While my old friend Van Halen tried this, and got an incredible sound!, it resulted in a short tube life and risked other significant wear and tear that is reckless.īy decreasing the voltage to the amp, it allows the amp to be set to louder volume settings and yet the decreased voltage dampens the efficiency of the power tubes, so they "push" harder and distort at lower output volumes. Though I own several variacs that also increase current voltages to the amp, I have never set the variac to a higher voltage since this is dangerous and costly. For guitar amps, I recommend that people buy a 10 amp, fused, grounded variac with voltage output meter that only attenuates the current delivered by the wall outlet. In truth, the difference between types in a result of the way the variac is wired internally. There are two basic types of variacs-one which only attenuates the voltage delivered to the variac (meaning that it allows you to only decrease the wall outlet voltages in increments) and the second type also attenuates the voltage delivered by the wall outlet, but it also enables the user to actually increase the voltage coming from the outlet. Ohmite variacs were relatively easy to find then at surplus electronic stores, (Staco variacs were also readily available). I have used variacs with every tube amp I've had since 1975 when a guitar player friend (Ed Van Halen) told me one of his secrets for his great sound at low volumes through his Marshall 100 watt head.
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