I’m on the hunt for an attenuator, so I’ve been prowling music shops and hunting online to find just the right one that will preserve my tone, but reduce it to a volume that will keep the neighbors from calling the cops—or keep a club’s soundman off my back.
“What’s an attenuator?” That’s a question we get a lot at PG, and the answer is: a device that allows you to drive your tube amp hard without the volume that comes with turning up. As we all know, pushing tubes really makes an amp sing, and getting that tone at a reduced volume can be a feel-good experience for everybody.
An attenuator is connected between an amp and a speaker using two regular speaker cables—one from the amp to the attenuator and one from the attenuator to the speaker. Then you dial in your tone and volume, and you’re set.
“Pushing tubes really makes an amp sing, and getting that tone at a reduced volume can be a feel-good experience for everybody.”
There are four types of attenuators: passive, active, resistive, and reactive. Passive attenuators rely on weakening the power of the signal and improving the impedance match between the guitar and the amp. They don’t require any sort of external power supply, and they used to have a reputation for frying tubes and overheating amps, but modern tech has reportedly cured those concerns. Active attenuators do require external power. This is because they are designed not only to attenuate a signal but also to boost it. So, essentially, an active amp attenuator takes a portion of the amp’s signal and reduces it or increases it to give it more drive.
The main difference between resistive and reactive load attenuators is that a reactive attenuator lowers the amp’s output while maintaining its impedance curve. This means that, regardless of the amount of attenuation, your tone will maintain as much transparency as possible. Resistive attenuators don’t maintain that impedance curve, and as attenuation increases, the color of your tone changes, becoming more compressed and darker.
Now, let’s take a look at some of the attenuators I investigated, in different price ranges.
JHS Little Black Amp Box
This is a passive attenuator, meant for use only through an effects loop. It does an effective job of attenuation, but it sounds thin compared to the active (and more costly) attenuators I listened to. It changes the tone more, too, but at a $65 street price it can easily get you in the game.
Two Notes Torpedo Captor X
The Torpedo Captor X from Two Notes is a multi-function tool with lots of bells and whistles. It’s a compact and portable reactive load box, amp attenuator, miked-cab simulator, IR loader, and stereo expander. Although I didn’t get to experiment with all of its capabilities, this is a great sounding attenuator—very effective, and it maintains your tone while lowering the volume. But at $599 street, it’s an investment, as are all top-shelf attenuators.
Radial Headload Prodigy
The Prodigy is an excellent sounding box and does a good job attenuating the signal to your speaker. Like the Two Notes, it has more functions than attenuation, but you can choose 100 percent, 50 percent, or 25 percent attenuation. It includes a DI and nice high and low EQ controls—along with a built-in headphone amp. The Prodigy uses custom ceramic-coated resister coils to convert the excess power from your amp into heat. And like the Torpedo Captor X, it’s priced at $599 street.
Dr. Z Brake-Lite
This attenuator from amp-builder Dr. Z sounds great and does a good job of maintaining sound and tone while lowering the volume of your amp. It’s very simple to use, with a 5-position switch for different amounts of attenuation. This box accepts 4-, 8-, or 16-ohm loads. It has parallel speaker outputs, letting you run multiple cabinets. It’s only compatible with tube amps up to 45 watts, so it won’t work with your Marshall stack. But this device packs a lot of bang for $399 street.
Universal Audio OX Amp Top Box
This is the Cadillac of attenuators—a very high-quality device using premium analog components. In addition to a top-notch attenuation circuit, the OX Box features Universal Audio’s Dynamic Speaker modeling technology, giving you access to dozens of spot-on mic and guitar cabinet emulations. But like a Cadillac, it ain’t cheap, at $1,499 street. PS: If you’re a Buddy Miller fan, the OX is an important component of his tone.
What I discovered in my hunt is that if you’re looking to maintain your tone at lower volumes, you are probably better off spending more on an active attenuator. Passive attenuators tend to change your tone while bringing your volume down. So, if it’s within your budget, it’s worth paying more for the good stuff.
- Ultimate Attenuator Review ›
- Tone Tips: The Lowdown on Load Boxes, Attenuators, and Reamps ›
- Amp Too Damn Loud? Here Are 10 Attenuators That'll Save Your Bacon ›
![Adrian Belew/BEAT Tour Rig Rundown [2024]](https://www.premierguitar.com/media-library/youtube.jpg?id=53638946&width=600&height=600&quality=85&coordinates=192%2C0%2C368%2C0)
Duane Denison of the Jesus Lizard, EGC Chessie in hands, coaxing some nasty tones from his Hiwatt.
The Jesus Lizard’s sixth album, Blue, served as the band’s final statement from the frontlines of noisy rock for the next 26 years. By the time of their dissolution in 1999, they’d earned a reputation for extreme performances chock full of hard-hitting, machine-like grooves delivered by bassist David Wm. Sims and, at their conclusion, drummer Mac McNeilly, at times aided and at other times punctured by the frontline of guitarist Duane Denison’s incisive, dissonant riffing, and presided over by the cantankerous howl of vocalist David Yow. In the years since, performative, thrilling bands such as Pissed Jeans, METZ, and Idles have built upon the Lizard’s musical foundation.
Denison has kept himself plenty busy over the last couple decades, forming the avant-rock supergroup Tomahawk—with vocalist Mike Patton, bassist Trevor Dunn (both from Mr. Bungle), and drummer John Stanier of Helmet—and alongside various other projects including Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers and Hank Williams III. The Jesus Lizard eventually reunited, but until now have only celebrated their catalog, never releasing new jams.
The Jesus Lizard, from left: bassist David Wm. Sims, singer David Yow, drummer Mac McNeilly, and guitarist Duane Denison.
Photo by Joshua Black Wilkins
Back in 2018, Denison, hanging in a hotel room with Yow, played a riff on his unplugged electric guitar that caught the singer’s ear. That song, called “West Side,” will remain unreleased for now, but Denison explains: “He said, ‘Wow, that’s really good. What is that?’ And I said, ‘It’s just some new thing. Why don’t we do an album?’” From those unassuming beginnings, the Jesus Lizard’s creative juices started flowing.
So, how does a band—especially one who so indelibly captured the ineffable energy of live rock performance—prepare to get a new record together 26 years after their last? Back in their earlier days, the members all lived together in a band house, collectively tending to the creative fire when inspiration struck. All these years later, they reside in different cities, so their process requires sending files back and forth and only meeting up for occasional demo sessions over the course of “three or four years.”
“When the time comes to get more in performance mode, I have a practice space. I go there by myself and crank it up. I turn that amp up and turn the metronome up and play loud.” —Duane Denison
the Jesus Lizard "Alexis Feels Sick"
Distance creates an obstacle to striking while the proverbial iron is hot, but Denison has a method to keep things energized: “Practice loud.” The guitarist professes the importance of practice, in general, and especially with a metronome. “We keep very detailed records of what the beats per minute of these songs are,” he explains. “To me, the way to do it is to run it to a Bluetooth speaker and crank it, and then crank your amp. I play a little at home, but when the time comes to get more in performance mode, I have a practice space. I go there by myself and crank it up. I turn that amp up and turn the metronome up and play loud.”
It’s a proven solution. On Rack—recorded at Patrick Carney’s Audio Eagle studio with producer Paul Allen—the band sound as vigorous as ever, proving they’ve not only remained in step with their younger selves, but they may have surpassed it with faders cranked. “Duane’s approach, both as a guitarist and writer, has an angular and menacing fingerprint that is his own unique style,” explains Allen. “The conviction in his playing that he is known for from his recordings in the ’80s and ’90s is still 100-percent intact and still driving full throttle today.”
“I try to be really, really precise,” he says. “I think we all do when it comes to the basic tracks, especially the rhythm parts. The band has always been this machine-like thing.” Together, they build a tension with Yow’s careening voice. “The vocals tend to be all over the place—in and out of tune, in and out of time,” he points out. “You’ve got this very free thing moving around in the foreground, and then you’ve got this very precise, detailed band playing behind it. That’s why it works.”
Before Rack, the Jesus Lizard hadn’t released a new record since 1998’s Blue.
Denison’s guitar also serves as the foreground foil to Yow’s unhinged raving, as on “Alexis Feels Sick,” where they form a demented harmony, or on the midnight creep of “What If,” where his vibrato-laden melodies bolster the singer’s unsettled, maniacal display. As precise as his riffs might be, his playing doesn’t stay strictly on the grid. On the slow, skulking “Armistice Day,” his percussive chording goes off the rails, giving way to a solo that slices that groove like a chef’s knife through warm butter as he reorganizes rock ’n’ roll histrionics into his own cut-up vocabulary.
“During recording sessions, his first solo takes are usually what we decide to keep,” explains Allen. “Listen to Duane’s guitar solos on Jack White’s ‘Morning, Noon, and Night,’ Tomahawk’s ‘Fatback,’ and ‘Grind’ off Rack. There’s a common ‘contained chaos’ thread among them that sounds like a harmonic Rubik’s cube that could only be solved by Duane.”
“Duane’s approach, both as a guitarist and writer, has an angular and menacing fingerprint that is his own unique style.” —Rack producer Paul Allen
To encapsulate just the right amount of intensity, “I don’t over practice everything,” the guitarist says. Instead, once he’s created a part, “I set it aside and don’t wear it out.” On Rack, it’s obvious not a single kilowatt of musical energy was lost in the rehearsal process.
Denison issues his noisy masterclass with assertive, overdriven tones supporting his dissonant voicings like barbed wire on top of an electric fence. The occasional application of slapback delay adds a threatening aura to his exacting riffage. His tones were just as carefully crafted as the parts he plays, and he relied mostly on his signature Electrical Guitar Company Chessie for the sessions, though a Fender Uptown Strat also appears, as well as a Taylor T5Z, which he chose for its “cleaner, hyper-articulated sound” on “Swan the Dog.” Though he’s been spotted at recent Jesus Lizard shows with a brand-new Powers Electric—he points out he played a demo model and says, “I just couldn’t let go of it,” so he ordered his own—that wasn’t until tracking was complete.
Duane Denison's Gear
Denison wields his Powers Electric at the Blue Room in Nashville last June.
Photo by Doug Coombe
Guitars
- Electrical Guitar Company Chessie
- Fender Uptown Strat
- Taylor T5Z
- Gibson ES-135
- Powers Electric
Amps
- Hiwatt Little J
- Hiwatt 2x12 cab with Fane F75 speakers
- Fender Super-Sonic combo
- Early ’60s Fender Bassman
- Marshall 1987X Plexi Reissue
- Victory Super Sheriff head
- Blackstar HT Stage 60—2 combos in stereo with Celestion Neo Creamback speakers and Mullard tubes
Effects
- Line 6 Helix
- Mantic Flex Pro
- TC Electronic G-Force
- Menatone Red Snapper
Strings and Picks
- Stringjoy Orbiters .0105 and .011 sets
- Dunlop celluloid white medium
- Sun Studios yellow picks
He ran through various amps—Marshalls, a Fender Bassman, two Fender Super-Sonic combos, and a Hiwatt Little J—at Audio Eagle. Live, if he’s not on backline gear, you’ll catch him mostly using 60-watt Blackstar HT Stage 60s loaded with Celestion Neo Creambacks. And while some boxes were stomped, he got most of his effects from a Line 6 Helix. “All of those sounds [in the Helix] are modeled on analog sounds, and you can tweak them endlessly,” he explains. “It’s just so practical and easy.”
The tools have only changed slightly since the band’s earlier days, when he favored Travis Beans and Hiwatts. Though he’s started to prefer higher gain sounds, Allen points out that “his guitar sound has always had teeth with a slightly bright sheen, and still does.”
“Honestly, I don’t think my tone has changed much over the past 30-something years,” Denison says. “I tend to favor a brighter, sharper sound with articulation. Someone sent me a video I had never seen of myself playing in the ’80s. I had a band called Cargo Cult in Austin, Texas. What struck me about it is it didn’t sound terribly different than what I sound like right now as far as the guitar sound and the approach. I don’t know what that tells you—I’m consistent?”
YouTube It
The Jesus Lizard take off at Nashville’s Blue Room this past June with “Hide & Seek” from Rack.
Keith Urban has spent decades traveling the world and topping global country-music charts, and on this episode of Wong Notes, the country-guitar hero tells host Cory Wong how he conquered the world—and what keeps him chasing new sounds on his 6-string via a new record, High, which releases on September 20.
Urban came up as guitarist and singer at the same time, and he details how his playing and singing have always worked as a duet in service of the song: “When I stop singing, [my guitar] wants to say something, and he says it in a different way.” Those traits served him well when he made his move into the American music industry, a story that begins in part with a fateful meeting with a 6-string banjo in a Nashville music store in 1995.
It’s a different world for working musicians now, and Urban weighs in on the state of radio, social media, and podcasts for modern guitarists, but he still believes in word-of-mouth over the algorithm when it comes to discovering exciting new players.
And in case you didn’t know, Keith Urban is a total gearhead. He shares his essential budget stomps and admits he’s a pedal hound, chasing new sounds week in and week out, but what role does new gear play in his routine? Urban puts it simply: “I’m not chasing tone, I’m pursuing inspiration.”
