Marshall PB-1 Power Brake

There's not much to it. Just plug in and play. However, you have to make sure you keep track of the speaker cab impedance switch on the back. Such things are crucial when working with tube amps. I wish it had a voiced line out like some others.

People who complain about how the sound changes when lowering the volume aren't very bright. The change isn't due to the power brake, it's due to the speakers. ALL speakers sound different at different volumes, especially guitar speakers. At very low volumes, YES, you are going to loose some high frequencies. IT'S NOT THE POWER BRAKE!

Been pounding on it for 10 years, never a problem.

I play all types of music. If it were stolen, I might consider another attenuator because I'd like a line out. I use the unit with a vintage Marshall 100 watt superlead (1971 year) and a 1984 Carvin X-100 tube amp. Never a problem with either amp. I've never fried anything. And I've done hundereds (approaching 1000) gigs with it.

As for those people who say it's an amp killer, they're probably using guitar cables where they should be using speaker cables. If you use guitar cables, YES you will fry components at full volume. These people deserve what they got. Also, selecting/matching the proper speaker ohms is VERY important, on both the back of the amp and the power brake. A lot of people don't know there is a difference in the cables. (they look the same)

These fried folks don't understand that you can get away using guitar cables instead of speaker cables at low volumes. But when you crank the amp up things will burn. And these people are saying it's the power brake when it's NOT!!!!

As for my 100 watt Marshall w 4x12 greenbacks. It is virtually unusable unless I have the power brake. It is louder than thunder. There is no small or medium sized club where you can use it. There are many large clubs I can't even use it. It's just TOO LOUD! If it were not for the Power Brake, I'd probably sell it. Vintage or not.

Easy to hook up.

I was using it with my JCM 900 100-watt head, which was 1 year old, running through a 1960A cab. Guitars include an LP Classic, and SG Standard. It worked well with my boxes (Digitech Whammy, MX90 Phasor).

Worked well for 6 months.

I'm no pro, I play to amuse myself in my living room, mostly blues and southern rock. I bought this in order to be able to get some tube effect without killer volume. The amp is 1 1/2 years old...I just fried the main power fuse and apparently I've blown at least one tube...the amp is now on its way to an amp tech for analysis. Did the PowerBrake cause this? I donno. However, I won't chance it again, after the new tubes go in. I can't afford owning an AMP KILLER!

Very easy to use, one volme knob, that acts as a speaker load aswell when its in the off (silent) position. Easy to plug in.

Ok, I'm not here to have a go at anybody, but all these people who are shredding their transformers - please read this.

Firstly use 6amp speaker cable with decent quality jacks. If you use a guitar signal lead, likethe one that you plug into your guitar and amp then,

1) The lead will fry
2) You can damage your amp

(The same goes when you dont use a PB-100 and just connect a speaker cab.

Also, make sure you mathc up the impedances of the head and the cabs. If you use 1 Marshall 1960A, then its 16 ohms so selct 16 on the head and the PB-100 and plug into the 16 ohm jack socket. If you use the 1912 cab (1x12") then its 8 ohms so swith to eight ohms.

If in doubt ask at a shop or email Marshall. I havn't ever had a problem with it and i think its sounds great, don't crank up to 10 on the head, jut use your ears. The neighbours like it too.

Built like a tank, i use it for my gigs, if i t broke during a gig, id just not use it and turn down. And then buy a new one as funds don't allow me to have 2 of everything. This was second hand of ebay and it still works!

V quick, emailed them for a manual, and i got one through the post the next day and a email relpy.

Really is good, if used well (as alot of things are), if in doubt ask. (people are too impatient!) I like this peice of kit! Its really worth it to not annoy niehgbours and sound guys love it aswell.

Simple. Connect it and turn the dial.

Depends on your total setup.

This thing fries amps ... period.

In one month I fried the output transformer on both of Marhsall heads: my 59 SLP and my JCM 900.

My amp guy was absolutely horrified that I was using this thing.

Trust me ... this thing kills output transformers and they take a lifetime to get from Marshall. Thankfully I've got two heads, one is finally working.

DON'T USE IT ... DON'T BUY IT ... Unless of course you like to look at your amp rather than play through it.

It has one volume knob and an ohms selection switch. Pretty simple. I like that you have a choice of 8 or 16 ohms which comes in handy depending on whether I'm using a 4X12 or a 1X12 for smaller situations.

I use it with a Marshall JMP Mk. 2 50 watt head and either a Marshall 1X12 or 1960A cab. I used to have a JCM 800 100 watt head that I used the Power Brake on and the transformer fried on it. So my rule of thumb with this thing is 50 watts or less. I like to use the amp balls out but it's just too dang loud so with this I can roll it back a little volume wise but still get the tube fullness I like. At very low volume settings - with the amp still full - it doesn't sound very good. The fullness is there but you lose alot of presence because I suppose the speakers aren't being pushed. I'm going with a previous reviewer and not rating this category because it has no sound.

I've had it for 7 years and not had a problem.

I play pop rock. I've always had an attenuator hooked up to my amps. I used to use the Scholz Power Soak but fried some tubes with it so now I just use that with my solid state practice amp. I'd probably buy it again if I ever needed one because of the switchable ohms feature. I don't think the THD Hotplate has that though I've heard they're better sounding. I mostly chose this one because I only use Marshall and my Power Soak wasn't loving them. I figured might as well stick with Marshall products to be safe. I wish I didn't have to use it because its just one more thing to set up so I bought a Marshall 3203 Artist which has plenty of distortion on it's own. Just to try it I hooked up the Power Brake and lo & behold cranking the master on the amp added such fullness I couldn't resist so now I guess I'll use it with that, too.

Absolute piece of cake. It has one 'in' and two 'out's in case you have 2 cabs or maybe a combo and extension. One knob which controls the amount of attenuation - in other words, volume. All this does is allow you to wind your amp up under load and keep the volume down.

I have a Fender Custom Vibrasonic which is a 100W valve monster, based on the Twin with a few tweaks here and there and a 15" speaker. Which is seriously loud. It really roars when you wind it up, but it is unbearable in a confined space! This box gives you a taste of the sound; obviously it's not quite the same as you lose the sheer power and also the speaker is not working so hard, but its very good. I remember why I bought the amp now - it sounds fantastic cranked up. It is not noisy, strangely I do not seem to get the noise which usually goes with high volume. Because the Powerbrake is not itself making the sound, I'm giving 'no opinion' to the actual question - it all depends on your amp!

Looks totally bomb-proof. It's heavy, solidly made. It takes no power supply. Although it has a cooling fan, it must take its power from the amp output itself. I haven't made the fan cut in, yet, and neither has the unit got warm when I've used it. I saw another review which expressed doubts about its reliability. There are a few possible areas for danger - you should not use it below an 8 ohm load, also you didn't ought to use ordinary patch leads for this. I did read somewhere once that you must use proper speaker leads between an amp and speakers, something to do with capacitance on screened leads causing a danger to the amp. Marshall did not supply any leads and I am going to have to make some up, either with proper speaker cable, or mains lead. Possibly, an earlier design fault may have been sorted out in newer models - I really don't know.

Never dealt with them

This is simple piece of kit. A dealer in Birmingham is knowcking them out at #99 - this one is a white limited edition end of line model. I suppose it would be nice if it had either a speaker emulator or a DI output. That way it would cover another base. For me, it is an ideal way of making a vintage or vintage-style (like mine) non master volume amp that bit more versatile. I use it with both a Fender Strat (Texas Specials)and a modern Rickenbacker 360/12. Sounds are rock, country and blues. However, it is a simple idea but if your amp sounds crap, this will make it sound crap more quietly. I can't see any point in using it with a solid-state amp, either.

This is a speaker attenuator by Marshall. Very easy to use. The unit has a rotary knob in the front panel that adjusts the level of attenuation in 3 dB steps. There are 11 steps on the knob, with the 12th step being a dummy load for the amp. In the back panel you have a input jack and two speaker outputs, as well as a speaker impedance selector (8 or 16 ohm). The unit has an induction device attached a fan, which, when driven hard, serves to cool the unit. It's very cool to see it working. Also, the unit must have some sort of preset equalization curve, because the more the attenuation, the more high frequencies are rolled off. I guess I don't have enough experience with Marshall amps set "on ten" to know if this is what happens in real life or not.

I use the unit with several Marshall amps. The first one I'd like to talk about is my Marshall 1987X plexi reissue head. When I max out the high treble channel (top left input), a couple of things happen. First, the low end just becomes mush, which forces me to turn the mid and bass controls to zero. Then, there is a buzzy, non-musical fizzle tone in the bass frequencies when I hit bar chords that include the low E string. This buzziness decreses slightly when I change cabinets from Celestions to EV's. Go figure. I have to tell you, when I tried this set up at the store, I almost didn't buy the unit. Frankly, It sucked, and I thought, there goes Marshall, putting out another piece of crap. But then I tried it with a JCM 900 4500 amp and the tone improved remarkably. I then realised that by actually BACKING off the master volume and decreasing the attenuation on the PB-1, the tone actually improved, with almost no loss of sustain or overdrive. So much for that myth of setting everything on ten on your Marshall! Although I still think that Marshall amps need a certain amount of volume to sound good. At low volumes, without a boost overdrive pedal, most Marshalls sound like dog crap, unlike Boogies, that sound much better at neighbor-friendly volumes. At the same time, although they sustain well, Boogies don't have that Marshall-Crunch tone that you hear on so many records, and that is SO HARD to get on your own Marshall! Why can't all Marshalls sound like the plexi Eddie Van Halen used on his first record? Or Clapton's old Cream-era stacks? That's why Marshalls sometime can be frustating to deal with! I then went back to try the plexi head with this lower setting, and the tone improved; the low frequency buzzing was still there though, and I kept the mid and bass knobs on zero. I'm still trying to figure this one out. My advise to anybody trying this unit is to set the Master volume in your amp and the attenuation knob in the PB-1 halfway up, and work from there. The less attenuation, the more bite your sound will have; the more attenuation, your sound will be more compressed and mushed. And remember, you don't need to set your master volume at ten to get the best sound.

I haven't had it long enough to make a judgement.

Never had to deal with them. When I retube my Marshalls I use Boogie tubes, and they sound great.

It is a good device overall. You just have to tweak it a little with your amp. The unit does give a little more compression that help out when playing lead guitar. It won't improve the sound of your amp, though, so make sure you have a good one before using this unit. If you have piece of crap, the unit will make sound like a LOUDER piece of crap. Happy Tweaking! By the way, if anybody high-up in the Marshall factory reads this: Here is some constructive criticism from a long time customer.... Why don't you guys just put out an amp that will get you the elusive Van Halen/ Gary Moore tone that EVERYBODY is looking for ? In my opinion, you guys haven't done it since the late 70's/early 80's. The 900 series, as well as it sounds, does not have that tone. The JMP series was great. The 800 series is where you guys started straying form the formula! If you have to price it at 2500$, thats all right. If it is done right, believe me, people will buy them!! The guys at Bogner are doing just this, successfully, and their amps have that elusive crunch tone that everybody looks for in YOUR newer amps but it's not there. Just quit resting on your laurels and give discerning players what they want! You guys have the technology and know how to do it!