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I want to preface this review with a few basic facts/thoughts.
I'm old school.
I roll down my volume on the guitar to clean up for chords/clean passages. The guitar setup with decent pots/caps/pickups is paramount for this and I've got that dialed in pretty well, IMO. The guitar should be ready to scream for solos on 10, and clean up well for chords at 5-6, with crunchy chords at 7-8. I don't use OD pedals unless the amp needs it, and I generally setup my amps to sustain with medium gain saturation (think Cream/Zep/Allman Bros), then I roll off the guitar volume for cleans. That's my criteria.
I used various amps with these schemes, but the two main ones were a 50w Plexi I built with NOS glass, SoZo caps, and NOS Mullard/Telefunken glass, and a Komet Concorde with NOS glass. Volume settings were all over the place from 3-8. Guitars used were a Les Paul with PAF style pickups (WCR American Steele set), and a Strat with WCR SR pickups, top notch pots/caps, etc.
1) I hate attenuators generally. You should get an amp with the power you need to play a particular room size. So if you're playing a stadium, you better have a 50 or 100w, a smaller club a 25-40w, and if you're jamming with friends just to get over a drummer, 15-20w. If you're playing in your 2nd bedroom, something along the lines of a Marshall MS-2 (9 volt battery operated amp w/adapter) can get the job done.
2) I realize many of you don't have the $$ or luxury of having multiple amps, so PPIMV solutions, attenuators, master volume mods, power scaling/etc have become ways to try to reduce the volume and maintain the feel/note bloom/girth of your cranked amp without sacrificing too much tone/feel/impact. In all of these I've found significant drawbacks to the tone after using even minimal settings.
3) My findings on volume reduction schemes, YMMV.
PPIMV: They just don't sound good below 1/3rd volume, and they hit the tone badly causing fizz, more treble, etc. below 1/3rd. Above that they're generally fair, but really work their best at 1/2 or higher. At this point you're still deciding how many amps to have to suit two levels of usage with and without PPIMV involved at 1/3rd or higher.
Power Scaling: I just haven't heard one of these schemes yet that blew my dress up. Sorry. Not going to name names of amps/brands, but NONE of them work for me...at all. I wish they did.
Attenuators: What I've tried....
Hot Plate: Generally OK at the first attenuated level, then it really gets nasty below that. Even using the bass boost/etc it provides impacts the tone in a major way. Forget bedroom or TV/conversation levels. You may as well hook up the Marshall MS-2.
Airbrake (Dr Z or Komet version): Better choice than the Hot Plate by a long shot, but still significant tone impact on more than 20% of it's settings down. The feel was better, but still impacted hard, and thinned out the tone.
Richter: This version is a step up from the Airbrake in tone, but it's first attenuated level is roughly 50% of your unattenuated volume. That's putting it in some limited use territory for me, but that may be the ticket for many who have 50w amps cutting down the volume for clubs. Bedroom/TV levels, it got pretty washed out/thin and didn't work. But if you're looking for that 1st attenuated level to be 50-75% of your amp's volume, then this could be a player for many.
Ultimate Attenuator: (Edited 6/02/09) This attenuator does extremely well on full power settings, and with cutting down the volume in many settings, so I can see why it's so popular. If you leave your guitar volume on 10, and have a channel switcher for cleans and dirty settings, then this is also a major player. The Plexi & Bedroom switches are decent enough, although there is some impact of tone at those levels. I was shipped a 2nd unit which had the dual volume controls & footswitch mod. The 1st unit (basic 1 volume model/plexi/bedroom switches) performed far below expectations and was a disappointment. It must have been defective. The 2nd unit sent to me sounded a sh*tload better and didn't have the tone killing artifacts present in the first. Rolling off my volume maintained clean tones without getting dirty/hair around the notes when the guitar volume was on 6, so that was a big plus. The footswitch activated dual volume option was very useful in setting up a crunch tone for chords and a solo volume for lead passages. So this is a major plus in this version over the standard unit. The Plexi & Bedroom option switches were also good, although at those levels there is still some tiny impact of tone, but you have to expect that when the speakers are no longer getting much of a signal. That's to be expected with any attenuator. I thought the dual volume unit was a significant upgrade to the single volume model for my needs. Priced as tested, the dual volume/footswitch model I was sent is $874.00 USD plus shipping.
The 2nd UA I was sent with the dual volume mod was very good, and sounded identical to the Phantom at volumes you could jam, rehearse and play a club with. The two volume levels were a big bonus for those who don't roll the volumes on their guitar for boost, or use an OD pedal. Down to mouse fart levels, the need to kick in the bedroom switches was apparent, and some minor EQ setting on the amp did a fine job with those options turned on at bedroom/mouse fart levels. At the "you can barely hear this thing!" levels, I found the UA to do very well, although in my tests, the FA
(Faustine Attenuator) did a bit better at this level, which is somewhere around -20 to -22db, if I use the Phantom's dial for reference.
Faustine Phantom: I have to give this attenuator the highest marks of any I've tried, by just a touch over the Ultimate and Richter models. The absolutely most transparent tones of any I've tried.
Settings from -2 to -10 were great. I could sustain a note going into bloom, or swelling feedback on the unattenuated setting then flip it to the -8 setting and the note carried on and bloomed, only at the reduced volume. Overall feel and girth were unaffected, just the reduction in volume. When switching down from the fixed setting to the variable setting from -12 to -26 you still had excellent dynamics/girth/feel. I felt the tone got very slightly impacted around -20 or so (1/2 the variable knob sweep) but at this point you're talking quiet conversation level. Infinitely more usable than any of the other attenuators I've tried. A couple of slight EQ trimming/fixes went a long way towards re-establishing the full power feel. Obviously at this level, you're looking for the best overall tone, since the girth/impact won't be there due to the significant volume reduction. The FA did this far better than any other attenuator on the market.
My personal criteria of the guitar volume roll off to cleans was where the unit really shined. The amp reacted just as if it didn't have the FA in the circuit at all. On 10 it was screaming, at 5-6 the cleans were there, just as if I had the plexi on 8 and no attenuation was involved. This to me was the mark of a well-designed and intuitively useful product. The fact that it doesn't require power, unlike the UA, was also a bonus, and what I considered to be a good feature.
Overall build quality/look/aesthetics were excellent and the controls needed NO explanation on the Faustine. The 2nd UA came with an instruction sheet, which explained some features on the unit.
Summation: If you're looking for the all around best attenuator on the market, the Faustine is it. It absolutely does sound "like nothing" down to the -20 level in my tests. With a 50w plexi cranked through 4 H75 Scumback speakers, if there were any harsh characteristics, they would have showed up easily and the FA provided none of those, just righteous, natural tone. At the sub -20 levels, tiny degradations in tone could be heard, but in comparison to the other attenuators on the market, they were fantastic, and much more organic. Overall I'd give this product about a 9.5 out of 10, and to be honest, I don't think there's ever going to be a perfect 10, due to the complexities of having a circuit work this well from 100w all the way down to 1/2w.
I can live with that quite easily.
Affiliation: None. I've met Tim twice in six months. If he didn't have Tone Merchants offering his product, I'd never know him.
Likelihood to buy: Good, if I was looking for an attenuator. I'm not.
Sure, I have about 15 amps, and around 25 speaker cabs. I've got all the ranges from 1 watt Marshall MS-2 to 100w Plexis. I need an attenuator like I need a hole in the head, but I also love the sound of a 4x12 with a 50w cranked. I won't get that with 9 watt amp through a 4x12 without blowing the sound limitations of where I live and bothering the neighbors (I already went to jail for this offense in 2001, you know!). But I could see using the FA with my 50w and a 4x12 straight cab quite easily and being happy with it.
Pics of the Faustine Attenuator below. Get them at Tone Merchants, www.tonemerchants.com. I think they're $659.00 for the single ohm version, $749.00 for the Deluxe version (4-8-16 ohm switchable) and they've got a waiting list. Now I see why.
(editor's note:
the Faustine Phantom Dx can no longer be ordered through Tone
Merchants. See the Order page
for details on price and schedule. The $659.00 single ohm version of
the Phantom is no longer available.)
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I love playing guitar, electric or acoustic, it really doesn't matter to me. When it comes to the electric guitar, my preferences lean towards the classic British and American sound so familiar to many guitarists. And being the designer/owner of Tone Freak Effects, I can coax different textures using a
myriad of my effects pedals.
Lately, I've gone with lower wattage amps in order to tame the volume at which I play. However, there exists a special
palette of tone that only exists, in my opinion, with higher wattage amps... 40, 50 and 100 watters. The added headroom does wonders for getting juicy clean tones. I usually add any dirt using my effects pedals. However, believe it or not, I'm a firm believer that one obtains the best tones plugging the guitar straight into the amp. I cannot think of any pedal in
existence that can accurately capture a 50 or 100 watt British or American tone fully cranked. The problem perplexing many guitarists who prefer to get the natural distortion
from a cranked tube amp is taming the volume without sacrificing the tone.
With maybe a couple of exceptions, I have tried to tame the "volume" beast with every attenuator out on the market today. Some were very good in getting close, others fell very short of the mark. I pretty much had given up because,
even though some attenuators got close, the tone generated didn't inspire.
The Faustine Phantom changed all that and enabled me to get into big wattage amps again. I test my pedals with several custom built amps by Morgan Amplification and Dave Friedman designed to create the classic British and American tones. But even my lower wattage amps were very loud when I got them to a level where the tubes were nicely cooking. The Faustine Phantom allows me to test all my effects pedal designs without making my ears ring.
More importantly, I can plug straight into a 50 watter, crank it and have that same feel and sound at levels lower than a home stereo. The Phantom tames the volume "beast" with a tone that inspires... I don't want to stop playing. And I don't have to because I can now play at levels that won't upset my neighbors or destroy my hearing. With the Phantom's convenient "Line Out", I'm even tempted to create another wet/dry/wet rig, which I haven't done since the mid-90's.
As an effects pedal designer, the Phantom represents an invaluable tool for me to clearly hear how my creations sound with different amps. As a long time
guitarist, the Phantom allows me to get that cranked "straight into the amp" distortion that I have been missing all these years.
Fear not the high wattage amps... the Faustine Phantom is here!
Dereck Tabata
Owner - Tone Freak
Effects
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