Loadbox 1. Apparently the Loadbox's literature make its clear that it is a 120Watt power attenuator but the rep says it can only handle 50Watts continuous power? Personally I don't want to see it go up in smoke so I am constantly touching the loadbox all over and smelling it to see if its over heating. So far, i'm good but a little skeptical. Capacitors are easy to replace so no proble, I guess.

I give it a 5 as my paranoia is driving me crazy.

Well.. Good customer support but, off the line: David Love of davidlovemusic.com made it clear that the only difference between the Loadbox and Loadbox 2 is the fan when, in fact that Loadbox 2 also has an extra level of attenuation. Otherwise, he was fantastic and I wouldn't have ended up with this product if it wasn't for him as the music shop I bought it from didn't seem to want to sell it to me at the same low price the distributor gave me, they did give it to me for a discount though. Also, they recommended that I outright buy a Hot Plate as they were freaked out about what the distributor had to say about the Loadbox overheating.

I genuinely like it alot, it sounds great, I have used Hot Plates and the Koch Loadbox is a substantially better product. I however would not pay the $700 Canadian dollars they want for a Loadbox 2. If I didn't get the cheaper by virtue of being an earlier non-fan model I would not have purchased a Koch Loadbox. For that money you could purchase a different brand of attenuator and a seperate speaker/mic emulator that is more flexible then that which is integrated in the Loadbox. Alternatively, you could purchase really fantastic software and record ASIO with your digital set-up.

Getting a good sound is easy, though mini-switchin from single speaker to 4x12 cabinet *does* change the sound. I use it in both ways; with and without speaker cabinet. If I go straight into the mixer I like to add some (room) reverb to make it work.

I play a Fender Standard American 1991 Stratocaster through a Koch Powertone (one of the first: #J0081) and put the Loadbox in between the top and cabinet like you're supposed to do and with no cabinet at all, just straight into my Yamaha 01v96.

When I use the cabinet settings 4x12 and off centre miking I hear a lot of highs dissapear, but they can be brought back with increasing the prescence and treble.

So while the sound is good, it may require some eq adjustments compared to what you're used to when playing without it.

I cannot imagine this thing breaking down. It uses no powersupply other than that for the cooling fan. I used it with the cooling fan off and it was no problem. I have no back-up unit and do not intend to have one.

No need, but Dolf Koch's workshop is a 30min drive away. I had my Powertone fixed once, which they did very well, of course.

I play mainly pop/rock and the loadbox fits very well in our In Ear Monitoring set-up.

If all this were stolen I might end up with something completely different, but I am happy with what I have.

I love the fact that it is a powersoak and speakersimulator in one. Don't forget, if you like Palmer better, prepare to pay more.

The only downside is it's shape and size. I would rather have a normal 19" unit so I can put it in a rack. For you rack-haters the ears should be mountable. That's why not 10 out of 10. Other than that, I am really satisfied.

I am also glad I can have a blast@home without waking the neighbours.

It's not an effect, but i saw the other reviews in the FX department, so . . . .
It's easy to use. if u know what it does, and u took time to look at the manual, u can't go wrong.

A loadbox shouldn't effect tone at all. i didn't notice this affecting my sound. So 10 out of 10 for doing nothing to my to sound!

just been using it for a few weeks, but it looks good. what's that word? sturdy? but if it breaks, i'll personally take it to Koch and hit someone with it. for these prices things shouldn't break.

-

There are 2 reasons for having this thing: 1. it brings down the volume of my tube amp 2) i can plug directly into a recording device or a PA.
it does them both great, so it's a good loadbox.
the main reason for having the LB120 is to bring down the volume of my Rivera R55. now i get a chance to get more tones out of it, since i can crank it harder.
the reason i'm just giving a 6 is because it is way too expensive. ?300 for a new one!

Nothing to it, you plug 1/4" speaker cable from Amp's speaker jack to LB-120's in, then use one of the percentage out's to your cab depending on how much anntenuation you want, done.

I use this on a old Marshall JCM800 100 watt 2203 between the head and 4x12 cab and it allows me to turn up the Master Vol to get that signature Marshall tone without killing my ear's with concert volume levels, Give it a 10 because you wouldn't know your using it, thats right, it's very transparent unless you use the 2-5% output to speakers then you loose the natural speaker compression.

Solid as a Rock, thing is heavy for its size, I'm sure if it dropped on concrete it would still be working fine.

emailed them and got a reply 1 day later.

- Play many styles of Rock/Metal.
- 22 yrs of Guitar and still having fun.
- would buy another if lost/stolen

I use this unit for 2 purposes:
1. As a Anttenuator for live play and recording at lower Vol with SM57.
2. As a D.I loadbox like this:
Guitar > Marshall Head > LB-120 line out > Echo Mia sound card > computer recording app.

Note, do not buy this unit for the headphone usage, its not very good as others have mentioned, still I'm giving it a 10 cause of the excellent major features.

Can't be more easy to use then it already is. I use the 2% output mostly and it works perfect! Can't imagine how to live without it,and that coming from me really means someting... ;-)

I use it with my Soldano SLO-100 and if you want to use this amp for practise at home or rehearsals...believe me, YOU NEED IT!!
I have also used it with my previous (crappy) amps Mesa dc-3 combo and Marshall 6100LM head and have tested it with and without the LB120... a world of difference. With the LB120 you get a beatifull sound at low volume levels, without it your amps tone (at home) sucks as much as it can.
Noisy= 0
EVERY GUITARPLAYER NEEDS THIS UNIT. But be carefull!! Once you own one, you can't live without it anymore!! :-)

perfect.

As I wrote: BUY ONE now!!!