[fly135]

I'd like to record the output of my amp without using a mic. I'm thinking that a 16 ohm resister ladder (or pot) rated for the small amount of watts I want to use would work. I figure that if I attenuate the signal down to line level then that should work. Is this something is common to do? I can convert the watts to volts, and even check the level with a scope. Just thought I'd see if anyone had any experience doing this.

[Rockerbob]

There are boxes made that will give you line level from a speaker out. In most cases you either need to still have the speakers attached, or a dummy load that can soak up the watts. The dummy load will need to be heat resistant. It seesm like I used some big ceramic cased resistors some years ago for a dummy load, but the amp also had a line out, so I used the load so I could crank the amp without speakers attached and use the line out.

[fly135]

RB, I've given this some more thought and I think I can take a 8 or 16 ohm resistor (say about 25watt), and wire it in parallel with a 1K pot. Maybe put it in a little box with connectors. I could even put a 2 way 1/4" jack in there that unhooks the 25watt resistor and sends the signal to a cabinet while the pot is still in parallel. That way I could record the amp with or without the speakers hooked up. 25watts should be fine if I'm carefull about what I hook up to or where the volume knob is set.

[allthumbs]

I use the weber mini mass atenuator. It has a line out,4,8 and 16 ohm and a bypass.

[fly135]

allthumbs, I checked out their web page and they use speaker coils to load the amp. This is a good article on how to build a load that gives a dynamic impedance similar to a speaker.

http://www.duncanamps.com/technical/dummyload.html

I have a 10 ohm 100 watt resistor and a 25 watt 7.5 ohm'r on my desk right now. I might just start with a simple resistive load.