Hi all, first-time poster here. I’m a longtime Fryette fan and the current owner of a PS-2.
I have a question about using the self-attenuation feature with a live passive speaker cabinet simultaneously. I had this idea several months ago. I’ve been experimenting with it since then, and so far, it has been working really well and has provided me with more tonal control from my PS-2 when I use it as my main power amp.
My signal chain is as follows:
Guitar → Headrush MX-5 → PS-2 line in → PS-2 Speaker Out 1 → PS-2 Amp In → PS-2 Speaker Out 2 → Mesa 2X12 input
With this setup, I notice a volume drop, presumably because I’m running at about half the wattage now. However, I can use the attenuation toggle switches (flat/brite/edge and flat/warm/deep) to further sculpt the tone I’m getting through my live passive speaker cab. I run everything at 8 ohms because this is the rating of my cab.
For a long while, I figured this was a trick that could only be done with the PS-2/PS-2A, as these have two speaker outputs, whereas the PS-100 only has one speaker output. However, I had an epiphany today that I’ve just tested, and it produces the same results - a bit of a volume drop, but with the benefit of being able to use the toggle switches through a live cab while using the PS-2 as a power-amp.
This new/alternative signal path is as follows:
Guitar → Headrush MX-5 → PS-2 line in → PS-2 Speaker Out 1 → Mesa 2X12 input → Mesa 2X12 parallel output → PS-2 Amp In
This trick requires the cab to have at least one parallel output jack (Mesa Rectifier cabs, Orange PPC cabs, some Engl cabs, etc.) However, this now opens the door for PS-100 users to use this trick as well, as it only requires the use of one Power Station Speaker Out.
I thought I would share this with the community because it can be used to further expand the tonal control of the PS-2/PS-100 for users who use the Power Station as their main power amp for preamps, modelers, profilers, etc.
However, I wanted to ask the following questions.
1. Does this trick risk damaging the Power Station? If yes, can you please explain how and why?
2. I currently run the speaker out and amp in impedance at 8 ohms, as that’s the rating of my cabinet. Should the impedance settings be changed to something different, like one might do if they were running two different live passive cabinets from one amp head?
3. If I am not the first person to think this up and share it with this community, is there a phrase for what this trick is called? Is it just an extension of the self-attenuation mode?
My apologies if this is a repeat question that has been previously asked and answered on this forum.
Thanks!