Guitar Gear Forum

So I find Dave Friedman to be more or less a fat douche but I’ll still watch some of his content. I forget which one I saw, but while I may not have the best ears I really feel I hear things pretty well. Even testing these days, despite tinnitus, I hear way above my age average. And for YEARs, like most with tube amps, you feel the tone changes from time to time. Temp, humidity etc etc. but one thing I didn’t factor is the Power coming from the wall outlets. And one of Friedman’s videos we’re talking about variacs to lower Volts on some amps, but also just to make sure you aren’t feeding a modern amp TOO high of a voltage. Most of these can’t run on low volts like Say EVH did , but I specifically remember freidman saying “If you have 125v hitting your amp it’s never gonna sound good.

Well I got a multimeter so I checked my outlets in my room. It was 126! Well god damn. Could this be this midrange harshness that I swear my 5153 el34 100 suffered from from time to time. Some days I really couldn’t take it. It wasn’t always there, so I was thinking it was just ears, room temp, humidity. All the things we assumed for so long. And I was gonna buy a variac but the thing is I’d have to check the wall voltage daily to determine where to set the variac. Cause My house fluctuates between 121v and 130v I’ve found. So a variac set 10v down could be at 111v some days and modern amps won’t like it that low. So I bought the Brown box. Basically an overpriced variac BUT it’ll constantly tell you what the actual voltage from the wall is. I figured this would be easier and more effective..

And I’m gonna tell you, all those years we, as often times during band practice everyth in g was perfect only to fucking sound like ass the next time, it may have been inconsistent wall voltage. Cause I set it between 118-120 depending and I haven’t had that weird midrange honk and harshness since I got this thing…..

Here’s a pic of it this morning sitting at 128! And usually the brown box knocks a volt or 2 down by default. I don’t even need to be attenuating. So likely this was at 129-130v. And Dave Friedman was right, my amp sounds like total shit when being fed that.

I bought a variac after I blew a mains fuse on a PS2. The voltage lights on my Juice Goose power unit was always moving around but I didn't realize that the later at night it was, the higher the voltage I was feeding my gear. Commonly in the 125v range and spiking higher. Now I just turn the knob on the variac to keep things around 117v and have not had any issues in years. Facts.

Damn! This seems super convenient. The fact that it tells you what the voltage is, and you can adjust on the fly is the selling point, I guess. I don't even know how I would check the voltage with a regular multimeter...you just stick a fork in that shit basically? lolol

I've certainly suffered from the day to day differences. Differences at different places, etc. Super frustrating.

ninjaraf wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2024 1:26 pm Damn! This seems super convenient. The fact that it tells you what the voltage is, and you can adjust on the fly is the selling point, I guess. I don't even know how I would check the voltage with a regular multimeter...you just stick a fork in that shit basically? lolol

I've certainly suffered from the day to day differences. Differences at different places, etc. Super frustrating.

Hah. Yeah if you have a multimeter. Set it to Volta and stick the 2 leads in there! Hah. Maybe type in for a vid on YouTube how to check voltage. But it’s super easy. I’m sure that harsh midrange that I would say on many recordings it came Thru, was down to that day being elevated voltage in my house.

And yeah I’m tempted to bring it around to shows. Just to always have a little more consistent tone. But I haven’t brought it yet. It’s definitely not too big I couldn’t bring it around. Just haven’t thought of it yet but I may bring it out next time

eyeball987 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2024 1:24 pm I bought a variac after I blew a mains fuse on a PS2. The voltage lights on my Juice Goose power unit was always moving around but I didn't realize that the later at night it was, the higher the voltage I was feeding my gear. Commonly in the 125v range and spiking higher. Now I just turn the knob on the variac to keep things around 117v and have not had any issues in years. Facts.

it’s definitely solved my issue. Cause while I’m just posting about this, I’ve had it for a few months now. I never hear that midrange crap I was fighting for YEARS. So I know this was the culprit

Damn. Yeah, I will figure out how to do this and measure at all the places I play and see what I get. If it's as inconsistent as that, I will get one of these.

Last night, I took the 100S to practice, and it just fucking BLEW ME AWAY!! It sounded better than I think I have ever heard it. Goddamn, I love that amp haha.

LOLOL

It really is just being a child and sticking a fork in the electrical socket!! I am shocked by this LOLOL

Just tested. I am at 121 v...

ninjaraf wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2024 2:28 pm Just tested. I am at 121 v...

Yeah I would guess most aren’t too far out of whack. I’m in a bit older house. Not sure if that has anything to do with it. But even my electrician buddy was surprised I was getting 130 at times. Pretty unusual I’d guess. But if you do have high voltage, it might be worth looking into a variac or this thing

Yeah, it's a consideration. I will measure where we practice and see what that looks like, too. He's saying 125V is too high, so makes me curious about how much 1V will affect tone. 5V seems like a small amount to affect it so much.