THD Hotplate Attenuator (4 Ohm)

Incredibly easy to use and get good sound out of. Less is more. I give it a 9 only because it would be nice to have volume tapering on ALL settings, not just the -16db... but I can deal with that. At first when I plugged it in it was so no frills that I was bored with it and wondering if I'd just blown $330 on a glorified volume box, but a few hours later something in my mind clicked and I had an "ah HA!" moment where I realized you have to tweak it AS WELL AS YOUR AMP to find the sweet spot, especially if you've never been able to crank your amp to hear what it's fully capable of like in my case. Once I gained an understanding for that and readjusted my amp/OD pedal settings, suddenly the $330 was justified.

One of the best gear investments I've made in ages. I could have cared less about something like this 10 years ago, but now that I'm older and understanding the whole tube amp thing a bit better, I can't see how I've made it this far without one of these.

I play mainly Gretsch guitars thru a Fender Hot Rod Deville 2x12 which is an incredibly sensitive and hard to dial in amp (without playing at ear-ringing volumes). Without the Hotplate: My Deville has an incredibly awesome clean channel, and a crappy dirt channel. Those amps are known for that. With the Hotplate: the dirt channel still sucks (hey, it can't fix everything) but it has brought completely new dimensions and responsiveness to my "clean" channel that I wouldn't have known existed otherwise, mainly because even at band practice I can't turn the amp volume up above 2-3 without the drummer breaking sticks. Now I set the Hotplate switch to -16db and can now turn my Deville's clean channel up to 4-5, where it's still clean but the tubes start breaking up if I pick hard enough, and it sounds beautiful. When I need some dirt I hit the switch on my distortion pedal (currently an MI Audio Crunch Box) to send the amp into high gain bliss.

I don't really try to sound like anyone else. I use two primary sounds: a clean, yet broken up if picked hard enough sound, and then a high gain "Marshall" sound. Within a few minutes of tweaking the Hotplate (combined with my Crunch Box) it delivered the goods and then some. Very low noise/hiss.

I haven't really gigged much with it but based on other reviews I have nothing to worry about.

Called them once to confirm I bought the right one for my amp. I talked to a human right away, he looked up the schematics of the Deville, and told me which one to buy. Major bonus points for not having to sit and listen to a bunch of menus or leave a voicemail. Within 5 minutes of dialing their number I had my answer and was off to order the thing.

I play surf/jazz/metal/instrumental King Crimson meets Stray Cats meets Primus kind of stuff. Been playing for 25 years and after a 10 year hiatus from tube amps bought a Deville on a whim. I read about attenuators and am incredibly thankful I decided to spend the money on one of these. I was apprehensive and ready to pick up one of the homemade jobs off Ebay for half the price, but decided to bite the bullet and buy a Hotplate due to it having more features. It's well worth it. My only complaint as mentioned is not being able to adjust the volume taper on settings outside of -16db. If this was possible, I'd give it a 10, but will take away 1 point for that. It's definitely making me play more, I can't believe how good my amp sounds at reasonable volumes now. The "Bright" and "Deep" switches are a major help in that area... definitely makes the amp sound more full and lush. Thanks THD!

Very easyt to use, BUT you have to know what impedance the amp output is. I have a Carvin MTS3212, and it has two speaker output jacks that are (I checked) wired in parallel.

The manual is straightforward, but a little lacking...I had to check with the techs there because as I mentioned, I have two out, I use one of them direct into the HotPlate, then I configure the selector to 4 Ohms. On my amp this also handles 2 Ohms but you cannot assume that. You DO have to know what you are doing with this, to avoid damage to the amp.

I researched this plenty , redeaing reviews, write-ups, User reviews here and other places about this HotPlate, as well as the Marshall, the Dr. Z, Power Brake and was amazed at the range of opinions on virtually all attenuator types. I cannot say if this is better or worse since after reading as much as I could, judging by cost/weight/features/ease-of-use I decided to try this one. The others may be as good or better, but I am really, really satisfied.

It SHINES. I was worried about it "sucking tone" but in my opinion it doesn't. Or better put, the tone changes, it HAS to when the speakers aren't moving as much air and distance, but you can easily "make up" the tone again by adjusting the amp.

I LOVE the treble and bass makeup switches...they affect in all ranges of attenuation, and produce on my rig a very SRV type of sound. I am considering using this as an effect :-), really though...it sounds great. It lets me drive the tubes a bit on my 100/50watt amp without getting the police at the door...I will use it a lot for recording. I took it to band practice and found I really didn't need to use it....my amp has a clean sound a lot like Fender's that doesn't break up all that much and an OD channel, but it WAS nice to be able to just notch everything down 4 or 8 db with a flick of the knob. At home, til now, I have been playing in that little range between 0-1.5 on the volume...it isn't really stable either, some days it is loud some days too soft. But with this I am up in the "normal" playing range.

I will always take this with to gigs, because I am sure it will come in handy when a sound-man wants me to turn down.

This is exactly what I needed though to be able to experiment. One word of warning...you really do learn about the logorithmic properties of DB with this in that at lower levels I don't hear much difference til I get down to the 2nd to last or last (the one setting where the trimpot affects it and you can dial the volume from there down to totally silent) before I notice a change. However at higher levels, you notice it more. I'm getting at, when you first get it, if you expected to turn a 100W amp down to "bedroom levels" you gotta go to the last setting...or trn down the amp of course.

This is jus the thing for me.

As oten happens here...don't know yet. Seems solid and all.

I called a tech, he had a heavy German accent and he was GREAT...we gabbed about attenuators and sound and tone, he answered all I needed to be sure about (that I can use the 4 ohm with my cabinet when I plug in the two 8 ohm, one is the combo speakers, the other is a 2x12 bottom...because it is actually then an amp that is seeign 2 ohms, into the HotPlate into the two sets of speakers for a total of 2 Ohms. I can also use it as intended, with the HotPlate in between the amp out and the combo speakers (4 Ohm) alone.

Anyway, they were excellent about responding...I called from FLorida, and they called me back the same day!

Guitars- American Strat/Telecaster/Gibson ES-335
Effects- Changes every time...includes Digitech Screamin blues (EXCELLENT and CHEAP), digitech RP-7 multi-pedal, various stomp boxes----all into a Carvin MTS 3212 Combo with sometimes using 2x12 cabinet also.

I play every style just about, but lately in a blues/soul band.

I think it is one of the best purchases I've made. It really works as it should and as I had hoped.

If you know what it's intended to do (not everyone does), then it's dead easy to use.

Easy to get a good sound on the first two attenuation levels. But use any more attenuation than that and it starts to sound weird, because your speakers aren't loading up.

Fender Jazzmasters-->MXR distortion+-->Boss volume pedal-->Fulltone tremelo-->Guyatone phaser-->Ibanez DM1100 digital delay-->1969 MARSHALL 100W SUPER LEAD-->THD hotplate-->Marshall reissue 1960TV 4x12 cabinet with 70W celestions.

The hotplate is never totally transparent, because it's attenuating the volume going to the speakers, which makes the speakers react differently the lower you go. So, ironically, I don't use the thing for recording.. only for rehearsal and live performance, and only to take the painful edge off my vintage Marshall and to allow the other members of the band to be heard.

One thing that happens with my setup the more I attenuate the signal is that the TV cab starts throwing proportionally less and less bass. I don't think this is the hotplate's fault. I think it's because the speakers aren't being loaded up in the same way. The more loaded up the speakers are, I think, the darker the sound. When they're doing all kinds of shit it just becomes more difficult for them to reproduce the higher frequencies. Anyway, with the way I use it, it's handy to have the little low-end switch on the hotplate. I flip that and it sounds more like the amp would straight. I don't use the high-end switch unless I'm trying to get a weird super-bright sound.

Normally in rehearsal, and ideally on stage, I turn the hotplate to the first level of attenuation. That takes enough of the edge off that the other members' instruments can be heard and so people don't leave the club. Some people will still say it's too loud, though. Especially sound engineers. In that case, I'll back it off one more.

Each jump is actually really huge with my amp for some reason. This thing could certainly use more incremental settings. Sometimes the difference between the second and third levels seems so huge that I'm not totally happy. But the truth is, I'm never totally happy turning it lower than the first level anyway, so whatever.

Totally bulletproof so far (2 years). I can't gig without it because my amp is too loud. I don't have a backup and that scares me a bit.

I think I called them once and they were really informative and totally cool.

I play super-saturated guitar rock, and I'm totally in love with the Marshall 100W sound. I MUST have power tube distortion in order to play what I play.. chords with a fair share of tensions and melodic stuff going on over the top. Pure preamp distortion (classically via Mesa Boogie or, God forfend, some hideous modeling amp) doesn't work for me at all. For the loud bits, I have to have my Marshall and it must be turned up all the way. I use a volume pedal to go from clean to total distortion. My distortion box is only for total screaming feedback or ultrasaturated bits. This thing makes that all work in a way that's liveable for my bandmates & fans.

I do wish the hotplate had finer increments in the attenuation steps. As in, split the first three settings up into six. That would be better for me.

My band is called Richard Bitch http://www.richardbitch.com

If you know what it's intended to do (not everyone does), then it's dead easy to use.

Easy to get a good sound on the first two attenuation levels. But use any more attenuation than that and it starts to sound weird, because your speakers aren't loading up.

Fender Jazzmasters-->MXR distortion+-->Boss volume pedal-->Fulltone tremelo-->Guyatone phaser-->Ibanez DM1100 digital delay-->1969 MARSHALL 100W SUPER LEAD-->THD hotplate-->Marshall reissue 1960TV 4x12 cabinet with 70W celestions.

The hotplate is never totally transparent, because it's attenuating the volume going to the speakers, which makes the speakers react differently the lower you go. So, ironically, I don't use the thing for recording.. only for rehearsal and live performance, and only to take the painful edge off my vintage Marshall and to allow the other members of the band to be heard.

One thing that happens with my setup the more I attenuate the signal is that the TV cab starts throwing proportionally less and less bass. I don't think this is the hotplate's fault. I think it's because the speakers aren't being loaded up in the same way. The more loaded up the speakers are, I think, the darker the sound. When they're doing all kinds of shit it just becomes more difficult for them to reproduce the higher frequencies. Anyway, with the way I use it, it's handy to have the little low-end switch on the hotplate. I flip that and it sounds more like the amp would straight. I don't use the high-end switch unless I'm trying to get a weird super-bright sound.

Normally in rehearsal, and ideally on stage, I turn the hotplate to the first level of attenuation. That takes enough of the edge off that the other members' instruments can be heard and so people don't leave the club. Some people will still say it's too loud, though. Especially sound engineers. In that case, I'll back it off one more.

Each jump is actually really huge with my amp for some reason. This thing could certainly use more incremental settings. Sometimes the difference between the second and third levels seems so huge that I'm not totally happy. But the truth is, I'm never totally happy turning it lower than the first level anyway, so whatever.

Totally bulletproof so far (2 years). I can't gig without it because my amp is too loud. I don't have a backup and that scares me a bit.

I think I called them once and they were really informative and totally cool.

I play super-saturated guitar rock, and I'm totally in love with the Marshall 100W sound. I MUST have power tube distortion in order to play what I play.. chords with a fair share of tensions and melodic stuff going on over the top. Pure preamp distortion (classically via Mesa Boogie or, God forfend, some hideous modeling amp) doesn't work for me at all. For the loud bits, I have to have my Marshall and it must be turned up all the way. I use a volume pedal to go from clean to total distortion. My distortion box is only for total screaming feedback or ultrasaturated bits. This thing makes that all work in a way that's liveable for my bandmates & fans.

I do wish the hotplate had finer increments in the attenuation steps. As in, split the first three settings up into six. That would be better for me.

My band is called Richard Bitch http://www.richardbitch.com

Sounds alright at the -16dB level. Real nice anywhere above that. The speakers get sort of a fuzz at highly attenuated settings. You get that nice smooth classic tone at slightly higher than bedroom levels. The bright and low bypass switches help a bit, but I like to feel the amp vibrate my body. To me, it can sound very 'Voxy' when set to -16.

Made to attenuate 2 parallel 8 ohm speakers when using a high powered head...duh

Yeah, is made out of solid aluminum and a small circuit board...nothing to go wrong there

The guys at THD are awesome. Just give them a call.

I love this thing. It tames my Rivera Knucklehead nicely. I love having my amp consistently at 6-7 on the master and gain controls and watching the little light sparkle as it dissapates the completely unnecessary power :)

Doesn't get any easier. It's basically just a volume knob.

ie the sound of my amp at low volumes is now a 10. By low volumes I mean sending a few watts to the actual speaker. You still need to send enough oomph to the speakers to get them to move otherwize you get a very "fizzy" sound.

I use the amp for all my tone. I don't know if you get the same impact if you use distortion pedals and the amp is just amplifying that signal. I think this product is just for when what you really want is the tone of the amp when it is cranked.

As yet no problems.

Don't know yet.

If you like your valve amp lound then get the same feeling at lower levels with this product. If you HATE your amp and use distortion units for your sound then don't waste your time with this product.

I think that the deep and bright functions are very hard to use - they colour the tone way to much.

Vintage strats => Teese Picture Wah => TS-808 => Blackface amps or Dumble clones.

At 10db (or more) damping the THD totally suck the glassy tone. I could imagine it would be OK for more distorted sounds... but with the glassy tones from a Blackface as your main sound, the THD takes away the that sparkle and magic that is the heart of the amp.

When i set the TS-808 as: drive 12 o'clock, tone 3, level 3 it sounds OK but at cleaner settings it all falls to the ground.

Well, the line out didn't work when I got it...

It was ment to use with my blackfaces/dumble clons to get that SRV kind'a sound... but as mentioned it sucks the glassy tone which makes it a bad mach.

But with more drive from the TS-808 (Think of KWS sound) it gets better.

Plug it in. Turn it up. Cook them bottles and have a conversation over it. It's great. Easy to use. The manual is 4 pages. 'nuff said.

I play in a 3 piece, all covers, everything from Marvin Gaye to Black Sabbath( we do a medley!) and Bob Marley to Sublime and Tom Jones and Jack Johnson to Johnny Cash. I also use, will always use and have always used a Boss ME6. They're cheap now, Sound great analog-wise and have patches I need to be there being lead vocalist. I can't do the stomp dance whiile trying to sing something.

I thought it sounded great. You know, I may not know good tone when I hear it, but you don't need to be a veternarian to know a horse's ass when you smell one either. I know what sounds good to me, and through my 68 bassman head and Marshall 4X10 cab wired to 4 ohms, it sounds better than ever to me. Because I can drive the tubes without giving the guy in the front row a haircut, it's got us some very good paying gigs, where otherwise we'd have been too loud. Sounds great. No tone loss. Whatever.

Built ike a tank. Solid, toss it in my gig bag. Integral part of my live rig now. Can't wait to record with it.

Now this is where I was very impressed. Called up to THD to ask how to plug in this thing (speaker or instrument cables) and Andy Marshall answered the phone. He said it was just him and the dog. He elt everyone go for a long weekend. Anyway, we jib-jabbed about Dread Zeppelin (he's a fan, my drummer and bassplayer are in DZ) and liked my amp setup. He was very helpful, was concerned about my treatment at the place I bought it, and was just plain ol' cool about it. His amps look interesting. I'll be trying one out soon.

Does what it says. Sounds great. Polite concerned people at the company. They're tops in my book and I'll buy more THD in the future.

Mike G.
www.GreenNatives.com

setup was very simple in my case, amp head to input, output to speaker cab. It has other applications using the line out on the back, but they are all very straightforward.

I am playing a custom-built class A 30 watt el-84 amp and I want the power tubes to overdrive. The hotplate doesn't seem to disturb that tone until you put it on -16 decibels or below. At that point it just sounds like a trashy stompbox. You can compensate somewhat with the bass and highs switches. BUt the point is, when it's that quiet, the amp has no tone to speak of either, so it's not like I'm losing anything. The more realistic applications are on -12 DB for bedroom playing, and maybe -4 DB for playing in a band.... and it sounds terriffic at those settings. One feature that is advertised is that it acts as a noise suppressor or gate, and it doesn't really... it just makes whatever there quieter in proportion to the setting. Overall, I am very pleased. I think it does what it claims, and it is only dissapointing on its quietest setting, which is no big loss. And i don't feel like I need my tubescreamer anymore - I used it to overdrive the amp like a Fat Boost, but now I turn the amp up all the way and get that same sound without the pedal. So that was nice.

I just got it.

I've had gear-lust for about 5 years now. I had an awesome rack (triaxis and Lexicon G2) and then I moved to Nashville for grad school, went to a greasy club and saw one of the best guitarists I have ever seen play through a little 10 watt ampeg with 2 or three little pedals and I realized that I would be embarrassed to show up with that huge rack, given my level of play. So I have become obsessed with boutique vibey stuff that doesn't seem so pretentious (even if it is). So I feel like I know a thing or two about tone, and the hotplate makes power amp tone accessible to those of us with a spouse, kids, neighbors, eardrums..... I recommend it. There really is a thrill when the EL-84s start to cook.

If you are investing in this unit, then no doubt you have researched it and know what it does; in that light, the unit's controls are self-explanatory. Plug in, set volume, and play your amp till it's dead!

I use this with a Dr. Z KT-45. Some people may ask, "Why would you want a hotplate for that amp!?" Simply, the answer is, I wanted to hear it. The unit is noiseless, and has no tone coloration. The bright and deep switches are very cool for a little boost on both ends; personally, I don't use them, but it's nice to know they are there. Effects wise, I use none; I do however use a B.K. Tube Driver and let me tell you, with this amp and my Les Paul, that's the tone!! The sound you get is strictly dependent on what amp you are using it with. A little F.Y.I., the fellas at THD assured me I could use my 4-ohm hotplate on 1 8-ohm cabinet as long I was still using a 4-ohm head, but they said it would not be as loud. However, on the other hand, when using both speaker outs, it is necessary to use 2-8 ohm cabs so as to equal the load being split, which is 4. This math applies to all other models. It's great for the home/studio/live mic'd applications.

THD is still what I would consider to be a small, reliable company. I wouldn't worry about this thing because of THD's reputation, and the fact that I am not exceeding any of the unit's limits. I've been using it for a month now, solid, every day, no problems.

I haven't had to deal w/ THD, however, when I asked them questions, they were quick on the trigger.

The sound you hear is strictly dependent on what amp you're using it with, period. It is most definitely replaceable!!! I went with this over Marshall Powerbrake because I've read horror stories about how THEY burn up transformers. Great product!

The hotplate is quite easy to use. The smaller the manual the easier
to use.

Where I come from, Austria/Europe, Hotplates - especially used ones -are like natural pearls - quite difficult to find. The Hotplate is still an insider's choice herearound. (I've got mine on the US-"Ebay". Check it, my nickname is "triplecaster"). Concerning its sound-quality all other so called power-soaks, power brakes a.s.o aren't comparable to the Hotplate. For example: Before I bought the Hotplate I had tried my '70 Marshall Super Bass w. rewired '76 Hiwatt 4x12" Fane speaker cabinet through a Tom Scholz Power Soak and Marshall's Power Brake... and really was disappointed (played guitars: Gibson Korina V FF-82, Fender Strat '56 Relic, '78 Fender Tele w/Joe Barden neck-PU and SD Tele "Hotrail" in the bridge-position). The bright ringing tones that especially a Strat can deliver, seemed to be cut off by them. (bad for any traditional "zero compromise sound" of cutting purists like J. Vaughan whom I like most)On the contrary the Hotplate, equipped with "bright" and "deep" switch, is delivering the original sound 1:1, naturally overdriven AND still bright. I am sure that the Hotplate is not only designed to provide overdriven sounds by glowing tubes without risking a hole in your eardrums...another nice combination is to use it together with vintage overdrive effects. I've tried the Hotplate with a clean-to-the-bone Fender Dual Professional, volume up to 7-8, and added an old green Ibanez Overdrive II. Such combinations (together with OD 855, TS 808, TS 9/10 etc.) will make your speakers asking for mercy.

Beautiful like a celeb, built like a tank.

With respect to customer service, many other producers could/should learn some lessons from THD. My Hotplate, just arrivced from the States had suffered as a result of the rigid U.S. customs security checks. The result: a broken "bright"-switch. Although I would have got any replacement switch herearound I wanted an original replacement part. So I contacted THD to ask if there is such an original replacement part available. Honestly said I expected
that the THD-people from overseas would recommend to contact the nearest European distributor instead of them. Really would have understood this. But, I was totally suprised and couldn't believe that the kind THD-contact person, Mr. Ed DeGenaro, offered to send me the original replacement switch without hesitation. He didn't ask where I bought it, why the switch broke, if the Hotplate was used or new or whatever. He didn't ask much - he did help!! Only a small switch but I won't forget that!

(If Bo Derek was evaluated as a "10", the Hotplate should get a "11".)
Although it's quite expensive the Hotplate offers excellent value. And if you want to sell it after some years it still will bring you good money again. If you don't believe - try to find a cheap one on the 2nd hand market!...

Simple.

I tried this 4 ohm version with 3 of my amps - Victoria Double Deluxe (2 12" Jensen RI), Victoria Bassman (4 10" Jensen Alnico RI), Marshall DSL 100 (2x12" Marshall cab w/ RI Greenbacks wired to 4 ohms. It was transparent on the DD and the Marshall, and it actually enhanced the Bassman due to the ohm mismatch. Whenever you use an attenuator, remember that speaker distortion generally goes away. Thus, when I say it is transparent, I'm referring to the sound of the overdriven tubes. the bass switch and the bright switch came in handy at attenuation below 4db. Noise reduction was transparent as well.

With the exception of 3 mini toggles, you could probably run over this thing with a truck and it wouldn't effect it. It would still work even with the toggles broken.

I called Andy about using it with the mismatched impedence in the Bassman. He was VERY conversational and genuinely appreciative of his customers. He told me about his new amp debuting at NAMM '01. Watch out for this sucker because it sounds like a KILLER design. I also want to put in a plug for Jim at Guitar Ressurection in Austin. He's a great dealer and very knowledgable about THD products. He shipped on the same day as the order. He also had the best prices I could find.

I play anything but what is misnamed "metal" today. It is an essential piece of gear for any amp without a master volume - it responds well at clean, edge of clip, or saturated tube distortion. For the Marshall DSL 100, it is useful if you're after a plexi Angus sound at volumes that won't kill small children at 100 paces. The Hotplate works much better than my Marshall Powerbrake does. If you're out to get one amp, grab your favorite non-master volume 30 to 100 watter, get one of these and a Klon or a Fulldrive 2, and make your friends jealous when they hear what real tone is. If it was stolen I'd replace it in a heartbeat.