I'm not familiar with that particular box. From Googling, I see on Reverb.com a little 1-in/1-out single chickenhead knob stomp box sized box that I guess is a simple attenuator. Looks like a black plastic box with a sticker decal for the label. Looks cheap as fuck and shitty honestly. The description says you're supposed to put it in the amps loop. So if you're using it between the guitar and the amp... don't do that.
goes on the FX loop, it's not very effective and only 1 to 2 of 11 are really usable before blasting out the neighbors. It also mutes the treble a bit, guessing from loss of signal due to the potentiometer or resistor in there?
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Maybe it's just a shitty attenuator. One of these Mesa Boogie 5 band EQ's Mesa Boogie 5 band EQ's might work. I think these are mainly used to go in the loop of amps. Several Mesa amps feature a 3band EQ in the preamp but also have a secondary 5 band slider EQ section after the preamp, the Mark 5, Mark 5 John Petrucci, and Nomad amps for example. I forget exactly why people like to add EQ's in the loops of old Marshall's and such, but I think it's something to do with the way overdrive itself can sometimes shift the EQ with harmonics and placing an EQ after all the preamp overdrive lets you more accurately shape the EQ better to your liking. And with in and out level knobs, you could probably use it as a 2-in-1 EQ and attenuator.
That boogie unit looks more legit, i'll add this to my christmas list.
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An "attenuator" may not work on your amp as desired though. Usually you want an amp with pre and post gain knobs in both channels and no master volumes. From what I see on Google, Blue Voodoo's have a single master volume control in channel 2 and a gain control in channels 1 and 2 (no master vol in ch.1). That's maybe a problem. Usually you blast the pregain for more distortion and then the post gain knob acts as a "volume" knob... and with an attenuator in place you'd crank both the pre and post gains and then control the volume by rolling the attenuator off. So I dunno if that "master volume" knob works on both channel 1 and 2. It's not gonna be a HUGE difference anyway, even if it IS working properly. You'll notice a tad more fuzz, it can be very subtle on some amps more than others. It honestly sounds better to crank an amp WITHOUT an attenuator. Part of what makes it sound better is that thunderous rumble in the floorboards that you feel and that sound pressure hitting you in the gut as you stand in front of the amp with it blaring at a zillion db's.
Channel 1 (clean) only works with volume knob. Works as you world expect. Channel 2 (distortion) Has gain which is pre-amp( plus boost button for even more filth ), and the master knob to raise the overall volume.
My main issue is that the sensitivity of both the volume, and master knobs goes from zero to rock star before the first hash mark is even reached.
Alright headed over to good ol Radio Shack! Nah, no EE here just a ME but I oversee a cutting edge manufacturing facility with machines averaging around 500k a pop. I've soldered PCBs once or twice a million in times my days, I got dis.
Screwing up the board is just one problem. Voltage caps and different components can still hold a lethal charge even when the unit isn't plugged in. Touch the wrong thing the wrong way and you could wake up in the back of ambulance or not at all. Proceed with caution.
Got it taken care of, it was actually pretty damn easy. Next issue, I have this shitty volume box(omnisonic) that i'm pretty sure came with the amp. With it on there the tone sounds like hot garbage. Got any tricks to attenuate so I can crank this thing but maintain a reasonable volume without slaughtering the tone?
What a better mouse WILL do is have a higher polling rate and improved fine accuracy when compared to a cheaper shittier mouse with worse specs.
USB has 100x the bandwidth needed to handle mousing duties. The difference between and good mouse and a shitty one is the on-board processor. Optical mice are essentially cameras that take and compare pictures to interpret motion. Older examples didn't have the ability to process this on-board the mouse itself and this duty was shared with your PC. This is where polling rates came into play, now that it's all done on chip at the mouse polling rates are largely irrelevant. Any good HID chip will be polling over USB as fast as possible (1000hz for 1ms response time in most cases)
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I'm partial to mouses with invisible lasers rather than those optical or infrared ones. They emit a light, and if you use the mouse without a mousepad on a naked laminated desk surface, it can cause the optical sensor to feedback and freak out randomly.
Had that happen to me more times than I care to remember way back when I used an optical mouse. At this point, I've been scrubbing a mouse over this desktop so long, most the glossy lamination is gone and there's actually a portion where the particle board fibers are exposed. This desk looks like a total piece of junked shit after 10 years of heavy use.
Lasers are less prone be disturbed by anomalies like reflections compared to traditional optical sensors this is why they tend to work better on shiny surfaces. Most have moved on to infrared sensors these days anyway, this is why you're not seeing that light under your mouse anymore. A good infrared sensor will track on anything short of an electropolished surface. ( <10μm variance)
Thanks to advances in manufacturing technologies imaging sensors have gotten cheaper, and algorithms have gotten better, therefore you can spec a superior sensor capable of capturing higher resolution, and have a faster processor handling things. When you see XXX "gaming mouse" they always advertise DPI ratings first. This being better is a bit of a false statement alone. No-one uses 15-gazallion DPI setting, as the mouse would be interpreting tracking at such a great distance per movement it would be unusable. This get's scaled up or down at some point with different DPI settings. But in general mice true high dpi ratings have superior processors, and error correction algorithms which are less prone to spazzing out during fast flick movements like railing, or other movements such as lifts. I just wish they would give relevant details like sensor megapixel values, or processing speeds, etc
I disagree. They ALL make them equally shitty. I've got a Razor Deathadder that I was stupid enough to pay about 90 bucks for.
We're not disagreeing. Razor makes a shit product along with many others. What you end up paying for is largely marketing, and in their case software development. Their mice mechanically are the same as your $20 logitech. They do tend to use better off the shelf hardware for things like cables, and switches however but their mechanical design is largely fluffy garbage. The quality switches I mentioned have zinc plated contact surfaces which aren't susceptible to corrosion. These and will outlast the the rest of the mouse plus another 20 years in the ocean.
I guess my whole point is that we were developing optical sensors that will track faster, and more accurately on any surface than any of us fragerts can move our fappin appendages and this was >10 years ago. Pick the mouse that fits your meat mitten the best and play more. I recommend Corsair, Steel Series, and yes some Razors if you want the best sensors. (pixelart, keyance)
Logitech tends go with the cheapest option available when it comes to the pots, and mechanical switches they use in their products. These have raw untreated copper contacts that corrode overtime when exposed to oxygen not to mention all the other pubes, sweat, and cheeto crumbs introduced during your intense fragging(fapping) sessions. Kind of a bummer as they have great design, and use solid optical sensors otherwise.
So far I haven't seen any web pages chronicling the timeline of Blue Voodoo amps or Crate amps. So I suppose you could call these the mk I, mk II, and mk III versions of the amp. It doesn't seem like anyone prefers one style over another though. The all black 3rd versions sometimes have a higher price tag, but they also come in 150w and 300w versions, so that extra power explains the higher price.
Makes sense, my buddy has the "mk3"
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I would let a qualified amp repair guy do that if I were you. It takes the proper size soldering iron and solder pump to correctly do that stuff without damaging the board it's connected to. And those boards were done by robots, not something an inexperienced unsteady hand should be messing with.
Alright headed over to good ol Radio Shack! Nah, no EE here just a ME but I oversee a cutting edge manufacturing facility with machines averaging around 500k a pop. I've soldered PCBs once or twice a million in times my days, I got dis.
The problem you describe... it depends on what you HAVEN'T described. If it's popping and cracking when you turn knobs, then obviously yeah, there's shit in the pots and some electrical contact cleaner should remedy that. But if it's popping and cracking while you're playing and not touching any knobs, then it's obviously not dirty pots, it's some components like caps or diodes that are wearing out. You mentioned "when it's cold", so maybe it goes away after 5 minutes or so when the tubes get good and hot. So it could be a bad tube getting ready to fail, but then again, it could still just be something non-tube like I said before. Other components CAN behave that way too, with the problem seeming to go away once the amp gets good and hot. Probably best to let a licensed rock and roll medical professional diagnose and treat the ailment.
DON'T take it to some "boutique" or vintage guitar store and let them recommend some high dollar yo-yo to take it to. Yeah, their recommendation/friend might be good at that shit, but he'll likely overcharge you too. Some place from your local yellow pages that repairs a high volume of all kinds of audio gear (stereos, church PA systems, etc) would be your best bet at getting the lowest fairest price.
Did a little poking, it's the channel switch. I tried to clean it but no dice, too much corrosion.( probably because I never use the clean channel? ) I sourced a replacement online, it'll be an easy swaparoo. I think a lot of the Crate hate stemmed from when they moved production overseas? I'm not a snob or anything but I think this little guy sounds pretty darn good. This one has survived this long with me so i'll keep it for the long haul. These combos gotta be near unicorn status at this point.
You guys know anything about repairing these things? I've had this blue voodoo for 20+ years. Its got a bit of random snap crackle and popping when it's cold but still works ok. I'm pretty sure it's just the pots, can I just go to town on this with some electronics cleaner? I don't play much these days, too many broken bones limiting my range of motion but I still try to dabble here and there.
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), and the master knob to raise the overall volume. 
This desk looks like a total piece of junked shit after 10 years of heavy use.
Razor makes a shit product along with many others. What you end up paying for is largely marketing, and in their case software development. Their mice mechanically are the same as your $20 logitech. They do tend to use better off the shelf hardware for things like cables, and switches however but their mechanical design is largely fluffy garbage. The quality switches I mentioned have zinc plated contact surfaces which aren't susceptible to corrosion. These and will outlast the the rest of the mouse plus another 20 years in the ocean. 
) I sourced a replacement online, it'll be an easy swaparoo. I think a lot of the Crate hate stemmed from when they moved production overseas? I'm not a snob or anything but I think this little guy sounds pretty darn good. This one has survived this long with me so i'll keep it for the long haul. These combos gotta be near unicorn status at this point.
