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Today, @silverstatic asked if I had any recommendations for attenuators. I’ve thought about picking these up in the past. Basically, for people out there that don’t know what they do, they site between your amp and speaker cab. They sucks some of the power so you can overdrive your head or crank it, but the volume from your speakers are bearable.

I’ve been playing a Rivera Knucklehead 100 watt amp forever, and they’re great amps, but the problem is that they’re crazy loud. Just to give you an idea, when I practice at my house, I pretty much have to get the master around 1.5 to 2. For live stage settings, the amp is right around 2.5 or 3 on the master. At 3 your pants are vibrating when you’re in front of it (honestly, I like that feeling.. a lot). I don’t think I’ve ever played a show without the sound guy telling me to turn down, and it sucks.. if I turn it down to where he wants it, my power tube section is barely getting the love it needs.

With a attenuator, you can crank that head to 3 or 4 to get things heated up, but you can control the level of volume coming out of the speakers to a level that sounds guys like. There have been some issues.. and these are the reasons why I’ve never bought one.

• Often known to alter your tone
• Can damage your amp

I’ve been hearing about the Dr. Z AirBrake as something that is truly ‘transparent’ as far as tone goes, and with technology improvements, amps are getting fried in the process. I initially recommend this to @silverstatic as popular answer to the question, but @worshipking14 came back with the Bad Cat “The Leash” Attenuator as the item to get.

First of all, I think Bad Cat stuff is fantastic (I also think the same as Dr. Z), but I’ve had some experience with the Bad Cat 2-tone pedal.. and it’s pretty awesome. So I wanted to look seriously at this.

Over at PremierGuitar.com they had a article about the “The Leash” and it really addressed some of those early issues I brought up. Mainly having a ‘reactive’ load feature which is safer for amps  by managing the impedence. This box also comes with a fan, since managing that power load will get things hot. That’s a nice solution as well. The article above also discusses some tone tests. They bring up a good point of not cranking your amp, and playing it at very quiet volumes expecting it to sound the same.

You can pick up the Bad Cat “The Leash” Power Attenuator for $349.00 at Musician’s Friend.

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Not sure why I want to go back to this. Maybe because this pedal is absolutely awesome. We had a guest post by Bobby Morelli about the Bad Cat 2-Tone which was extremely great, and I was just re-reading that today.

In my band, our other guitarist uses the Bad Cat 2-Tone in conjunction with a Matchless DC-30. It sounds amazing, and I’m a big fan of the tone from that pedal. To me, there is no other pedal that adds the meat or growl to your tone in a ‘natural’ way. It’s almost like another amp in itself.

My largest.. and I guess only complaint, is the noise. The pedal is noisy, but for heavier work (like what we play) you never notice anything except between songs, etc. The chassis is one of the beefiest I’ve ever seen, and they’re absolutely built to last.

I found this video that nicely describes what this guitar can do.

As with all things, quality does come with a price. This pedal runs around $349 at Musician’s Friend, but it is a pretty amazing pedal if you’re after some awesome tone. Anyone out there have the Bad Cat x-treme tone?

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The following is a guest post review of the Bad Cat 2-Tone by Bobby Morelli. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

Here’s a pedal that doesn’t seem to get the love that it deserves, the all tube, hand-wired, Bad Cat 2-Tone.  This 8.25″ x 8.25″  chrome beast’s lineage can be traced to the Matchless Hotbox , but the 2-Tone ups the ante adding a second footswitch to bypass the pedal, as well as incorporating “true bypass” into the pedal’s design.  Unlike some other tube based pedals on the market the 2-Tone’s dual 12AX7s run at plate voltage, which means its detachable power cord needs to be plugged into a wall outlet as opposed to running off a power supply or 9 volt battery.

Two channels, simple controls The 2-Tone has a single row of knobs for both channels.  Channel 1 is the “tone boost”  side of the pedal and it’s controlled by a Volume knob and single Tone knob.  Channel 2 is the distortion side and it features Gain, Bass, Treble, and Master knobs.  Channel 1 just made things sound bigger in the best possible way.  The volume can go from a slight boost to pushing an amp into crunch territory, and the single Tone control is perfect for dialing in just the right amount of sparkle.  Where Channel 1 is pretty straight forward, Channel 2 is where things get interesting.  There is a huge amount of both gain and volume on tap so be forewarned, the 2-Tone can get loud in a hurry! The other thing that’s interesting is the lack of a dedicated mid control which is made up for with the very interactive Bass and Treble knobs.  This channel takes more time to dial in simply because of how the Bass and Treble work in tandem to accentuate or attenuate the desired frequencies.  I found my best drive tones came with the Gain around 1:00, Bass and Treble off, and Master around 9:00.  This setting allowed for nice chunky chord work as well as a solid tone for leads.

The 2-Tone not only sounds solid, but it’s build that way too.  The triple plated chrome top, heavy gauge steel chassis, and point-to-point wiring all add up to a pedal that’s big, shiny and attracts a lot attention for its looks, as well as its tone.  If you’ve tried all the usual suspect transistor-based drive pedals and you’re willing to spend some time twisting knobs to get the most out of the pedal the Bad Cat 2-Tone is highly recommended!

Bad Cat 2-Tone, MSRP $349

Pros: Great tube tone, top notch build quality, can be used for DI recording
Cons: Price, size, challenging to dial in

Others to consider: Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Classic, Radial Classic Tube Distortion, SIB Varidrive

For this review I ran the 2-Tone into a Dr. Z MAZ Jr 2×12 Non-reverb loaded with Celestion G12H30 speakers, and for guitars I used an early 90s Les Paul Standard, 1952 Reissue Telecaster, Rickenbacker 360, and Vintage Hot Rod Stratocaster.

About the author:
Bobby Morelli is the lead guitarist in the Tampa, FL based rock band Drew Street Mary.  He’s a tone whore and spends time worrying about gear when he should be practicing.
Web site – www.drewstreetmary.com
Twitter – @drewstreetmary

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