How about this as an inexpensive way of taming your Bassman or other amp thats TOO LOUD. Its £250 cheaper than a THD Hotplate and seems like it does the same thing. Its almost too good to be true - or is their a catch?
http://www.dv247.com/studio-equipment/electro-harmonix-signal-pad-guitar-effects-pedal-passive-attenuator--61325

unfortunately, that goes in before your amp, so is nothing more than another guitar volume control.
You are trying to get something that will go between your amp and the speaker, i sure someone on here posted an address for weber attenuators they seem to be the cheapest way to do what you are thinking

I just got one of these, just waiting for it to arrive.......http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130422160716

dont those only work if you have an effects loop? as it gets patched in to an effects loop

Suppose it depends on what sort of overdrive you are getting out of your deville?? If its preamp than all should be fine, but if you are cranking won't it affect your overdrive level.
But am thinking will be useless for capturing a cranked bassman at reasonable levels as its gonna be cutting the input going into the amp, which it needs to get that growl.
Really need an attenuator to cut the bassmans output.

Pete I bet you can't wait to get that blondshell, those videos that tavo has done of them have really made me question if I should be upscaling my rig instead of my current back friendly rig

Is the blondeshell as loud as a 6g6b bassman ?
Ive got a marsh 6g6b bassman and a 2x12 vibrolux 4 ohm cab thru which goes my gretsch hotrod, nocturne pedal and maxon ad999 delay. The sound is beautiful but way too loud when the basssman volume is anywhere from 2 and a half onwards. It completely drowns everyone out and im finding it unusable and ive gone back to using a miced up blues junior instead. Ive tried a hot plate attenuator but it sucks the nicest parts of the tone out of the sound. The nocturne pedal, apart from destroying the gretsch vol pot taper, is fantastic and makes the gretsch sound fantastic thru any amp but unfortunatley the marsh bassman head and cab are gathering dust until eventually I find a solution. What I dont get is that on youtube there is a clip of Brian Setzer singing Rumble in Brighton on his own with just his guitar and rig. The sound is big and fat and the distortion is smooth and beautiful, yet he is standing only a few feet away from the amp and the sound, altho massive ,is obviously not blisteringly way too loud. I can get my rig to sound similar ( thats the rig, not my fingers) but it would take the windows out of the building. The only time ive had my rig with the bassman volume on 4 - 5 ( setzers settings) was in a basement studio whilst recording and we ended up getting complaints from people about 4 streets away!
There are, though, lots of players e.g Buzz Campbell, who are making the transition from low wattage open back fender combos like the 22 watt deluxe reverb, over to Bassman heads and Blondeshell heads with no problems.

First off, I dont care what the claims are about attenuators not harming your tubes or amp, youre gonna pay for your sins one way or the other. Extreme tube wear or frying a transformer its seems like the stories of sorry outway the glory. I enjoyed my attenuator fascinations but I was buying power tubes every 6 months and NOS tubes arent cheap.
(Pete, promise me you wont use that on the Blondeshell, the Mercury Mag transformers
have a 10yr warranty but if they find out attenuators were used on em...zippo man)

There just is no way to play a big iron amp quietly straight away without an attenuator or
isolation cab.. I mean I have found my way of performing as isolated as possible without
compromising feel or tone but that doesnt work for everyone.

You mentioned Buzz campbell transitioning between venues and rigs.. he has his madness too about gear. Definitely not content with the stock pickups in his guitars. Powertrons
in his Falcon, and right now in his red hotrod we've got a classic in the neck and a supertron in the bridge (just had a classic + in there).
For small venues he doesnt even use an amp..plugs straight into the nocturne, then helicon or PodXt.. In more open stage areas like casino stages he'll use the Deluxe but its fitted with a large mag speaker(weber ferromax) and solid state rectifier plug using the nocturne into input #2 trem channel. That lets you dig into your amp at a much lower SPL than a big iron monster and get good tone, its different though bluesier but
close.


side note.. that video you are hearing from setzer involves mic preamps and compressors at the mix desk I mean I'm sure you understand that but something
inside me had to blurt it out anyway. sorry

ps. I'm am toying with an adjustable output impedance selector on the nocturne so guys that find a master volume necessary on a guitar, will not go insane
btw.. if you have a treble bleed on your guitar..hows it working with the Dyno Brain?
you got it right?

Nothing but Nocturne, Analog Delay and maybe my tried and trusted MXR Micro Amp into the Blondeshell....I PROMISE!!!

When you are saying about the attenuators damaging output trannies and tubes, it that when the amp is opened right up??
I personally wanna get the sound of my amp at 3-4 on the volume control, but at a level that doesnt shake stuff from the shelves. so have been seriously considering a hot plate or similar product. But if the damage will be occuring even at those sort of levels i may be having to rethink my rig