Marshall PB-1 Power Brake

Pretty much Idiot proof.Just make sure you use quality speaker cable,and make sure you have the impedance setting set correctly.

Slight loss of high's but I would put this down to the speakers rather than the power brake.I'm using it with a 1967 JTM 100 superbass and 1968 4 x 12.

Built like a tank.Will never brake.If you use it at max you will burn through tubes.

Marshall are always great at customer service. Marshall uk that is.

Have been using it 3 years now,and find it a must have i you are using a super lead or super bass.

Look guys..if you use speaker cable you will not fry your head..In my Marshall owners manual it says to use ONLY speaker cable....If you are *****ing about blowing your head up you possibly used a guitar cable to hook up with.
I have a JCM 2000 and with monster cable SPEAKER cable going to my power brake...I have killer tone at less than ear bleeding volumes...I run Groove Tube EL34 Mullard copies and it doesn't get much better than this kids...heed the rulebook and the power brake is godly...easiest piece of gear I own to operate...

Marshall JCM 2000 head; 1960 cab. Ibanez guitars with Duncan pick/ups...with an overdrive pedal my leads scream and sustain lasts for days..

like a welfare check...always there...don't need a back up..its passive and says Marshall on the faceplate...nuff said?

dunno my Marshall gear has never failed me...Do you change the oil in your car?...Do the same with your tube related gear;take it to a tech for upkeep; and it will last forever...

1 knob. Plug it in and turn the knob to however loud you want it. Couldn't possibly be easier, unless it was majik!!

Sound Quality really comes from the amp. So no rating. Will give you full balls to the wall overdriven tube TONe with a good tube amp at low volume.

It a marshall.

Really good product...But horribly overpriced!! Payin for the name MARSHALL. Its just an audio tapered POT. Buy one from radio shack yourself for $2, and wire it into a project box. You'll have $10 in the whole thing. Email me for schematic if needed.

Very easy. Just plug and play. You can't get easier than one big knob.
You just have to not be an idiot when connecting the thing and used speaker cable and have the proper ohm selection.

Sounds as good as your amp does. If you don't like the sound of your amp in the power break...then you don't like the sound of your amp. I'm reading on this forum about people complaining that the PB-100 makes their amps sound different (loss of high end, compression). That's your amp, not the PB. Power tubes sound different when you juice them. That's why you bought the power break.

Built like a tank. Not a problem in ten years.

Don't know. Never had to deal with Marshall.

Can't go wrong. It's actually a more stable than a speaker cabinet load, because a speaker cabinet's impedance changes over time. Not only in the long run, but just from a few minutes of playing. Voice coil, paper and magnets start moving and change impedance. The power break's fan simulates that really well.

I've been using it as a dummy load for ten years now on the same amp heads without an issue. I don't bring out a cabinet to gigs because my band uses ear-buds, so I couldn't hear a cab, anyway. I dime the amp and just control the volume that goes into my buds via mixer.

People get freaked out when they use attenuators and something happens (shorted tube, blown fuse etc....) and they think that the power break is the issue. What they don't realize is that they blew a fuse because a tube shorted. The reason a tube shorted was because they had a bad tube (or batch) and it didn't show it's true colors until the amp was cranked and the tube was under high plate voltages.

Unless you buy your tubes from a place the matches and tests tubes for faults, your are actually very likely to get a bad tube. Even then it can still happen. Especially the way UPS treats stuff when they ship.
A tube and other components may work fine at a bedroom volume, but will fail at higher outputs when pushed. In other words, the tube (or component) always had a problem, it just didn't show until you pushed it. The power break, or any attenuator which allows your to run your amp at high output levels for great lengths of time (which is something you wouldn't be able to do without an attenuator), will weed out any weak components in your system. Get yourself some good tubes and reliable components and you'll be fine

It could not be much easier to use. You would have to be a moron to mess this up.

I use this with my '73 MKII Super Lead 100W PTP and I have found it to be more transparent than the Hot Plate which definitely colors the sound but is also a great unit. As someone else said, when your tone changes more and more with more attenuation it is NOT the Power Brake, it is the fact that the speakers are not being driven hard anymore and you are not moving any air. The 4 factors most affecting tone are preamp tube overdrive, output tube overdrive, speaker overdrive, and volume of air being displaced. When you lower the volume you lose 2 of the 4 factors, period.

No problems yet.

I have not had to use it.

These units DO NOT FRY AMPS. People who do not know what they are doing fry amps. If you run your amp at full blast with or without an attenuator you will end up frying output tubes or the output transformer sooner or later. It is just a matter of time. You do not need to run the amp at 10 all the time to get the awesome Marshall sound. If you run the amp at 10 and attenuate it down to a whisper you will not have great tone and you will fry your amp. These are best used to set the amp for great tone (6-7 is fine) and use the Power Brake to take the edge off of the sound level while still driving the speakers enough to get the best tone.

This is a follow up to my review of 1/16/2004.

I've never compared the Powerbrake to any other attenuator...until now. I'd always been happy with the PB and used it for 15 years. Never a problem, built like a tank.

However, I purchased a Weber Mass 100. The difference is stunning. Here's what I found:

The Powerbrake:

1. Compresses WAY too much.
You might not notice it with a hi-gain amp, but if you try it with something known for dynamics, such as vintage stuff, you will notice a difference.

2. It sucks out the mids
I could not believe the difference. I always figured it was the speaker and how the human ear hears things differently at different volumes. But no, it sucks out the mids.

3. It make the low end flabby.

I thought it was my amp, but no, it's the powerbrake.

Mine's going up on ebay. The Weber is SO much better.

How much easier is it than one attenuation knob and one ohm switch for ease of use (well, I suppose there is the MXR Phase 90 pedal with one knob)? But don't let the sparce number of controls deceive you. The Marshall Power Brake does take some time getting used to. Or should I say you will need some time to get reacquainted with your all-tube amp. But once you do, you'll be asking yourself "Why didn't I buy this thing years ago?" Quite frankly, it is probably the best "pedal" I ever bought for my rig.

But be careful which type of cables you use to connect the Power Brake to your amp and to your cab(s). The owner's manual is very clear that one must use speaker cables with the Power Brake. Not speaking from experience, but from others in the industry, many a fool have fried a transformer by either using guitar cables or by using the incorrect ohm selection. READ THE ONE PAGE MANUAL BEFORE USING IT SO THAT YOU HOOK IT UP CORRECTLY! Other than that, it's a piece of cake. Oh, and by the way, the guys that write reviews saying the PB sucks. Yeah, I think those are the guys that use guitar cables.

SETUP: Gibson Les Paul Standard (Mid 90s Custom Shop) with Seymour Duncans (JB-4 in the bridge; Pearly Gates in the neck) into an Ibanez TS-7 Tube Screamer (for clean boost only, on songs that need the extra oomph) into an early 80s Marshall JCM 800 2203 (using Svetlana 6550 power tubes) into a mid 70s straight Marshall basketweave 4x12 and a slant Carvin Legacy 4x12 (loaded with Vintage 30 Celestions). I also use another Les Paul Standard Custom Shop and an ESP baritone, but the mid 90s Paul is my main axe.

The Power Brake is only as noisy as your amp and the chain of effects/cables going into it.

After you start using a Power Brake, you will finally understand what real tone is all about, unless you are one of those fortunate ones who can crank your amp to 10 all the time and get away with it (didn't think you were). From the Brown Sound to Page to even stretching into some of the sickest metal tones, you can do it with the Power Brake. But you have to take the time to tweak your tone with the controls on your amp. Nuff said.

I have pretty much trashed all the effects I was using and am starting from scratch, as each one seems to zap a little tone from my sound. I can tell you I'll be only using true bypass circuitry in all future pedals. But still, there is nothing better than just plugging straight into a Marshall cranked to the bjesus, and being able to attenuate that sound to a tolerable level (yeah, Marshalls are freakin' loud!)

So far, haven't had any reliability issues. Works as intended.

Haven't had to use customer support.

My style is all over the board, from old Van Halen to Page to KISS to Hendrix to the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Korn to Chevelle to RATM... Been playing for 20 years. If lost, stolen, etc., absolutely, I'd buy another one. I'd consider the THD Hot Plate. Have heard good things about it. But one feature on the PB that the HP cannot do is it allows you to switch the ohms so you can run either one or two 16 ohm cabs and change it up as you need. With the HP you're stuck with buying another HP with a different ohm rating if you switch up your number of cabs. However, the HP has other features the PB doesn't. Go do your research if your serious about the other ones.

Is the PB a good match for my style? Yup. The Power Brake is the holy grail to tone if you want that vintage Marshall sound, whether it's the Brown Sound or AC/DC or Hendrix. For nu-metal, you probably want to use a rectified tube amp like a Boogie or 5150 without using the Power Brake. Why no PB? I tried the Power Brake on my 5150 and it didn't seem to make much of a difference in tone. Slightly, but no where near the difference that it had on my Marshall. The overdriven power tube tones and harmonics the PB allows you to obtain at a tolerable dB level definetely inspire playing, no doubt about it.

In sum, if you own an all tube Marshall (or other all tube amp, I'm partial to Marshall) and don't own a Power Brake (or some other attenuator), you either (a) live in the middle of freakin' nowhere and can crank your Marshall all you want, (b) are playing large arenas and can crank your amps and don't need a PB, or (c) don't know what an attenuator is.

A 2-year old can figure this thing out!

Use it with Gibson Les Pauls with EMG-81(bridge) and 85(neck)pickups, Spinal Tap Edition Marshall Super Lead Plexi clones(they go to 11) and a vintage '69 Marshall straight front cab loaded with original Celestion Greenbacks. Doesn't affect the sound, but the amps sound GREAT when cranked up to...11 on this thing!

This thing is VERY reliable. Would I use it at a gig without a backup? Well, I NEVER go to a gig unless I have a backup head and I do carry a backup Spinal Tap Super Lead Plexi clone. However, on one of the heads I did have a problem with blowing fuses and tubes, but this turned out to be caused by the fact that the company who made the output transformer reversed the color code on the 4 and 16 ohm taps so when I though I was on the 16 ohm tap, I was actually on the 4 ohm tap. This problem has been fixed and I notified the tranny manufacturer about this. This just goes to show how important it is to make sure that your impedance selectors are set correctly when using the brake. A couple of guidelines to remember when using these:

1) Set your impedance selectors accordingly.
1 16 ohm cab - Selectors on amp and PB on 16 ohms
2 16 ohm cabs - Selectors on amp and PB on 8 ohms
1 8 ohm cab - Selectors on amp and PB on 8 ohms
DO NOT RUN 2 8 OHM CABS or 1 4 OHM CAB ON THE POWER BRAKE!!! THE LOWEST LOAD IT CAN RUN IS 8 OHMS!!!

2) USE SPEAKER CABLE!!! GUITAR CABLE CANNOT HANDLE THE POWER AND WILL FRY THE CABLE AND MOST LIKELY YOUR AMP AS WELL!!!

Do these 2 things and the power brake will be your best friend!

Never needed them!

I play top 40 classic/modern rock, and I totally dig this thing! It's like I can get album quality sounds on stage and also I cut through the mix like a knife! I used to use stompboxes but I was all muddy sounding and had a hard time cuttin' through. With this thing I not only cut through, but am not too loud and my tone now blends in with the bass and gives us a more solid sound!

Simple. If you're running a 16 ohm cab, set the impedance selector on both your amp and the Power Brake to 16 ohms, connect a SPEAKER cable(not a guitar cable guys, there is a difference)between the amp and the PB, then between the PB and the speaker cabinet.Crank the amp up and use the selector switch on the front to select the level of attenuation.

OK, I built myself a 1959 Super Lead Plexi Clone recently(looks and sounds EXACTLY like a Plexi too) and took it to one of my parts suppliers shops to show him the quality of work that I did. We put it on the bench and hooked it to his Power Brake, then hooked his natural finish Les Paul up to it. I had Winged C(formerly Svetlana)power tubes in this thing. We cranked on it and it was sounding great, until one of the power tubes shorted and blew the HT fuse. We then retubed with a quad of Winged Cs, cranked it, and it did it again 5 minutes later. Just when I was thinking that I had a tube socket arcing, we retubed again, this time with JJ EL34s, and we cranked on it for a good half hour and no shorting tubes. Now I don't know if the Winged Cs simply can't handle the cranking or if this was just a bad batch of them, but I noticed a huge difference in tone between the two tubes. I liked the JJs better since they have a fatter midrange tone. But all in all, this thing does not contribute to the sound, however it doesn't even color it so whatever you hear from this thing is how your amp sounds.

Very dependable! Haven't bought one yet but will be very soon. Now you guys who are frying trannys and tubes, STOP USING GUITAR CABLE!!! Guitar cable is shielded and has capacitance that makes it appear as a dead short at certain frequencies. Plus the hot lead of a guitar cable is not meant to handle power, just line level signals. Be sure and use the biggest speaker cable you can get your hands on. Also, be sure and properly set your impedance selectors as well. Tube amps are very picky about this. Another word of wisdom is is that anytime you run your amp hard you're gonna wear your tubes quicker and yes it is very hard on the amp. But that's the only way to get that cranked amp tone at low volumes.

When I get one I will be building another Plexi clone for my clean amp. This thing is a must have, seeing as how I play in a cover band and with this I can get the album quality rock guitar sound on stage live!

No problem in this area. It's pretty much " Plug it in, set the impeadence selector accordingly, and go with it"

It gets its power from the amps output signal.

This is a subjective area.

I thought that the PB compressed the tone of my SLP 100 a bit to much and after about 12 hours of tweaking both the amp and the PB, I just couldn't find " the sweet spot" and I returned it the next day to the store from which I purchased it.

Two years later...

I buy a Hot Plate and sonicly, life is much better.

Didn't own it long enough to make a judgment call here.

But, from most of the oppinions I have read and heard from other players, the PB is not well suited to handeling the full brunt of a fully cranked 100 watt Marshall. They seem to give up the gost, and rightly so since a 100 watt "plexi" ,at full tilt, can pump out well over 100 watts.

I've been playing for 20+ years and go for the sound of Cream, Led Zepplin, Gary Moore...etc

I think the PB deserves a fair run. It's not everyones cup of tea...but then neither is the Hot Plate. Best advice...Experimentation. Just be careful using the PB with 100 watt Marshalls at full bleed.