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1967Vintage
Junior tube assistant
Posts: 70
(1/27/04 9:52 am)
THD Hotplate
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I need something to tame my Hoffman Plexi 100w board a little, and managed to track a s/h THD Hotplate down. Thing is, it doesn't have a manual.
Does anyone know of an online version (I've checked their website) or does anyone have a scanned one they can send me?
TIA
Chris
coap01
Junior tube assistant
Posts: 83
(1/27/04 10:25 am)
here
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i just happened to have my hotplate here at work. dont ask why.
heres a scan of the manual, but i doubt it will help you much more then what THD got on their site.
here are pages 1 and 4
www.geocities.com/coap01/...te_1_4.jpghere are pages 2 and 3
www.geocities.com/coap01/...te_2_3.jpgjust a side comment, in my opinion the hotplate really kills alot of the tone. THD claim its transparent but its not. let me know what you think
EDIT: I fixed the links.
Ken
Edited by: GroundhogKen at: 1/27/04 11:41 am
1967Vintage
Junior tube assistant
Posts: 70
(1/27/04 10:47 am)
Re: arg
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Thanks Coap!
Basically it just confirmed that the speakers and the Hotplate doesn *HAVE* to be matched - the one I am getting is 8ohm, and I'm gonna be running into a 16ohm cab - so it should be okay...
I will let you know about the tone - thing is, my Marshall tends to sing much better at high volumes, so if I can tame that aspect I'm hoping I can get a much better sound and re-EQ if necessary. What's more, the singer in my band might be my friend again!
Thanks again - appreciated!
Chris
coap01
Junior tube assistant
Posts: 86
(1/27/04 11:19 am)
funny
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its funny, i got my hotplate for the SAME EXACT reason. i literally used it 3 times. and its been sitting in the original box for over a year now waiting to get ebayed.
heh anyone interested?
Ritchie200
Senior tube assistant
Posts: 161
(1/27/04 1:59 pm)
Re: arg
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Hey Chris, guys,
Years ago (many!) I used 2 Altair attenuators to try and "harness" my Marshall Major. I was always impressed at how it sounded - until they burned up. They sounded much better (IM very HO), than the Power Soak and the Guv'nor (or whatever the hell Marshall calls it). By the way, I burned those up too. I think the Altair was a resister network like the Power Soak, but for some reason it did not add the mud....I don't know. The reason I bring it up is that there may some out there on Fleabay for cheap to maybe try. Something to remember also is that some of the tone you know and love is coming from pushing the speakers. This was very evident when I was running one, two, or four cabs off my Major - big, big, difference. It's almost like playing really loud has it's own set of rules - and expertise, for that matter. Laney used to use (not sure if they still do) a brand of speaker that would sound just horrid at low volume, but would be creamy smooth butter when you abused them! Have you tried maybe scaling down on your cabinet(s)? If you are running a stack, how about a 2x12 closed back instead? Leave the stack for backline drama/big venue/outdoor stuff! Hope this helps.
Jim
Lucid Alice
Senior tube assistant
Posts: 148
(1/27/04 11:48 pm)
Re: funny
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Hey Richie,
You're a man after my own heart. When I went to a stack in '70 I found I had to disconnect two speakers in one bottom and just set the other one up for show. I like a pushed head with pushed speakers and the only way to keep the decibels down is to run 2 - 12's. Ever since then I have always been a 2-12 man. Of course that was before master volumes, but lowering the master just isn't the same thing... the power tubes aren't pushed, and the speakers aren't pushed.
But boy when you get a chance to crank the whole stack it is heaven. That is my favorite. The entire instrument is totally alive from the energy in the air. I've experimented with ideas to create that guitar response at lower levels, but the engineering complexity is beyond me... can't get the response bandwidth low enough to work like the real McCoy.
Ritchie200
Senior tube assistant
Posts: 161
(1/28/04 1:48 pm)
Re: arg
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Alice,
You da man! We played a couple of outdoor gigs back in the late 70's where I ran all 4 4x12 cabs, the Major on 9, and a preamp to push the front end. It was like getting the horse out of the stall and letting it stretch it's legs in a big pasture! Man, was it LOUD! Man, was it SWEET! I have pics of me with the biggest s**t eating grin on my face - it was pure tone heaven magic! KT88's!!! Like you said, the air is just alive. My bass player had a really nice reel to reel and we tapped all the shows. His girlfriend was keeping the recorder and all the tapes because we used to practice at her house. About a year later he finally got the reel to reel back from his EX-girlFIEND, but no tapes. I would kill for those today.
Jim
Edited by: Ritchie200 at: 1/28/04 1:49 pm
dsouth
Junior tube assistant
Posts: 1
(2/4/04 10:56 am)
Re: arg
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i have a marshall se-100 coming that a friend was using in his studio (he has another).... he liked it so i am trying... it is supposed to have a reactive load...has settings for 4 8 and 16 ohm... even has angles of mic placement..we will see... but am anxious to try it... will let you know.
1967Vintage
Junior tube assistant
Posts: 71
(2/15/04 1:18 pm)
Heaven
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Well, I finally had the opportunity to crank my Hoffman/Marshall through the Hotplate last night. My only criticism is that any setting below -8dB attenuation and the sound quality does suffer somewhat. At -16dB, forget it. But I left it on -8dB and cranked the amp up for some nice power tube distortion and got the best sound I've ever had!
The rest of the guys in the band loved it, and I had several guitarists in the audience come up to me and comment on the sound I was getting (shivers down their spines, etc!!!) When I get round to recording a gig, I'll post a link up...
Incidentally, regarding the cabs I use, I prefer open-backed 2x12s. I don't like Marshall 4x12s - all the ones I have played through seem to muddy the tone a little.
Chris
Lucid Alice
Senior tube assistant
Posts: 158
(2/15/04 10:45 pm)
Re: arg
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I knew guitarists that pulled the back off their 4x12 bottoms. They just used the backs for transport protection, but played them open-back. My opinion is that a closed back cab projects the sound better. The problem with that is, the sound blows right by you on stage. It sounds great 30 to 50 feet away, but you can't hear that on stage. I can't really work with a sound I can't hear. I used to use a closed-back 2x12 cab. I recall hearing it on gig tapes and thinking "Oh my god, that is the sweetest amp I've ever heard!" Of course I never heard that sound on stage!
I've never used a hot plate. I'm dating myself here, but I did use a power soak a lot. It worked ok for a 3 - 9 db cut. Sounds like the new rigs don't do much better. Of course I used it with a marshall head, and they can tend to be too bright. So a little treble loss actually helped it sound better.
1967Vintage
Junior tube assistant
Posts: 72
(2/16/04 9:50 am)
Re: arg
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I know what you mean, Lucid. I played a festival in Estonia a while ago with a hired plexi and a pair of 4x12s. The sound was awful on stage, but out front I was told that it was awesome. But I find I play so much better if I can get off on the sound on stage.
The nice thing about the Hotplate is that it has the bright and deep switches for acting like a 'loudness' control on a hi-fi amp (that psycho-acoustic thing I guess). The way I have my Marshall preamp set up (cathode bypass caps, etc) I should really never need to use either of these switches (hmm, just think of all those bottom-E spikes through the OT!), but what the hell - you can't have too much bottom end with a Strat!
klarsen01
Junior tube assistant
Posts: 7
(2/16/04 12:59 pm)
Re: THD Hotplate
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I tried a Hotplate with my AC30 and it was OK but then I got a Trainwreck Airbrake on E-bay. The Airbrake is much more transparent to my ears. I think Komet amps is making these now.
You can also adjust the resistance taps inside to change the amount of attenuation amount for each switch position. This worked great for me because I felt that the 4 db increments on the Hotplate resulted in too much of a volume change for me.
There's always a bit of tone loss with more attenuation simply because the speakers are not breaking up as much.
Kirk
www.theveronicas.com ampman72
Junior tube assistant
Posts: 1
(2/16/04 6:27 pm)
Re: THD Hotplate
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Any of you guys blow a hotplate with a 100W?
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