How To Use Your Tube Amp At Home (and NOT get divorced)

Tube amps are great, but keeping your amp in its sweet spot often means it will be too loud to be in the same room with for very long. Today we're going to look at some solutions that will let you keep your tone but cut the volume.

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GEAR USED IN TODAY'S VIDEO: (affiliate links)

Two Notes Torpedo Captor X

Amplified Nation Wonderland Overdrive (non affiliate link)

Wide Sky P125 (non affiliate link)

Source Audio EQ2 Pedal

Iron Man II Mini Attenuator

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[meatyard]

Rhett just doesn’t understand the raw tone you get from a crushing divorce

[MatthewScottmusic]

Pro tip: don't get married and you won't get divorced👍🏻

[ieblack]

That tone is straight up fire! The smoke was evidence.

[FrankLafone]

Hey Rhett! Remember the golden rule - if you see smoke, you've let the magic out of the box :)

[terenzo]

Sometime back in the 1970s when Paul Rivera was working out of his garage, I had him build me an attenuator along with some of the mods he was doing on all the amps I used to bring over to him. I'd forgotten all about it until I saw this video. Rhett, your videos are some of the best I've seen. If I were still working in TV, I'd try talking you into becoming a TV show host doing pretty much what you're doing now. Not everybody has that ability. You do. I really enjoy your work on YouTube. Keep on keepin' on, man. And stay safe.

[Davefranzin]

Ciao Rhett. I am 56 years old ... I still remember the day when a friend of mine brought me the first Rockman from America ... having a nice distorted sound on my headphones, being able to play at night without disturbing anyone ... amazing, just try to think of mine mom, go from someone who exercises many hours a day with a Marshall JCM800 and a 4X12 ... to not hear anything anymore....she went to light a candle in honor of Tom Sholtz in the church near her house .... Greetings from Italy mate.

[jayseb]

Great recommendations. Good attenuators rock. On this note, I still went forward with a divorce a few years back. It's by far the most expensive solution, but in the end, I now do whatever I want. Volume is loud and good. Cheers.

[mgalbu]

I built the iso booth version of the closet solution. I have it in the garage with a 4x12 in it and use it with cranked 100W and 200W amps. Works incredibly well.

[flonsdg]

A cool tip for recording at home: If you own a looper pedal record everything at room volume and get every take on the pedal. Once you've got the correct take, crank the amp to the sweet spot level and replay the take with the looper. You can even make several takes with different tones and buff it up.

[Techcensorshipbot]

I never thought about tube amps and divorce. You just gave me a great idea! Thanks Rhett!

[JohnDoe-xris]

For the reactive or even passive attenuators, far too many people try to squash a 100watt non master amp down to bedroom level, then complain when the tone sucks. The human ear hears things differently at different volume levels. So when their powerful amp is attenuated to a lower volume, their ear hears it differently, and they think the attenuator is changing their tone. (I'll admit, some do) I've heard guitarists do a recording 1) bypass, 2)slight attenuation, 3)full attenuation...and people could not tell the difference. I only use an attenuator to take 'a little off the top' when gigging. I have a Dr Z Brakelite and I've compared it to others. The brakelite is the most percussive I have found.

Another trick for live gigging is rather than blast loudly at the beginning of the night, start a few 'clicks' down instead...then as the drinks flow and the venue fills up (and your drummer hitting harder), you can remove the 'click' of your attenuator and it doesn't seem too loud. This is SO much better than the club owner yelling at you during the first song or two to turn down!

[ICE.DAVE]

Hey Rhett! You are amazing!!! I am a church player and for past year I have been struggling to reduce the sound of my amp without getting the quality down. You my friend just gave solution to it and I try it today. What a sound my tube is giving me. For the first I really enjoyed the sound of my Marshall at a low volume and without breaking the quality of the tone. Thank you so much for making this video!!! May God richly bless you and give you more wisdom

[weschilton]

Rhett was literally SMOKING! Someone call the fire department!

[Mcsteveberry]

that beauty in your hands and the subject matter we are about to get into is exactly what draws me in to stick around for the video

[jamesnichols]

I was so excited to run a wet/dry rig for the first time when I got a Fender Supersonic 22 and Marshal DSL40, but I live above a restaurant. So I ended up getting a Boss Katana and just ran it USB through a FocusRite - not the same experience at all. I needed this vid in the worst way. Thanks!

[dognut]

My trick is I put my big amps through a small 6” champion 600 speaker. That makes it a lot quieter and you can get better sounds at low volumes. Also sounds better than a big speaker for recording

[jonbarwick]

Love my JHS little black box for attenuation purposes as well! That second solo RIPPED

[Vagrant]

4 minutes in and Rhett is literally on fire. This is the content I'm here for!

[scottwheldon]

The advice for using an eq is gold. Gonna swap that out on the signal chain of my pod since I can only have 8 effects at one time. Thanks man.

[thejonathandoan]

Great video with lots of great options. I have an Orange Crush 35RT that just wants to play LOUD. I have a small bedroom man cave that doesn't work well with my super loud amp. I ended up purchasing a Mission Engineering VM-Pro volume pedal and putting at the end of my effects loop. Works a dream! Now I can crank the amp, overdrives, distortions, etc. to get the best sound and not blow out my eardrums.