Anyone built an attenuator?

[Miza]

Been thinking about buying or building an attenuator for my Fender Pro Jr, just to match it better to my Vox AC4HW for home use when playing in stereo. Since I've built a few pedals, I figure I'll try and save some coin and go DIY.

Has anyone built one before? Any tips or warnings?

Some of the L-Pad designs look pretty simple. Jansen has this on their website, but it's only rated for 10 watts:
https://jansen.nz/product/alps-8-ohm-l- ... 22381.htmx

Then there's this part, which is 15 watts, but is it better to overcompensate rather than match the wattage?
https://www.parts-express.com/L-Pad-15W ... hm-260-248

[sizzlingbadger]

You want a 30W attenuator to be safe, you may as well build a 50W attenuator and then it will be more useful in the future.

[calling card]

I bought a couple of those Lpads from Parts Express once, 50w - 75w power handling? (memory is poor). I went down the THD Hotplate path instead. Nuisance though as you need a lot of THD's to match different amp types/impedance.

[sizzlingbadger]

https://guitar.com/guides/diy-workshop/ ... ttenuator/

[Miza]

https://guitar.com/guides/diy-workshop/ ... ttenuator/

Cheers for the link.
Looks easy enough, the hard part will just be finding all the parts (that is to say, avoiding $$ shipping fees).

[TmcB]

I have built a couple of Brakelite's – the parts are annoying to source, the testing is stressful but it's good

I actually have a bunch of parts to make one still if you'd like me to dig them out

[TmcB]

43067686-EB94-4D55-86F4-E30A6B81E7D9.jpeg (671.13 KiB) Viewed 2643 times

Innards of a brakelite

[wavesofffear]

I haven't, but if I did, I would probably build one like so: https://www.marshallforum.com/threads/s ... ing.98285/

"JohnH" is in Aus, so he has some good advice on which parts can be sourced from Jaycar in there too!

[Molly]

I once looked inside my Dr Z attenuator and there seemed nothing to it.

[StrummersOfThunder]

L pads sound poos

[Miza]

I have built a couple of Brakelite's – the parts are annoying to source, the testing is stressful but it's good

I actually have a bunch of parts to make one still if you'd like me to dig them out

Yeah cool, let me know what you got!

I need to place an order with Tayda sometime soon, so I'll be able to get an enclosure and jacks easy enough.

[calling card]

I have built a couple of Brakelite's – the parts are annoying to source, the testing is stressful but it's good

I actually have a bunch of parts to make one still if you'd like me to dig them out

Is the impedance variable on the Brakelite?

[TmcB]

I have built a couple of Brakelite's – the parts are annoying to source, the testing is stressful but it's good

I actually have a bunch of parts to make one still if you'd like me to dig them out

Is the impedance variable on the Brakelite?

Sort of – it's variable in the sense that its method of working varies the impedance to achieve the attenuation. But yes, it's not like the Hotplates where you have a fixed impedance

[griff]

I once looked inside my Dr Z attenuator and there seemed nothing to it.

Open up ya power station, different story.

[wavesofffear]

I have built a couple of Brakelite's – the parts are annoying to source, the testing is stressful but it's good

I actually have a bunch of parts to make one still if you'd like me to dig them out

Is the impedance variable on the Brakelite?

Sort of – it's variable in the sense that its method of working varies the impedance to achieve the attenuation. But yes, it's not like the Hotplates where you have a fixed impedance

The Brake-Lite is a resistive load (as opposed to a reactive load).