I have tried/owned a few different attenuators and have always come away feeling that the sonic compromises were not worth the benefits of attenuation. Ultimately I wound up feeling that a pedal was a better alternative to the compressed tone and disconnected feeling of using an attenuator. So when Rivera called up and said they had this new RockCrusher coming out, I was skeptical. However, they said that their design really does maintain the tone/feel of the amp by tightly controlling the capacitive/inductive relationship between the amp and the speaker. As you probably know, most attenuators use resistance as the primary method of attenuation, but speakers are not resistors and their impedance varies continuously with frequency. Just plunking a big wire-wound resistor into a box isn't going to cut it.
So how does the RockCrusher work? Very well.
Testing the RockCrusher through a Dr. Z Remedy -- a loud non-master amplifier -- the RockCrusher easily got the Z into the crunch zone at reasonable volume levels and with complete natural feeling between the guitar and amp. There was no significant loss of high end, the attack was normal, and the distortion totally natural. It was really impressive, and I was able to get tones that would have been otherwise painfully loud and not practical in any practice or gigging setting. All of a sudden there was life past ten o'clock on the volume knob, and it was very good.
The RockCrusher also has several features and controls that make it more than just another amplifier attenuator:
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Two speaker output jacks for use as a standard attenuator between amplifier head and cabinet
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Balanced and unbalanced line outs for use a load box without a speaker cabinet. In this mode you can run the line out in a mixer for live sound, recording or even as a slave out to another amp
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A special "studio" attenuation setting that has it's own fine adjustment to precisely control volume levels; great for home recording
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A line out level control for easy compatibility with virtually any other recording or mixing device
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Front panel located switches for Pure Bypass, Impedance, and two preset equalization settings to improve tone a very low levels
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Huge 120W power handling capacity
Keep in mind that an attenuator is not a miracle worker. If you want to sound like Slash in your bedroom, there will be some loss of tone because at some point the signal is so squashed that the speaker is just not moving any air. But at reasonable levels of attenuation, the RockCrusher is outstanding in its ability to maintain the tone and feel of your rig and really let you explore the other half of the volume knob.
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