Variacs....????

[* velcro-fly *]

Need some Variac edumacation..

Does a Variac help to drop overall volume, or does it simply drop the amount of incoming current?

Would a Variac be a replacement for a Hot Plate?

Your assistance is appreciated, Broseph's

Steve E

 

[Odin]

Don't.

That's all you need to know.

 

[* velcro-fly *]

Don't.

That's all you need to know.

Don't ask, or don't ever use one?

If it's the 'don't ever use one' version, splain why, please....

Thanks ~
Steve E

 

[ratter]

You can find a lot of info at the Metro forum. I think the short version of the story is basically that a variac is used to alter the incoming voltage. If you lower the incoming voltage, the volume will go down and the tone will change. But the volume will not drop as much as with a hotplate. And further, if you go too low with the variac, you can potentially damage the tubes and/or amp.

I'm no expert at all, but that's just what I've gathered from reading on this topic. The overall theme seems to be that it's a useful and sometimes necessary tool if you want or need to change the incoming voltage for some reason. But it is not a replacement for a volume control or attenuator.

 

[Jordon]

If you wanna get right down to it, you can basically blow shit up that way. It's just not safe, and there's much debate on exactly what, if anything it does to the tone, and if it really even an improvement.

If you dont know what you're doing with variacs, then dont screw with them. I work around variacs and HUGE triacs all day, and they can be incredibly dangerous.

 

[Odin]

Don't use one when playing a guitar through your amp. A variac is a tool used to bring capacitors slowly up to charge, it's not a volume attenuator. Use of a variac can damage your amp and/or ruin power tubes. That's not to say that everyone who uses one will ruin something (too many variables to make a statement like that), but it is very likely that you will cause damage using a variac improperly (use as a volume attenuator is improper use of a variac).

Lowering the voltage on your amp will likely cause cathode stripping on your power tubes, which can get very expensive if you have to replace power tubes after each gig. Raising voltage can blow out caps and cause all manner of problems, including fire.

I don't know what amp you are considering using a variac on, but if it's a modern amp you may also run into myriad problems in other areas. For example, if the amp is a channel switching amp the channel switching will cease to function at a certain lower voltage. Effects loops, some reverbs, footswitches, etc... may all stop working below a certain voltage threshold. EVH was mis-using a variac on an amp with an all analog signal path and turret board and chassis mount construction back when amps were ridiculously overbuilt. Modern amps are usually built just barely good enough to keep them from being returned defective to Guitar Center within the warranty period, and the components in modern assembly line amps won't take the abuse that the old amp would take.

If your goal is gain at reduced volume I would suggest one of the hundred different methods of achieving this that don't jeopardize your safety or equipment.

If you do use a variac on your amp and bad shit happens don't say you weren't warned.

 

[stephen sawall]

bad idea , there are better ways to get the brown sound.

 

[* velcro-fly *]

Thanks for the comments guys, thats the info I was looking for.

Steve E

 

[Jordon]

Don't use one when playing a guitar through your amp. A variac is a tool used to bring capacitors slowly up to charge, it's not a volume attenuator. Use of a variac can damage your amp and/or ruin power tubes. That's not to say that everyone who uses one will ruin something (too many variables to make a statement like that), but it is very likely that you will cause damage using a variac improperly (use as a volume attenuator is improper use of a variac).

Lowering the voltage on your amp will likely cause cathode stripping on your power tubes, which can get very expensive if you have to replace power tubes after each gig. Raising voltage can blow out caps and cause all manner of problems, including fire.

I don't know what amp you are considering using a variac on, but if it's a modern amp you may also run into myriad problems in other areas. For example, if the amp is a channel switching amp the channel switching will cease to function at a certain lower voltage. Effects loops, some reverbs, footswitches, etc... may all stop working below a certain voltage threshold. EVH was mis-using a variac on an amp with an all analog signal path and turret board and chassis mount construction back when amps were ridiculously overbuilt. Modern amps are usually built just barely good enough to keep them from being returned defective to Guitar Center within the warranty period, and the components in modern assembly line amps won't take the abuse that the old amp would take.

If your goal is gain at reduced volume I would suggest one of the hundred different methods of achieving this that don't jeopardize your safety or equipment.

If you do use a variac on your amp and bad shit happens don't say you weren't warned.

Yup, exactly what he said that i was too lazy/ignorant to explain.

 

[Gainfreak]

Let me stop the horseshit right now. You can use a variac on your amp without blowing up a fucking thing as long as you use it properly. Been there, done that. People who have blown up there amps with a variac were more then likely listening to EVH and they cranked the variable AC up instead of lowering it. If you do that. your amp is toast and if you lower the variac down to low and play for a while, you might run into problem. You also get cothode stripping and it wears on the tubes but I never blew anything up using one.

Now to answer your question.. yes Using a variac will lower the volume a bit and it rolls off the treble a bit and change the pick dynamics. Kind of warps the sound but not by a lot.

Now here is the deal... People used to use a variacs on old Marshalls because the voltages were off here in the US.
In this day and age, there is no need to use a variac unless you are playing a vintage amp that was setup for 110 volts.

There are way better ways to get the affects of a variac with a few tweaks.


so in a nutshell..... Yes you can use a variac successfully but given that these days there are so many amps to choose from..and so much mod info out, that I can't see ever using one.

FWIW, Stan BMF5150 posted clips of him using a variac with his metro kit and there isnt much of a differance tonewise IMHO.

 

[mentoneman]

Let me stop the horseshit right now. You can use a variac on your amp without blowing up a fucking thing as long as you use it properly. Been there, done that. People who have blown up there amps with a variac were more then likely listening to EVH and they cranked the variable AC up instead of lowering it. If you do that. your amp is toast and if you lower the variac down to low and play for a while, you might run into problem. You also get cothode stripping and it wears on the tubes but I never blew anything up using one.

Now to answer your question.. yes Using a variac will lower the volume a bit and it rolls off the treble a bit and change the pick dynamics. Kind of warps the sound but not by a lot.

Now here is the deal... People used to use a variacs on old Marshalls because the voltages were off here in the US.
In this day and age, there is no need to use a variac unless you are playing a vintage amp that was setup for 110 volts.

There are way better ways to get the affects of a variac with a few tweaks.


so in a nutshell..... Yes you can use a variac successfully but given that these days there are so many amps to choose from..and so much mod info out, that I can't see ever using one.

FWIW, Stan BMF5150 posted clips of him using a variac with his metro kit and there isnt much of a differance tonewise IMHO.

gainfreak owns.

ps who might that enchanting lass be in your avatar?

 

[70strathead]

I agree with Ralph as well. I still have mine and used to use it only when I'm playing through my old marhsall non-master volume head along with the hot plate. It's also important to note that if u do intend to use it all the time, that u bias your Power tubes to the variac setting. So in my case it's between 88-90v. I do some eq'ing on the hot plate ( the two buttons deep/bright ) depending on the guitar I'm playing but it does do something to the overall dynamics. Honestly though, I just got a master volume mod on this head and I know longer use it. I saw a guy at the Baked Potato playing through a 100w 68' plexi , which sounded amazing by the way, and he was using one almost the same way. He also pulled out the inner two PTubes to set as a 50w, but from what Mark Cameron told me one day, doing that doesnt decrease volume as much as people think. I actually tried pulling the tubes out of my JCM800 and I honestly couldn't hear that much of difference...still pretty loud!

 

[Gainfreak]

Let me stop the horseshit right now. You can use a variac on your amp without blowing up a fucking thing as long as you use it properly. Been there, done that. People who have blown up there amps with a variac were more then likely listening to EVH and they cranked the variable AC up instead of lowering it. If you do that. your amp is toast and if you lower the variac down to low and play for a while, you might run into problem. You also get cothode stripping and it wears on the tubes but I never blew anything up using one.

Now to answer your question.. yes Using a variac will lower the volume a bit and it rolls off the treble a bit and change the pick dynamics. Kind of warps the sound but not by a lot.

Now here is the deal... People used to use a variacs on old Marshalls because the voltages were off here in the US.
In this day and age, there is no need to use a variac unless you are playing a vintage amp that was setup for 110 volts.

There are way better ways to get the affects of a variac with a few tweaks.


so in a nutshell..... Yes you can use a variac successfully but given that these days there are so many amps to choose from..and so much mod info out, that I can't see ever using one.

FWIW, Stan BMF5150 posted clips of him using a variac with his metro kit and there isnt much of a differance tonewise IMHO.

gainfreak owns.

ps who might that enchanting lass be in your avatar?

I must insist that it is you who owns bruddah!!


The lovely lass is none other then Megan Fox. She is the new girl who is in the transformers movie!!!



I would also like to mention that I wasn't trying to sound harsh in my Post. I just know for a fact that a Variac will not blow up your amp because I used one A lot at one time chasing the VH tone when I was a Kid. I actually did smoke a tranny from using one because I tried to crank up the volts ala... reading Eddies nonsene. I was told by a tech to lower the voltage and never had a problem!!

 

[Gainfreak]

I agree with Ralph as well. I still have mine and used to use it only when I'm playing through my old marhsall non-master volume head along with the hot plate. It's also important to note that if u do intend to use it all the time, that u bias your Power tubes to the variac setting. So in my case it's between 88-90v. I do some eq'ing on the hot plate ( the two buttons deep/bright ) depending on the guitar I'm playing but it does do something to the overall dynamics. Honestly though, I just got a master volume mod on this head and I know longer use it. I saw a guy at the Baked Potato playing through a 100w 68' plexi , which sounded amazing by the way, and he was using one almost the same way. He also pulled out the inner two PTubes to set as a 50w, but from what Mark Cameron told me one day, doing that doesnt decrease volume as much as people think. I actually tried pulling the tubes out of my JCM800 and I honestly couldn't hear that much of difference...still pretty loud!

Hey Bro!!

That's a great idea about the bias! I forgot about that ! I never did that when I used one because I did not know about that but I did read about it years later and it makes total sense!!


As far as pulling tubes, I tried that years ago and it made zero differance in volume!! I learned why later on!! I know that I am wording this wrong but It takes 10 times less then the max wattage to hear a differance in volume... in other words 10 watts is only half as loud as a 100 watt head, so pulling two tubes in a 100 watt head isn't going to do much for volume but it defintely changes the feel/tone.IMHO

 

[Digital Jams]

EVH is the reason I do not take anything serious from most guitarists.

 

[Gainfreak]

EVH is the reason I do not take anything serious from most guitarists.

EVH is the reason why most of the guitarist in the 80's would not tell you shit about gear. It made everyone competitive and hush hush.

 

[Digital Jams]

EVH is the reason I do not take anything serious from most guitarists.

EVH is the reason why most of the guitarist in the 80's would not tell you shit about gear. It made everyone competitive and hush hush.

Bro, the story Chubtone was telling about the parametric eq and how he found out was killer and how guarded that box was back then!!!

I can't even guess how many Marshalls were roasted back then from hot rodding and driving 140VAC into them with variacs.

 

[* velcro-fly *]

EVH is the reason I do not take anything serious from most guitarists.

EVH is the reason why most of the guitarist in the 80's would not tell you shit about gear. It made everyone competitive and hush hush.

Well, I'm not even going to tell you why I'm asking about this

Steve E

 

[Odin]

Let me stop the horseshit right now. You can use a variac on your amp without blowing up a fucking thing as long as you use it properly. Been there, done that. People who have blown up there amps with a variac were more then likely listening to EVH and they cranked the variable AC up instead of lowering it. If you do that. your amp is toast and if you lower the variac down to low and play for a while, you might run into problem. You also get cothode stripping and it wears on the tubes but I never blew anything up using one.

Now to answer your question.. yes Using a variac will lower the volume a bit and it rolls off the treble a bit and change the pick dynamics. Kind of warps the sound but not by a lot.

Now here is the deal... People used to use a variacs on old Marshalls because the voltages were off here in the US.
In this day and age, there is no need to use a variac unless you are playing a vintage amp that was setup for 110 volts.

There are way better ways to get the affects of a variac with a few tweaks.


so in a nutshell..... Yes you can use a variac successfully but given that these days there are so many amps to choose from..and so much mod info out, that I can't see ever using one.

FWIW, Stan BMF5150 posted clips of him using a variac with his metro kit and there isnt much of a differance tonewise IMHO.

gainfreak owns.

ps who might that enchanting lass be in your avatar?

I must insist that it is you who owns bruddah!!


The lovely lass is none other then Megan Fox. She is the new girl who is in the transformers movie!!!



I would also like to mention that I wasn't trying to sound harsh in my Post. I just know for a fact that a Variac will not blow up your amp because I used one A lot at one time chasing the VH tone when I was a Kid. I actually did smoke a tranny from using one because I tried to crank up the volts ala... reading Eddies nonsene. I was told by a tech to lower the voltage and never had a problem!!

I know for a fact that the shoes I'm wearing deter alligator attacks because I've never been attacked by an alligator when wearing them.

Your statement is erroneous and your logic is faulty.

 

[Digital Jams]

Odin, serious question......who can back up your past experience? Serious question.

I figure if you are going to question someone that you must be on other boards with guys that know you and your past experiences.