Super Duper Hot Plate Thread - Are you worthy?

[unconventional]

So I've been talked into a hot plate. Enough folks have been barking at me to get one. I have a 2:100 mesa power amp for my bedroom

Anyhow, Ima keep it simple.

Weber Mass?

or

THD Hot plate?

Speak or Die.

3,2,1.... GO

[Xtremevillan]

I myself am ordering an 8ohm THD HotPlate.

THD Hot Plate Guitar Amplifier Power Attenuator at AmericanMusical.com

I think they ship from NJ, so win win!

[unconventional]

Read this on another forum.

"I used to use a Hotplate, and it sounded like somebody tossed a blanket over my speaker cab. The Mass does the exact same thing - but with the treble compensation, it totally makes up for it. With the switch in the 6db position, it's like the attenuator isn't even there"

[PlagueX1]

I'm going to be getting a 16 ohm Hot Plate for my amp pretty soon here.

[Drew]

THD has "bright" and "deep"switches that do the same thing, and my money says the guy just didn't know how to use them.

[7 Dying Trees]

THD will cope with 100w+ amps, the weber I find a bit dodgy just because a high wattage amp could exceed the ratings of them, and then, well, bye bye attenuator.

The Hotplate I have works fine. Use the bright/deep switches for the higher attenuation settings, and you're fine.

Only rubbish thing about them, is that they are for one impedance only, so if i want to run 2 16ohm cabs, I'd have to get the 8ohm version, instead of being able to use my 16ohm one, which, kind of utterly sucks.

[Crucified]

i have a hotplate and i can't seem to get the thing to work right. When it's on if i step the amp up in volume at all where the hotplate would actually be working the tone fizzles out all the low end and sounds like someone is playing it through a telephone, none of the switches do anything to change this. anyone get this problem? am i just retarded?

[Drew]

You're not running it on -16, by chance? Is it cool for a half second, and then suddenly it drops out?

I had this problem too. As it turns out, I was being an absolute moron and had hooked it up backwards. The amp's speaker output goes into the Hotplate's input, and then the Hotplate's output goes to your speaker.

[Crucified]

Originally Posted by Drew

You're not running it on -16, by chance? Is it cool for a half second, and then suddenly it drops out?

I had this problem too. As it turns out, I was being an absolute moron and had hooked it up backwards. The amp's speaker output goes into the Hotplate's input, and then the Hotplate's output goes to your speaker.

thats sounds about right. now you say it, i can't remember how i had it set up. so now i've gotta check it again. thanks buddeh!

ok so i tried that. same problem. does it have something to do with using -16?

[metalfiend666]

Just remember, as the 2:100 is stereo you'll need two attenuators.

Two thing's I like about my Mass Lite are that it has independant attenuation for highs and lows so you can minimise tone suck, plus it has a speaker motor so it makes the amp react in a more organic way. Oh, and you can plug in rating of speaker cab after it, as the amp just sees the resistance of the Weber

[kmanick]

Originally Posted by 7 Dying Trees

THD will cope with 100w+ amps, the weber I find a bit dodgy just because a high wattage amp could exceed the ratings of them, and then, well, bye bye attenuator.

The Hotplate I have works fine. Use the bright/deep switches for the higher attenuation settings, and you're fine.

Only rubbish thing about them, is that they are for one impedance only, so if i want to run 2 16ohm cabs, I'd have to get the 8ohm version, instead of being able to use my 16ohm one, which, kind of utterly sucks.

no you don't
just switch the amp to 8 ohm and plug both speaker cabs into the speaker outs on the Hotplate.
I have 2 8 Ohm cabs now and I do this all the time, I just switch to the 4 ohm output in the back of the amp.
this came directly from THD(I emailed them and asked about this).
as long as you have a switch to 8 ohms in the ack of your amp (or an 8 ohm output) you're good to go.
As you plug a second speaker out into the Hotplate it cuts the Impedence in 1/2.
That's why there are two Speaker outs on the Hotplate

[Drew]

Originally Posted by Crucified

thats sounds about right. now you say it, i can't remember how i had it set up. so now i've gotta check it again. thanks buddeh!

ok so i tried that. same problem. does it have something to do with using -16?

I have nop idea why, but when I was running it backwards it only happened at -16dB.

Pull out the manual, and make absolutely sure you've got it backwards. I described my problem to a tech at THD, and he told me right off the bat that this was what I was doing. I figured I couldn't possibly be stupid enough to have hooked the thing up backwards, but I guess they get this question about three times a day.

Amp output ==> hotplate input, hotplate output ==> speaker cabinet. doubcle check that, dude, it almost has to be backwards, I went wrong by matching the amp output to the Hot Plate output without really thinking about it.