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I’ve been wanting to try a variac for many years but there is so much internet noise about these things that I was always put off. I finally read enough to feel confident I wouldn’t screw up anything so I took the plunge! I’ve only had the unit for a few hours but here are my initial thoughts.
I’m not trying to be Eddie and I am not on a quest for the brown sound. My first concern was that my vintage amp was designed to run on less than 120v (which I am measuring out of the wall). Turning the variac down to 110 made a very nice change to the top end. The amp has always been a bit strident with an overly percussive transient. At 110, the top end mellows but doesn’t disappear. The harsh transient fades, the amp becomes softer, and there is much less ear fatigue. For this alone I am a happy camper and the variac was worth every penny.
I then went on to try lowering the juice all the way down to 90 volts. I have read that for many guys this is their favourite setting. My amp basically sounds identical but at 90v you can start to hear a real volume drop. It isn’t massive, but it let me pull my master volume up a notch. You get all the sonic benefits of 110 plus you shave a few dbs off the overall volume. I’ll experiment a bit more and see where I ultimately land, but I am betting I stay under 110.
IMPORTANT: Thanks to an online tip, I was warned that the meter/dial on my variac is crappy. The very first thing I did was grab my multimeter and check out the readings. Sure enough, the meter/dial on my variac is consistently about 7db high! I quickly grabbed some tape and marked off different settings on the dial (120, 110, and 90). I am very thankful to have know this because you could potentially fry something if you set the variac for 120.
FWIW, here is the unit I bought: SC-3M | Variac with Meter - 3A, 300 Watt
TG
I’m not trying to be Eddie and I am not on a quest for the brown sound. My first concern was that my vintage amp was designed to run on less than 120v (which I am measuring out of the wall). Turning the variac down to 110 made a very nice change to the top end. The amp has always been a bit strident with an overly percussive transient. At 110, the top end mellows but doesn’t disappear. The harsh transient fades, the amp becomes softer, and there is much less ear fatigue. For this alone I am a happy camper and the variac was worth every penny.
I then went on to try lowering the juice all the way down to 90 volts. I have read that for many guys this is their favourite setting. My amp basically sounds identical but at 90v you can start to hear a real volume drop. It isn’t massive, but it let me pull my master volume up a notch. You get all the sonic benefits of 110 plus you shave a few dbs off the overall volume. I’ll experiment a bit more and see where I ultimately land, but I am betting I stay under 110.
IMPORTANT: Thanks to an online tip, I was warned that the meter/dial on my variac is crappy. The very first thing I did was grab my multimeter and check out the readings. Sure enough, the meter/dial on my variac is consistently about 7db high! I quickly grabbed some tape and marked off different settings on the dial (120, 110, and 90). I am very thankful to have know this because you could potentially fry something if you set the variac for 120.
FWIW, here is the unit I bought: SC-3M | Variac with Meter - 3A, 300 Watt
TG