Airbrake vs. Weber MiniMASS?

[Analog Assassin]

Has anyone bought/built the Airbrake and compared it against a Weber MiniMASS?
I have a MiniMASS and I find that at anything more than minimal attenuation, it chokes off some tone and bass impact.
I restored some high end by increasing the treble bypass cap. I tried using a 10 mh inductor to add bass back in, which it did, but made the entire unit too loud until nearly max attenuation.
I want an attenuator that doesn't kill the sound of the amp (who doesn't?)

[Allynmey]

The BBQ Boy unit stinks! I had one for a day and sold it. It gets buzzy past the first click! The airbrake is good down to bedroom level before it gets buzzy. At bedroom level you shouldn't be expenting perfection from ANY attenuator.

Allyn

[Analog Assassin]

I'm not looking for bedroom volume levels. I'm talking band practices and gigs (I can't really crank at gigs)

BBQ Boy? Is that some sort of Weber reference? There's no 'clicks' on the MiniMASS.

[Allynmey]

I'm not looking for bedroom volume levels. I'm talking band practices and gigs (I can't really crank at gigs)

BBQ Boy? Is that some sort of Weber reference? There's no 'clicks' on the MiniMASS.

Sorry, should have specified....The airbrake has a rotary switch (clicks) and the MiniMass has a attenuation pot with switch controls.. The Mini Mass I had didn't sound good at all. After you move the control for more attenuation past the first or second level, it gets buzzy to my ears. Honestly, I'm not a big attenuator fan. If i had to use one, the airbrake sounds much better than the minimass. BBQBoy is a reference to that person.

[sliberty]

I have a 15 watt MiniMass, and hate it. The higs get sucked right out of your tone.Mine has a treble boost switch (probably just a bright cap), and it hardly helps.

I also have an Airbrake, which I like a lot. When you set the attenuation level too high, it starts to get a little buzzy. But if you are just trying to drop the decibal level a bit at a gig, you'll probably love it.

[arfy]

I had a Mass once and recently a Mini-Mass, I couldn't stand using either one unfortunately. It sounds like such a good concept I thought I would probably like it but they both just throw a blanket over the amp. Maybe they work better with a different sort of amp but I had a Route 66 with the Mass and an Express copy I made myself with the 50W Mini-mass and it didn't come close for me.
Now I have an Alessandro Muzzle and I don't mind using it when necessary, it's not quite the same but it's bearable and still beats using a pedal. I understand it's based on the Ken Fischer design but it looks like it switches both the series and parallel resistance to keep the load at 8 ohms so it must be a little different from the Dr. Z Airbrake.

[Analog Assassin]

I thought the Muzzle was a clone of the airbrake.
If it changes resistance to shunt and series resistance, it's got to be an L-pad-type thing.
I'd like to see the inside of one of those to see how it differs.

[arfy]

Here's a pic I I took of my Allessandro Muzzle inside.
Also links to pics of a real Airbrake and more of the muzzle.

http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z65/ ... rbrake.jpg


http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z65/ ... zletop.jpg

http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z65/ ... inside.jpg

[Analog Assassin]

Thanks for posting the pics!
Yeah, the Muzzle is more like a true L-pad. There are good L-pad calculators online to calculate the resistance values to keep a certain impedance at attenuation levels.

Have you tried both attenuators?

[arfy]

I've never tried an Airbrake, I did build the attenuator from Gerald Weber's article in Vintage Guitar, that one's not bad but I think I like the sound a hair better with the Muzzle, the GW design is an L-Pad too but instead of variable taps on a resistor it's 2 separate L-pads with a switch for each so you can run one or the two in series, each one is a 6 db reduction so it knocks the volume down quite a bit when both are on. He designed it so the resistance stays constant with one or both L-pad circuits switched in.

[John C]

If anyone's interested, I bought the largest MASS ("100 W" I think) and it sounds pretty good. If I remember correctly, it seems the largest MASS was the only Weber attenuator that was appropriate for an amp with the wattage of an Express, according to Weber's directions.

...I forgot to mention that as I turn the volume down on the attenuator (increase the attenuation), I don't hear any added noise or buzz.

[Broz]

I have been using a 50W MASS Lite with the separate treble and bass attenuation. It seems to work fairly well if you don't dial it down too much and the separate controls let you fiddle with the sound a bit.
Broz