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My first tube amp was a VHT Pitbull combo back in the 90's. I am pretty picky about tone and have owned several attenuators over the years which do not truly capture the nuances of a tube amp. I just received the PS100 and started using it on my Bogner Helios and an Engl E646. Two different style amps which sound different turned up just below half way. I cannot be more happy with the way it attenuates and preserves my amp tone. Thank You so Much!!

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I'll begin by saying that I was looking for an attenuator for my 100+W amplifiers in order to use them more effectively in venues with "silent/semi-silent" stages and in my studio so that when these amp are mic'd up to my cabs its doesn't smash the mics with as much SPL or strip the paint of the walls when I record.I've believed hype, bought many attenuators/amp top devices, and sold every one for a big loss as they all were just terrible in some way or another. They all "attenuate" the output volume, but also alter tone and most importantly THE FEEL of the amp. The later to me is paramount to being able to enthusiastically play with passion. If it doesn't feel right, I can't get into it and am distracted by it. It's simply not possible to emulate the natural non linear impedance interaction between an amps tube output stage, output transformer, and speaker cab.Enter the PS-100. After much debate I purchased this device because I have several Fryette products and know them to be boutique top quality devices that are exceptionally well designed by some of the most respected amp builders around.When I was researching the PS-100 the first thing that immediately popped out was the fact that the PS-100 has a built in 100w tube (6550 tubes wow!) amp. It's an attenuator so why the power amp? Several reasons. First by using real tubes as the impedance load from the amp and to the speaker cab the 3 way interaction between power section, output transformer, and speaker cab is completely preserved and therefore no loss of feel or actual tone. The next thing is that the tubes used to obtain are two massive 6550 power tubes typically found in bass amps. That means that there is effectively infinite headroom in the PS-100 power amp and will allow even the most cranked hot rodded amp (up to 200w rms) to feed into the PS-100 and not overload or push the PS-100 into breakup or compression. The tone you put in is the tone that comes out, with the feels, but now that the post phase inverter master volume of the PS-100 is controlling the output level of the entire amps signal that is feeding it you can simply use that control to dial in your amps tone and feel to any volume for any situation. Genius.And ofc since it does have a big beefy high headroom power amp section, the PS-100 can also be used and what is basically an "anti-attenuator". For example most peoples performance settings on a 15w lunchbox style amp will not be loud enough to play medium to larger gigs. Hook it right up to the PS-100 and switch the front panel hi/lo button to "lo" for low watt amps, then just use the master vol on the PS-100 to crank it up as much as you need. (It has more than you need). In that same use case the PS-100 also has optional tone shaping options for each channel. This allows you take an amp and surgically tweak the high and low end responses. This is on top of the presence and depth controls on the front panel.Lastly it is invaluable for the studio as the PS-100 has a line in (allows you to inject tube amp vibes into a line lvl source and with it a TRS line out as well as a balanced XLR. The inclusion of a efx loop in the PS-100 makes it really easy to also do things like wet/dry/wet rigs or run a wet only signal through just the power amp. It's so useful that there is probably a bunch of other ways to get creative with it that I haven't figured out yet.Its pricy, but when you consider that Fryette is a primer name is guitar amplification, top quality, and that it is not JUST an attenuator, but a complete live and studio amplifier solution that is also an actual tube amp, you realize that the value is actually pretty amazing.My only extremely small criticism is that as this is their flagship amp top device for guitar amplifier the inclusion of midi control would have been nice. The PS-100 is used mostly in the studio and even through you can channel switch and toggle the EFX loop on and off, it would have been sort of useful if via it were possible to change the voicing options for each channel with midi cc's or something!

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