This lil’ black box can save your hearing
It seems to me that we are listening to music at two discrete volume levels. For the most part, it is through appliances like a music player, a computer or the radio. Here the volume level will moderate even if you’re into Heavy Metal or Techno. On the other hand, if you’ve been to a concert and stood anywhere near the stage, you know that there you’ll find much higher volume levels. Think gutwrenching and tinnitus inducing. It is under the latter conditions that the typical electric Blues and Rock guitar tone came to be associated with tube amps set to the max. This started as a necessity before good PA systems came into use and has been carried on in this genre since the 60s. Even a current star like Slash will set his Marshalls to 10 on every knob and get is typical tone; easy!
Us weekend warriors that want to emulate the likes of him are in for a problem when practicing. It’s called tinnitus and hearing loss. Cranked Marshalls put out an immense amount of volume and we are not practicing in a stadium. So we need a reduction of volume but need to keep the amp cranked. For tone!
Theoretically, you’d only need a resistor between the amp and the loudspeakers for that. But it would need to be musical! And this is where a black box like the Silencer comes in Continue reading
