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Altair - PW-5 Power Attenuator
$75 used
The first power attenuator for guitar amps, before the Scholz Power Soak.
The first guitar amp power attenuator. I examined one in a used guitar store ($75). It has a big switch-knob that turns from 4 to 44 dB attenuation, in 4 dB increments. It is a box smaller than a shoebox, with a light brown metal case. No other controls, just two jacks. The metal casing has holes on all sides except the front, so you can see through it. It's almost empty inside - not much to it at all. There is an inch-wide flat strip that goes lengthwise through the box, with a coiled heater wire wrapped around it. It is tapped at various points. Across the connectors of the switch, there are additional resistive wires -- looks a little sketchy. The heater wire is silver, and difficult to solder to. Sometimes the solder connection fails and the Altair jumps to full power; one user had to regularly re-solder the connection.
>Do the instructions say anything about what setting to use at a given
ohm level? Should you NOT use it... say... on a 16 ohm amp (for example)? Is it
safe for any ohm level?
Pete wrote, from the manual:
INPUT
Impedance
From 3.9 to 8 Ohms with a 4 Ohm load
From 5 to 8 Ohms with a 8 Ohm load
From 6 to 8 Ohms with a 16 Ohm load
Maximum recommended amplifier power 300 watts into 4 Ohms, 150 watts into
8 Ohms
Max current 15 A
Peak voltage 100 V
>Important is, the first sentence in the tech info section is:
"The PW-5 may be used with any amplifier with an output impedance of 8
ohms or less..."
>So if you can switch that amp to 8 Ohms, that would be a really good
idea. I gotta get this thing scanned!
>Pete
SonicVision wrote:
>>Does anyone have any info/experience with the Altair PW-5 power attenuator. I heard one being used on a Marshall plexi Super Lead amp at a guitar show. It sounded pretty good. I'm not sure what the final word is regarding these things in general, are they safe to use or will they screw up the output transformers? I'm not sure what type of attenuation this one uses.
Mark Mitchell wrote:
>I used one of these for many years with my Marshall 50 and used the Line Out to go into a parametric equalizer and power amp. The power amp level was like a big master volume and the equalizer put back a lot of the tone that the Altair sucked. You tend to go through tubes a little quicker but it worked great. And yes, the Marshall was turned up all the way, most of the time.
Randall Aiken wrote:
>I recall seeing a tag [saying do not use with any power attenuator] hanging on a new Marshall a few years back, I haven't seen them on the new amps or the reissue stuff. I believe they quit putting it on when they came out with their own Power Brake, or the SE100 rack mount speaker emulator, which had a 6, 12, and 18 dB switch. I wonder how they suddenly made the amps strong enough to handle the load? :)
>I have used these things since the first Altair power attenuator came out around 1978 or so. I used it on a Fender Twin, a Fender Bassman 50, and a 50 and 100 watt Marshall with no problems. The Altair had a rotary switch that switched in different taps soldered onto a piece of nichrome heater wire. It got nice and toasty, and had a bad habit of coming unsoldered in the middle of a set, resulting in instant full volume! Nichrome wire isn't the easiest thing in the world to solder to. The thing looked pretty cool, though. :)
>After the Altair died one too many times, I got one of the Scholz power soaks, which I still have, and occasionally use with my old 50 watt non-master Marshall. It also doubles as a nice dummy load for working on amps. It is composed of several ceramic body power resistors that can be switched in or out to change the attenuation while (supposedly) keeping a constant impedance load on the amp. I've never verified that, but I've never blown up an amp with it either, so it is probably true.
Messages 1-66 of exactly 66 matches for search altair:
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1. 98/11/13 026 Re: Altair PW-5 Power Attenu alt.guitar.amps marksmitchell
2. 98/11/11 025 Altair PW-5 Power Attenuator alt.guitar.amps |=>SonicVision<
3. 98/11/11 024 Re: Altair PW-5 Power Attenu alt.guitar.amps Bobby Owsinski
4. 98/10/28 023 ALTAIR POWER ANNENUATOR alt.guitar.amps Mark Griswold
5. 98/10/28 022 Re: ALTAIR POWER ANNENUATOR alt.guitar.amps Mark Griswold
6. 98/10/28 022 Re: ALTAIR POWER ANNENUATOR alt.guitar.amps Bobby Owsinski
7. 98/10/29 021 Re: ALTAIR POWER ANNENUATOR alt.guitar.amps marksmitchell
8. 98/10/28 021 Re: ALTAIR POWER ANNENUATOR alt.guitar.amps Mark Limbeck
9. 98/08/25 020 Altair Tube Limiter alt.guitar.effects Bell
10. 98/08/15 017 Re: Hot Plate: Bad for amps? alt.guitar.amps Marc Ferguson
11. 98/07/02 017 Re: PowerSoak Question alt.guitar.amps Bobby Owsinski
12. 98/05/23 017 Re: WOLLMANN THE VULAGARIAN alt.astrology Edmond Wollmann
13. 98/05/23 017 Re: Ricky Ellis THE VULGARIA alt.astrology Edmond Wollmann
14. 98/05/22 017 Re: RICKY ELLISTHE VULAGARIA alt.astrology Edmond Wollmann
15. 96/07/23 017 FS: Altair Power Soak rec.music.makers.guit Jack A. Zucker
16. 98/10/06 016 Re: Page and Plant Rocks! alt.guitar.effects Alan Thompson
17. 98/08/29 016 Re: What is Jimmy Page using alt.guitar.effects Steve Conrad
18. 98/05/31 016 Re: Open Letter to Edmond Wo alt.sports.basketball Edmond Wollmann
19. 98/05/22 016 Re: A public apology to Ann alt.astrology.scam Edmond Wollmann
20. 96/05/17 016 Altair Power attenuator alt.guitar.amps Charles C.
21. 96/05/17 016 Re: Altair Power attenuator alt.guitar.amps Jack A. Zucker
22. 98/05/23 015 Re: Goodbye alt.astrology Edmond Wollmann
23. 98/05/22 015 Re: Defamation was-Re: Gee, alt.astrology Edmond Wollmann
24. 98/05/22 015 Re: Defamation was-Re: Gee, alt.astrology Fletcher
25. 98/05/22 015 Re: Defamation was-Re: Gee, alt.astrology anonym
26. 98/04/04 015 Re: thd hot plate... #3/4 alt.guitar.amps Steve
27. 98/02/06 015 Re: Do Valve amp power soaks alt.guitar.amps Tyrone Shuz
28. 98/01/02 015 Re: Marshall Super Lead Ques alt.guitar.amps Rich Koerner
29. 97/08/20 015 Re: Cranked Amps! alt.guitar Jeff Vineburg
30. 97/06/18 015 Re: Power Soak alt.guitar RutledgeTW
31. 97/04/09 015 Re: Power Brake alt.guitar.amps Duncan Markley
32. 97/04/09 015 Re: Power Brake alt.guitar.amps Randall Aiken
33. 96/05/18 015 Re: Altair Power attenuator alt.guitar.amps Mark Duncan
34. 98/02/05 014 Re: Marshall 2000 Head #2/3 alt.guitar Steve
35. 98/01/13 014 Re: THD Hot Plate or Mar#2/3 alt.guitar Steve
36. 98/01/03 014 Re: Marshall Super Lead Ques alt.guitar.amps TimTube
37. 98/01/03 014 Re: Marshall Super Lead Ques alt.guitar.amps Peter
38. 98/01/02 014 Re: Marshall Super Lead Ques alt.guitar.amps Peter
39. 97/12/07 014 Re: Power Attenuators ..#2/3 alt.guitar.amps Steve
40. 97/09/10 014 Re: Can I build a Power Soak alt.guitar.amps Jeff Vineburg
41. 97/08/08 014 Re: PRS Set neck or Bolt nec rec.music.makers.guit Jay Vyas
42. 97/06/18 014 Re: Power Soak alt.guitar 8Ball, corner p
43. 97/06/04 014 Re: Will a Power Soak Blow u alt.guitar.amps Joe Breher
44. 97/05/31 014 Re: Power Soak rec.music.makers.guit Rich Lockyer
45. 97/05/16 014 Re: THD HotPlate 8ohm rec.music.makers.guit Peter Stroud
46. 97/05/02 014 Re: Help req with Marshall S alt.guitar.amps TimTube
47. 97/03/07 014 Re: Gear List rec.music.makers.guit Cypher
48. 97/01/30 014 Re: Power soak question alt.guitar.amps Gino C. Iorfida
49. 96/08/14 014 Re: THD Attenuator? alt.guitar.amps jaybee
50. 96/08/13 014 Re: THD Attenuator? alt.guitar.amps Steve Milberger
51. 96/06/13 014 Re: Whats your rig??? Heres rec.music.makers.guit M. Diewald
52. 97/09/16 013 Re: Opinions wanted: Pow#2/3 alt.guitar.amps Steve
53. 97/09/14 013 Re: Can I build a Power Soak alt.guitar.amps rich-karl
54. 97/06/03 013 Re: Questions From the Mothe alt.algebra.help Anita Whiting
55. 97/05/11 013 Re: Aiken Attenuator/Loa#2/3 alt.guitar.amps Randall Aiken
56. 97/04/18 013 Re: Tuning a guitar---DC Lut alt.guitar Altair Aerospac
57. 96/07/15 013 Re: HELP..need to make a spe rec.audio.pro Gordon Gunn
58. 96/01/04 013 Re: Powersoaks THD & Mar#1/2 rec.music.makers.guit jaybee
59. 96/01/04 013 Re: Powersoaks THD & Marhsal rec.music.makers.guit Randall Aiken
60. 97/03/06 012 Re: Gear List rec.music.makers.guit Cypher
61. 96/10/29 012 Re: Rvw of Power Brake, Hot alt.guitar.amps Bobby Owsinski
62. 96/08/12 012 Re: THD Attenuator? alt.guitar.amps David Fung
63. 96/04/06 012 Re: Amps with switchable out alt.guitar.amps TimTube
64. 96/01/04 012 Re: Powersoaks THD & Marhsal rec.music.makers.guit David Roach
65. 95/06/13 012 How to connect two humbucker rec.music.makers.guit Lykakis Janis
66. 96/12/17 011 Re: Power Tube Distortion alt.guitar.amps Randall Aiken
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