Resistor divider vs simple series resistor, effect on tone ?

[chopstuck]

I was looking at attenuator circuits to decrease signal before the PI or to reduce singal feeding a EL84 vs 6v6. I have seen where a champ style pre has a node with 220k resitor to ground and a 220k in series with the output tube. This to feed a pi for EL84's.

My question is how is this different from an equivalent value series resistor alone ?

[tubeswell]

I have seen where a champ style pre has a node with 220k resitor to ground and a 220k in series with the output tube.

My question is how is this different from an equivalent value series resistor alone ?

A 220k series resistor will act in conjunction with the inter-electrode capacitance of the tube and remove some of the high frequencies. If its mounted right at the grid pin of a pre-amp tube, it will inhibit parasitic oscillations. (But it is typically too big-a-value to use as an output tube grid stopper)

A voltage divider (like that) reduces the signal strength (by half), and will also lose some of the highs. If you want to boost the highs, then add a parallel cap to the 'top' resistor in the divider to bypass the higher freq AC signal

[iknowjohnny]

try split load plate resistors to drop gain. They are the only thing i have found to effectively dump anywhere from a little to a lot of gain w/o changing the tone. Losing a lot of gain of course in and of itself changes to some, but a split load won't really affect the frequency curve.