Some small rooms have such problematic acoustical properties that you must take
more drastic measures to get the best amp sound. Here’s a trick you may have seen
used on stage. If you are a fan of Roy Buchanan, as we are, you may have seen videos
of live performances where he places the amp backwards, so that the back of the amp
faces the audience. His reasons for doing this in a live performance are somewhat
different than our concerns here, but still, we’d suggest trying this if you are having
problems with your amp’s sound in a small room. If you are having trouble with the
amp sounding peaky in the upper midrange, or generally too bright in your room, try
turning it around so that the back of the amp faces you. This can make big difference
in a bright sounding room.
So far, we’ve discussed using the attenuator to control the volume in the case where
we’re driving the amp into overdrive and distortion. However, it can also help greatly
with clean tones in a problematic room as well.
Usually, in a good sounding room, you would set the attenuation knob to 0db or bypass
the attenuator when dialing in a clean tone. This always gives you the most headroom,
and the most apparent clarity and dynamics.
However, if you find that the amp sounds harsh in your room, and that it’s hard to
control the volume because you are using a setting between 1 and 2 on the Volume
knob, then the attenuator can help. Try setting the attenuator down a few steps (e.g.
try it at –15db), with the HF Comp switch set to Max, and turn the Volume control up a
bit to compensate. You should find that this smoothes out the upper mids and fattens
up the tone without losing presence.
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