THD Hotplate Attenuator (8 Ohm)

Very Easy to use....just connect the speaker output on the amplifier to the input on the Hot Plate using a speaker cable and then connect speaker output 1 or 2 of the Hot Plate to the speaker cabinet using another speaker cable.

I am using this with a Marshall DSL 50 watt head into a 2x12 Marshall 1936 cab.
The unit does not create any additional unwanted "noise".
The Hotplate does exactly what it's supposed to do. I use the 8 and 12 db settings the most and they allow me to get the tone that normally would require me to turn my amp volume up to 6 or higher which is just too loud for normal use.
The Bright and Deep switches work well and I use them both. The more you attenuate the more useful they are.
One note - when you use the 16 db setting, the sound quality suffers a bit but may be a reasonable trade-off if you are in an apartment or for late night playing/recording.

I just got it but it seems to be built solidly.

I called them with several questions before I purchased it and they were always available and answered my questions.

I play Rock, Metal and Blues and this is a great practical addition to my equipment. I would recommend the Hotplate to anyone who has a tube amp. Fact: In order for tube amps to sound their best, especially Marshalls, they need to be cranked with the volume turned up. Again, the Hotplate allows you to that "cranked" tone at reasonable levels.

I bought a brand new THD 8 ohm hot plate to see if it would have any positive effects for using with my Almost new and fully checked out Ashdown Fallen Angel Amplifier running in to my 8 ohm Mesa rectifier 4x12 cab with Celestion vintage 30's

It did not come with any instructions or manual of any kind.

The amp and cab settings where 8 ohms and the units are not switchable so it would be impossible for me to set it to an incorrect ohm setting.

So while it should have been very straight forward and simple to use it turned out not to be.

I had plugged this unit in to my amp and was playing through it, as it turned out the sound was diminished in volume but with no improvement in sound. The master volume built in to the amp is all that is needed to use it with the gain and volumes of the channels cranked as high as one likes and the sound is not noticeably different then when playing it with the master volume up louder. It simply is louder, with the THD hotplate it cut the volume but had no other effect. It was worthless.
That is not the bad part though. I had been watching the VU meter of the amp to see how much power I was running through the unit while I was trying it out, however I did not notice during the 5 minutes I was using this unit that the tubes in my amp were overheating to the point where they were glowing orange and starting to smoke. I shut down the amp immediately and now the amp does not work at all. I will need to have it diagnosed and retubed at what cost I do not know yet.

In retrospect the amps master volume works perfectly and there is no advantage or need for any attenuator. It seemed to be a reasonable thing to try out the THD to see if it would make playing at lower volumes to have any advantage, as it turns out it did not sound better and damage my amp.

The thing was brand new and took 5 minutes to severely damage a new and expensive amplifier. I would never try this again.

I was obviously quite upset that this had happened to my amp. THD is located in the area I live in (Seattle) I sent them an email immediately after this had happened asking them what they would like me to do as far as taking the THD unit and my amp to find out what went wrong. I left all sorts of contact information and sent them my issue through their tech support method. THEY DID NOT EVEN BOTHER TO REPLY TO MY ISSUE! I GOT NO RESPONSE WHATSOEVER! THEY COULD OBVIOUSLY CARE LESS THAT THEIR PRODUCT HAD DAMAGED A VERY EXPENSIVE HALF STACK, I HAVE NEVER HAD A WORSE EXPERIENCE INCLUDING NOT HEARING ANY REPLY FROM THE COMPANY AFTER THIS HAPPENED. IN MY OPINION THIS COMPANY HAS ZERO INTEGRITY AND I WOULD NEVER SUGGEST ANYONE EVER BUY ANY PRODUCT MADE BY THIS COMPANY. THERE IS NOTHING WORSE THAN HAVING A COMPANIES PRODUCT MALFUNCTION AND THEN IGNORE THE SITUATION THAT THEIR PRODUCT HAD PUT THEIR CUSTOMER IN TO. NO REPLY OF ANY SORT. I DONT KNOW HOW MUCH WORSE IT CAN GET THAN HAVING A CUSTOMERS EQUIPMENT DAMAGED BY YOUR PRODUCT AND THEN SIMPLY IGNORING THEM LIKE THD DID TO ME. BOTH THE PRODUCT AND THE COMPANY THAT MADE IT HAVE LEFT ME WITH A DAMAGED EXPENSIVE AMPLIFIER AND COULD OBVIOUSLY CARE LESS. I DONT KNOW YET HOW MUCH IT IS GOING TO COST ME TO REPAIR MY EQUIPMENT BY USING A THD PRODUCT, BUT THEY CERTAINLY DONT CARE. I GOT MY MONEY BACK FROM GUITAR CENTER WHERE I PURCHASE THE THD HOTPLATE BUT I AM LEFT WITH HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS OF DAMAGE CAUSED BY THE THD HOTPLATE AND THEIR LACK OF DESIRE TO INVESTIGATE THIS AT ALL.

Obviously I could not recommend any THD product to anyone, it is one thing to have a product malfunction, it is another for the company to ignore this when it happens. I was upset that my expensive nice amp rig was damaged but was outraged when THD refused to reply to my contacts asking them where they would like me to take the amp and THD product to have them diagnosed to find out what happened.

I have had issues with product I have purchased before and almost all of the companies have promptly addressed the problems and had me take them to service centers to investigate and decide what the issue was, even when I have not had the company consider the issue covered under warranty at least they acted quickly and made the effort.

It is inexcusable to ignore a customer that has purchased a brand new product from their company, had a major malfunction and then totally ignore the customer as THD has.

Every other company I have dealt with have either been outstanding or at the worst acceptable...except for THD.

very easy to use - straight forward,but brief user manual. -16 db setting is a bit anemic, but has a place for quieter practice sessions.

using this with fender amer. strat fitted with texas specials and gibson les paul. No more noise than without unit. Hot rod deluxe amp. nice way to get the overdriven amp sound without the ear spltting volume. A real must for anyone playing at home with a need to light up the tubes without killing the neighbors. I can finally get the sound I want without trying to muffle my amp.

very simple, rugged design. I am not a gigging musician, but can't imagine why you would need a backup in any gigging environment, there doesn't seem to be anything "fragile" about the unit. The only thing that might cause damage would be misuse(amp that is not compatible?)

no experience

I have had opps. to play through different models of thd hotplate and found them all to work for their intended purpose. Unit is a bit price prohibitive, it took me awhile to part with the money for it, but for the sound quality that it enables at lower volumes its worth saving for. I play blues and classic rock and a warm overdriven tube amp sound is essential, no effect pedal can make up for it - only enhance it. I highly reccomend this to anyone trying to get that tube sound without sustaining hearing loss!! Buy this before the distortion and over drive pedals, then decide what will really help your sound beyond real classic tube breakup and distortion.

The hotplate is real easy to use just follow the instructions,and you're ready to go.

I use the hotplate with a 1980 Hiwatt bulldog, these amps are not like other Hiwatt amps. Yes, you can get clean shimmering tones by turning down the guitar volume,but the bulldog is made to distort and get super mean.... and ungodly loud for 50 watts. The Hotplate saves my ears, by backing off 2 clicks on it the Hiwatt is tamed enough for practice, and playing any guitar with p90 pickups,well the combo is unbeatable.When you back off another click or 2 on the HP the sound does become more compressed and thus suffers a bit, but like I said,this amp is made to kill, not sit in a bedroom.

I had a power soak back in the 80's that I used with a Hiwatt stack, I believe it fried the amp. As was the end result of many amps that used these early model attenuators. But with tech advancements the hotplate has been working well for over a year. In fact my friend just bought a 16 om version for his marshall superlead 100, after testing mine out. Over all these things are built to last.

I have never had to deal with THD but I know they have a solid rep.

I have been playing over 30 years, mostly hard rock / punk rock and some heavy blues. I have always played Hiwatts but do own a Vox ac50 cph, and a fender princeton 65. Neither need the HP due to the fact that both have a master volume control. But if the HP were stolen, I would get another one, although they are expensive... I bought mine for $300.00 a year ago, and my friend just recently paid $348.00 for his. I am giving it an overall rating of 8 soley because of the price.

This unit is pretty strait forward, in terms of use. the only thing worth going over is that you MUST use speaker cables, not instument cables.

From my experience with this product (1.5 years) it does what it is suppose to although, if you are planning on using it with you 70's 100 watt Marshall you may be disappointed. I use the HP with a Gibson SG Standard, and a Epiphone Les Paul into a Peavey VK212 100 watt, and an Epiphone VJ Half Stack with great results. With this i'm able to get closer to the sound of many of my idols, such as Angus Young, JImmy Page EVH,Andrew Stockdale, and Robin Trower because there sound is the effect of power tube saturation. The highest i can get on the VK before the sound gets mushy is about 1:00. After that point the sound is as i said mushy and many notes become undefined. But with the VJ i can go all of the way up without a bad sound. I feel that the tone switches do there job, especially the one that adjustes the higher freq. I have used the line out with good results also.

For about 15 gigs and a year and a half of abuse it stands up really well. I use it without backup constantly.

never had to deal with them

I really like this product for all it does. the only bad tones come out when you go to -16db and below (the load setting works well on quiet stages). the only thing i wish it had is an impedance switch (like the bad cat leash, check it out).

Not a whole lot to it. you run it between your amp and the speakers, and basically adjust the DB you want reduced. the reason I rate it a 7 is because some people believe that you will be able to crank an amp and get perfectly good tones at bedroom levels with no coloration of tone, and that is simply not the case. This product will let you drive the heck out of your power amp, but a good part of sound is the air being pushed, and if you are actually reducing the volume, not as much air gets pushed. Control wise, not a whole lot to it basically one knob, unless you use -16 Db, then you have a fine tune knob.

I play Epiphone Les Pauls with EMG 81-89, and an ESP MH series, into a Mesa Single Rectifier Solo Head and Mesa 4x12 straight Cab. Mesas are known for their brutal distortion, but many people go wrong believing that this sound is achieved in the pramp. Mesas need to have the power amp cranked and the gain backed off of to get a nice tight metal sound (metallica ish if you will) So the Hotplate allowed me to crank the power amp to 2:00 when normally i could not get past 9:00 without having everyone at practice complain. There is a small bit of coloration in the tone, but anything you run anywhere will color the signal. Has a bright and deep switch, found them useful if you are going to try it at lower than practice volumes, helps compensate for tonal coloration. At higher volumes I think the bright switch alone sounds very good through my amp.

Haven't had it for too long, but it seems to be built pretty solid, no power issues I can think of, because it does not plug into anything. I would probably be able to go without having a back up because I don't see how that thing could fail.

never dealt with them.

I play a lot of Metallica, BLS, Ozzy, Megadeth, Pantera style music, although I rarely play any of their songs, their style influences me, so naturally your music sounds a little bit like them. I am able to finally acheive the tone (for now) I have been trying to get out of this rectifier for a year now. Its worth the tubes that you will go through. I bought this because I heard it was the common way to go and for once joining the bandwagon worked out pretty good. Definately worth the price I paid.

Couldn't be much simpler really. Amp>hotplate>speaker. Set the attenuation level, decide if you want to switch either of the pre-set EQ functions in, set your amp up to sound good.

I use this primarily with a MIA strat, Maton JB6 (SG type of guitar)and I have played loads of other guitars through it from pointy headed deliverers of death metal to jazzers. I have principaly used it to control a Mesa Boogie Nomad 55 (with EL34's), a 45 year old Jansen Bassman 75 (NZ version of the Fender Bassman 75, complete with 7027A valves)and, most recently, a Epiphone valve Junior head (EL84). It works with everything, if the sound of your gear is good the hotplate won't interfere with it. I think it does a brilliant job of helping control the volume of your rig while letting you get those power valve/s crunching. Without it, my 2 big amps (55 and 75W) can be too much in smaller venues with the 75 delivering some seriously bone crushing volume to get those 7027's breaking up. The hotplate gives you better control. On my little 5W non-master Epi amp it means I can drive the EL84 hard at reasonable volumes at home without drawing serious hate from the neighbours, family and pets.
I think the 2 EQ switches work really well and help tweak the tone as you switch in more attenuation.
What it won't let you do is run big rigs at bedroom volumes. Once you are setting it higher than 8db you are starting to seriously lose the speaker dynamics out of the sound - things still sound good/ok but not magic.
I've never used the line out function so I don't know how good or bad it is.
All in all this device does a really great job.

Very reliable. Don't think there is much to break to be honest.

Never had to deal with them. The info on their site is really helpful though.

Damn fine bit of gear. Just be aware of its limitations and you won't be disappointed. Works for all styles of music. If it were stolen I would track down the offender, beat them to death with the hotplate, wipe off the blood and gore, and start using it again. Or maybe I would just buy another.

The unit its self is pretty straight forward. Just plug your head's speaker output into the input of the hot plate, and plug the speaker output of the hotplate into the speaker cabinet. Getting a good sound may take a little time though. When the power tubes are pushed into saturation or overdrive, they respond very differently than they do clean. This will require some tweaking of the EQ, gain, or presence settings on the amp. All in all, not a very difficult or time consuming task.

Sound quality is great. with a little time, i was able to find a sweet distortion sound. I am running a gibson les paul studio with a duncan JB pickup into a Carvin 100 watt MTS tube head loaded with groove tubes E34L's, with the matching 4 x 12 cabinet. I rarely use effects, but I sometimes use a boss chorus, or occaisonally when more effects are needed, I will use an old alesis quadraverb. Lately I have been running straight into the head. The sounds I can achieve using the hot plate are great. I have the lead channel volume at 10, and I adjust the gain from anywhere at 2 for a good crunch to 7-10 for intense metal distortion. All the time, the output tubes are running at 100%, and that's what makes all the difference in the world. I haven't heard any of the "fuzzy" sounds, or the hissing and popping that some other reviewers are reporting. Even with the unit at -16 db, my tone is coming through nicely. The product really does what it claims to do. It allows you to run your amp full bore and tame the volume. I'm not gonna claim that the tone is prefect, speaker distortion is important too, but it's light years better than running the amp at low volume, or resorting to solid state modeling amps.

Seems pretty sturdy, not too much to go wrong. I would definitely gig without a backup. Worst comes to worst, just us the amps volume.

Never had to deal with them, but I've heard good things.

I play various styles, from classic rock (beatles, stones, floyd, neil young), punk (social distortion...), to metal. I've been playing bass, and guitar for about 15 years, and I've gigged with a lot of bands. I am a total tone junky, and I'm not easy to please. I also play a 72 fender strat, and an ovation acoustic/electric. I also use a silverface fender champ. This product has really impressed me. I've heard other attenuators, like the marshall power break, and this one is by far the best I've heard. It is a little pricey, but definitely worth it. If it were lost or stolen, I'd replace it immediately.

Easy to use- but I still managed to screw up once (doh!). Plugged the thing in backwards (Doh!) and it still kind of worked, didn't damage my amp or the unit.

IF you plug it in correctly, it's easy: one knob to set level of attenuation, an extra knob for the extreme attenuation (you probably won't use much), two switches for bright and deep boost.

No power cable (gets its power from the amp signal)

There is a simple 1-page manual available at THD's website. You hardly need it.

This is not an effect per say, but an attenuator designed to reduce your volume while retaining the glorious tone of your tube amp turned up loud. It does that very well. At anything from -4dB to -12dB it sounds really great. At -16dB and beyond, the tonal quality suffers noticeably, but given the physics of sound and the physiology of our ears it is probably not physically possible to achieve perfect tone with that much volume cut. If you need that much attenuation, you should just buy a smaller amp, or get one with a headphone jack

It does its job very well. I can hardly ever turn my 60W Fender Supersonic amp up full bore, and if I do I'm damaging my hearing and peeling the paint off the walls. This device allows me to turn up into the upper half of the dial on my gain and volume knobs where the tubes really wake up and sing, while still operating at a volume that won't hurt anyone or summon the police to shut down my jam.

I play a '79 Stratocaster (Kinman pups) > a few effects> Fender SuperSonic 60W 1-12" combo amp with the Hotplate between the speaker output and the speaker.

I bought mine several years used and I've had it 4 months. The case seems bullet proof. I dropped it hard on a linoleum floor from a height of about 4 feet and it was undamaged (but it scuffed the floor).

I would use without a backup. if it failed, I could always just turn down my amp, use the attenuation from my amp's effects loop volume knobs, and make it through the gig.

As mentioned above, I did a bonehead thing and operated it for a while when it was plugged in backwards (doh!). It actually sort of works like that, but not so well. I remembered that time I dropped it and thought I'd broken it. I e-mailed tech support on a weekday morning and got a helpful response within an hour. Later I called them at 4:50pm on a Friday. left a message, and had a call back by 9:30am Monday morning. I got on the phone with Ed of tech support, and he was very helpful, very patient, and politely refrained from calling me a dummy for doing such a clueless thing as to plug in my unit backwards (said he gets 3 calls a day for that).

That rates a 10 in my book.

I play surf guitar, rockabilly, and 60s-90s rock. Against all odds I now find myself playing in a church band. I've been playing guitar on and off for 40 years. Electric guitar on and off for 25 years (I'm just back to my Strat and my rock n roll roots this year after a 20-year detour into purely acoustic guitar on Planet Bluegrass).

This device brings more tone out of my amp, and makes everything else I do sound better. It has no bad interactions with any device I own (Crybaby wah, Ibanez TS-9, Ibanez FL-7, Digitech delay). I find that with this device, and my hot pickups, and my modern tube amp, I have less need for an overdrive pedal.

It won't fit in a rack, nor on a pedalboard, so it perches on top of my amp. It kind of needs to stay near the amp, but I'm trying to think of a way to mount this thing somewhere so it won't fall on any more hard floors. Maybe I can build some kind of bracket or cradle for it.

It is a glorious and very fetching purple color. It has a light bulb on the front that glows brightly when I hit loud power chords. It gets warm, but not really hot with my equpiment. It's rated for bigger amps and might get pretty hot handling a Marshall stack turned up to 11.

If it were lost, I would not hesitate to buy another one. Or maybe I would try some other THD product. I'm curious about the Yellowjackets, and their amps (spendy though they are).

I sometimes wonder if I'd be better off using a smaller tube amp (say a 15W Fender of some sort), instead of a 60W that needs attenuation to use in most cases. Maybe I just need to hook up with a louder drummer.

Get your tone in order. Then hook this beaut up and don't go below -12dB. Job done.

I use a Burns Bison or Fender Jag (Quarter pounders installed). These go into a modded Crybaby, Boss OC-2, Boss OD-3, ProCo Dirty Rat, Russian Big Muff Pi (Modded and no sounds like actual sex). This leads into a Marshall Bluesbreaker. Before the Hotplate I was running the amp volume at 2, and compensated with a Wasabi OD to drive it. It sounded pretty good, but after loading the amp with Philips 6L6s, Sovtek GZ34, JJ ECC83, and some EHX 12AX7's I spat my dummy out.

NOW I run the main channel at 10 and the secondary channel (via crosspatch) at 6/7, with the Hotplate at -8dB.

Game Over. It is as close to dammit the tone I have been searching for. I can gig safe in the knowledge that the sound engineer will not throw a massive hissy fit, and still retaim the SexTone.

Deep and Bright Switches - I use them, as I'm in a duo with guitar and drums,a nd it helps fill out the sound very well. Some may not like them but hey, that's life.

Some ProDads may reckon it colours your tone a tad. I say bollocks to that.

IT HAS NO BATTERY. IT DOES NOT RUN OFF MAINS.
Jebus, it is powered by the amp signal; when you don't play it isn't on.

I baby it a tad, but only because it is that important. I echo an earlier review that if it were not for the Hotplate I would have sold my amp.

Dependable.

DONT USE THIS FOR 'BEDROOM' PLAYING. IT IS A STUDIO AND LIVE TOOL. I CANNOT REITERATE THIS FACT ENOUGH.

Not used.

Playing for ten years now. Fits beautifully for my egotistical Glam/Punk duo approach. No bass. No other guitar. Just me. And with the THD it still sounds like there's more than one. Great product.

If it were stolen I would hunt the culprit down and break their legs. Then I'd liberally chuck playing darts at them whilst they writhed about.

For the price I paid and the mint condition. A bargain.