No Power Amp Volume Ctrl on some Peavey amps?

[tbonuss]

This is just baffling me. Why does Peavey (or anyone else) make guitar amps that have effects loops (or preamp out, power amp in or whatever), that don't have power amp volume control or what you might call a master volume? So...whatever is in the effects loop becomes the volume control. That's convenient.

I just fixed a Minx and a Classic Chorus that had this "feature". Turned the Classic Chorus combo into a head, and it sure makes moving the reverb tank around to reduce noise from the power transformer a loud event. It did, however, finally answer the question: why would you ever need a power attenuator on a SS amp?...

Maybe I just never noticed this "feature" before, or am not thinking about something right.

[The Dude]

Well, it's not just Peavey. It's sort of the norm. There are a few amps with the master volume after the loop, but most are at the end of the pre. I've never thought of it as a problem, really. You have volume control regardless of configuration.

[Enzo]

I generally set up external effects or processors to have unity gain. So whatever volume goes in also comes out. SO the master at the end of the preamp serves perfectly well as overall volume control.

Some guys put a volume control pedal in the FX loop. You can use that as an expression pedal, the master in the preamp decides how loud you can be overall.

[J M Fahey]

In fact each option has its merit:

1) Master Volume before Pre Out: you control both internal power amp and any amp fed from that Pre/LoopOUT with a single knob, very convenient for daisy chaining.
But Power amp IN or Loop Return gets controlled, as you say, from an external source.
It can be good or bad depending on situation.

2) Master Volume at the input of Power Amp, after Pre out or Loop Return.
Preamp can not fine tune what it sends to others, on the contrary you can set Power Amp to any level you want.
Good if you mix and match different brands and models, so all have similar sensitivity, so they "all clip at about the same (preamp) volume"

Flip a coin or roll the dice and pick one

[tbonuss]

Wow. I guess I've just had a totally skewed personal sample, or never really paid attention. Don't remember ever having an amp that had volume control that was purely based on preamp gain. You guys obviously have seen literally thousands and thousands more amps than me.

To be clear, there is a master (that is post pre) on the end of the dirty preamp channel, but not on the clean--its just preamp gain--evidently some later models had a MV of some kind. On the Minx, there is no volume control at all, just the preamp gain.

BTW: the Minx bass amp is a *very* cool Strat amp, with the addition of a reverb pedal. Blew me away. Quite surprising.

Thanks again for the insight guys.

*later: just saw your post -- very helpful Juan. Thank you.

[d95err]

To me, having the master volume before the loop is a really bad idea, as the loop level will depend on how loud you set the amp. Play at low volume and the loop level will be so low, the signal-to-noise level will be terrible. Turn the amp up and you probably overpower and distort the effects in the loop. If you have effects with input/output level controls, you may need to adjust them every time you change the master volume.

Having the loop before the master volume means you have a constant loop level, regardless of how loud you play.