Amp head to line level

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furtom

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This is probably a noob question so please bear with.

I'm thinking of taking an amp head on a trade. It's a DV Mark Maragold, which will sound good, I think. But one way I'd like to use it is for recording, but I'd rather not always have to mic a cab. I see there is no line level out of any kind. Is there a simple way to drop the signal so I can go from the amp to a sound card?
Tom
 
Get a dummy load box that has a Line Out...or an attenuator box that has a Line Out.
Weber Speakers has several options for both.

Tube amps always have to see a load of some kind...either the speakers or one of the above. You can't just go from the speaker outs to the soundcard.
 
Yeah. Somebody else just told me about this. It seems a good option, but I wasn't thinking I'd have to spend $300 to solve this problem.

Thank you for your answer!
 
That Weber LD is rated at 50W and suggested for 35W amplifiers. I know nothing of the Maragold but most valve amps, if pushed hard can output nearly twice their on paper rating (not an exact science anyway!) So, there is a chance you could burn out the LD with dire consequences to the amplifier.
In any event I would expect the box to get bloody hot!

The other problem is that a raw, attenuated guitar signal sounds like fizzy crap, it needs some "speaker emulation". This is an EQ circuit built into the better load boxes (and SOME amplifiers COUGH!)that shapes the signal so it more resembles the filtered output of a guitar speaker, notably practically nothing above about 8kHz.

You can of course put up with the crap sound whilst tracking and EQ the ***t out of it later in a DAW (if you have a cracking AI and setup your latency might be good enough to EQ in real time?)

I would look for loads rated at 80W min and since the amp has all the taps. go for an 8Ohm version.

Beer into water to make y'know? 100W allyclad load R runs about $15 add a tin and some jacks. $50 would get you a bombproof load box.

Dave.
 
The Weber will run fine with a 50W amp...it just won't attenuate as much...but he's really only going to use it as a dummy load, and tap the Line Out from it.

Load Dump 50w Attenuator
Full attenuation: up to 35w amplifiers. Slight attenuation: up to 50w amplifiers.
Click to expand...
 
miroslav said:
The Weber will run fine with a 50W amp...it just won't attenuate as much...but he's really only going to use it as a dummy load, and tap the Line Out from it.
Click to expand...

O-----Kay. I don't have one to test but the amount of attenuation is immaterial. If OP wants to make speakerless recordings the device has to be able to handle the full output of the amplifier (unless it is a gross "mismatch" in which case the amp is still at risk).

Probably ok but the general rule is load rated at twice amp rating. Now, it COULD be that Weber call the device a "50W" load but it is in fact capable of handling much more than that. The reason being that Joe Public and especially gitists get confused by technical specs and think a 100W power soak would be "too strong" for a 30W AC 30 (say) ! Don't work that way of course and if the resistance is about right you could safely use a 2kW heater!

Dave.
 
I've used Weber attenuators for awhile...got 4 of them right now...and I go by what they say.
If they say this particular Load Dump 50W Attenuator will work fine...I don't doubt it.

That said...for pure, maximum attenuation...yeah, I would use an attenuator with a higher wattage rating.
That's why they say for this Load Dump...you will get only slight attenuation with a 50W amp...but as a dummy load, it should be fine.
 
miroslav said:
I've used Weber attenuators for awhile...got 4 of them right now...and I go by what they say.
If they say this particular Load Dump 50W Attenuator will work fine...I don't doubt it.

That said...for pure, maximum attenuation...yeah, I would use an attenuator with a higher wattage rating.
That's why they say for this Load Dump...you will get only slight attenuation with a 50W amp...but as a dummy load, it should be fine.
Click to expand...

I still don't get the distinction between "attenuation" and "dummy load"? In my tekky head they are effectively the same thing and a load is a load and should be rated accordingly.

That said Mir' I certainly respect your experience with the loads so in this case the OP's amp will be safe.

(BTW. A 1kW heater works out at about a "burning" load of 13 Ohms for you 115V guys. Cold resistance will be lower of course but should be ok as an 8 R load)

Dave.
 
Attenuation is how much the signal being fed to the speakers is turned down.

A dummy load is the large resistor that dissipates the power that is not being sent to the speaker.

The more you attenuate the amps output, the more power gets sent to the dummy load. If the speaker is silenced, all of the power coming from the amp has to be dissipated by the dummy load. If the dummy load isn't big enough to handle all the power you are.sending it, it could fail. If it does, you will be running the amp with no load...then the amp will fail.
 
Farview said:
Attenuation is how much the signal being fed to the speakers is turned down.

A dummy load is the large resistor that dissipates the power that is not being sent to the speaker.

The more you attenuate the amps output, the more power gets sent to the dummy load. If the speaker is silenced, all of the power coming from the amp has to be dissipated by the dummy load. If the dummy load isn't big enough to handle all the power you are.sending it, it could fail. If it does, you will be running the amp with no load...then the amp will fail.
Click to expand...

Thank you Jay! You have made clear my mumblings. Really good load Rs are REALLY cheap! They can also stand 1 second overloads of 1000% and, iirc, ten seconds at 100%. In short, very unlikely to fail if it is even close to the amp rating and there is no reason to skimp on them.

Dave.
 
Holy crap, I didn't notice it was you that I was answering. Answering stuff on my phone at 5am, I miss things...
 
I use a Weber Mass 200w attenuator with my fire breathing 100w Marshalls. It's all been trouble-free so far. My layman's understanding of all of this is that tube amps are typically rated at clean RMS. Pushed into distortion they can output 30-50% more than their sales pitch rating. There have been examples of Marshall Super Leads pumping out 170 watts at full cranked power. So I went with double the rating of my loudest amps for my attenuator and it's been great.

I've never used the line out feature. That's not why I got it, but it's there. Without cab emulation, a line out signal sucks ass.
 
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