5stars
43ratings4stars
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Would recommend80% agree
Good value87% agree
Enjoyable84% agree
56 Reviews
HOT ROD DELUXE TAMED
The attenuation that I was looking for occurred in the last 10% of the knob travel toward minimum. Is there a heavy duty resistor that has more of an audio taper? Aside from that I still find it very usable. Without it my HR Deluxe was headed for E Bay. The clean channel is much nearer to the "sweet spot," and the OD channel is usable for the first time. I wonder if a lot of HR Deluxe amps are sold cheap becuase they can't be tamed! With Carl's Speaker Soak the HRD lives up to its potential. ...and by the way, much better and cheaper than yellow jackets and EL 84--which I recently tried.Read full review...
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: carlscustomguitars
Honestly useless (Read)
I own a 40w Fender hot rod deluxe v1 and an Egnater Rebel 30 head through a 2x12 wgs loaded cab. Both amps are known for their loud but tameable clean channels. This product has notches its maybe like 1 through 100 1 being lowest vol. So at 1 its almost silent at 2 its about to be heard 3 is too loud for a bed room 4 is too loud for a living room and 5 and beyond seems like it's just pass-through. I have it set up correctly and the correct impedance (both amps are 8 ohm and the cab reads 7.6 on my mm) so I don't know if the one may have been difective (prob not) but also fro. The look of the stem its all cheap parts. But I haven't looked inside because I'm hoping to return it asap. Otherwise I gave it one star because it came with a real nice speaker cable. Read full review...
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: slimguitman
Overdrive your amp at manageable volume
Well made product and excellent value. Works as it should. Allows you to crank your amp to sweet spot without painful volume. Acts similar to master volume. Before you buy, take a few moments to understand the difference between passive and reactive power attenuators. This is passive and so it uses heat to dispurse the extra power that it takes away from speaker. It also changes the tone a bit. The item gets quite hot when running with my 20 watt amp but doesn't heat up at all with my 5 watt.Read full review...
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: carlscustomguitars
Not bad. Seems to do what it says. You can tell not major factory product.
This little box works fine and does what it's supposed to. The potentiometer is not exactly linear. Having wanted to use this for a Fender Princeton, the amp now breaks up at much lower levels and that's what it's supposed to do, I've read reviews stating "seems like a distortion pedal" or "just distorts the sound". Well- what did you think its supposed to do? True, the usable part of the knob is a little more than all the way to the left. For me. I can't say about the last 3/4 of its travel - I don't need to go that loud but it can't hear much difference past 1/4 turn. For $49, it's a good deal. The aluminum is not highly polished and it has that handmade look. "Carl" has sold a lot of these, so I'd have to say he knows what he's doing.Read full review...
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: carlscustomguitars
Blues Jr 15 watt speaker soak
I have 3 Blues Jr amps years ago I had a Tom Scholz Power soak I was apprehensive do to the price. let me tell they work GREAT I can crank up the amp to get its natural tone and bring down the volume with speaker soak and it sounds wonderful the case is sturdy and the price is decent I live in a condo so practicing can't be to loud. I bought a second one for my Blues Jr for when I play in the band i have it wired from the amp and to a DI Box can't wait to try it out, I told my guitar friend about it and he's anxious to see how it sounds
thanks Carl's Custom Guitars Read full review...
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: carlscustomguitars
Gets the job done
Gives a nice range for reducing your amplifier's volume - now I can play my Orange Micro Terror at reasonable volume! Make sure you buy the model that matches your speaker's impedance.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: carlscustomguitars
it does whats supposed to do
Like other ppl said, its not a linear attenuation, it starts to really lower the volume on the lowest pot adjustment, and yes, it changes the sound, in my experience with the device, i used a mesa boogie mini rectifier (25 w) and what happened is that it removed most of the "punch" that the red chanel had.. but in the end it does whats advertised, it lowers the volume maintaining the tube saturation.. and you need to keep in mind that this a 50 buck box, so its really simple, its just a high wattage pot with a capacitor, we shouldnt be expeting the same performance as top tier active attenuators, but hey, its 50 bucks and it works.. if i would leave a word of advice id say, DONT use it with the amp on max volume... try to use the master volume at 12 oclock or maybe a little bit less.. i just blew a preamp tube but i'd say it was already worn out..Read full review...
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: carlscustomguitars
Good product if used correctly
I took a chance on this speaker soak and am glad I did. This thing does exactly what I needed it to do. I do have a low wattage amp but didn't play my Fender amp much because it was simply too loud once I started getting good tone for the room I have it in. It is a Rivera Era Champ II (18 watts). I made a head cabinet for the chassis and have it running to a 2X12 cabinet. I can now run around 6-7 on the master volume with the preamp section kicked up around 8 (where I start getting good tone) and pull enough volume off to make it much better suited for the space and retain that tone. This was with the soak's dial set at 11 o'clock. I ran straight into the amp with a guitar fitted with the S.D. hot rod humbucker set. I will try it with my modest pedal board next round.
I read a few negative reviews and about issues people have had prior to ordering this speaker soak and I was a bit nervous. When used correctly, Carl's speaker soak works just fine. Make sure you order the correct ohm rating and hook it up with speaker cable, not instrument cable. Also, you can not expect to take a high wattage head, turn it up to "11", expect to cut it down to near talking level, then complain it sucks tone and that the unit is junk. This is not what this device does or was even near intended to do, IMO. I read reviews about the unit getting hot, smoking, etc. but mine didn't even hardly get warm. I would suspect those problems could be related to using the wrong type of cord, ordering the wrong ohm rating, having an ohm mismatch between amp and speaker, using a high wattage head, or any combination of those things. I plan to experiment further and see how much more I can push the amp and still get good tone at a more reasonable level. Thanks, Carl...well done.Read full review...
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: carlscustomguitars
Best value in power attenuation!!!
I already had the 16 ohm version but needed the 8 ohm for my new speaker cabinet. They work simply, do what you expect, and don’t cost a lot. Built like little tanks in metal casting enclosures, they should stand up to road abuse.Read full review...
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: carlscustomguitars
Works exactly as advertised
Very simple attenuator. Looking forward to trying it on a gig tomorrow. Wanted something that would allow me to open the amp up past “2” without getting the evil eye and this should do the trick. No noticeable tone loss. It will get my 25 watt Mesa Boogie Fillmore down to spouse/neighbor friendly levels. Will follow up with a gig report after this week.Read full review...
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: carlscustomguitars