18Watt.com

Hi everyone,

I've built a Lite IIb head a long time ago and I love that amp. My concern today is : how can I lower the overall gain without changing the tonal character ? I tried 470k to 270k grid resistor mod but it's to cleanish, I tried a low gain tubes in V1 (12au7) but the amp looses his character being far to cleanish as well... I need an "in between", just a more manageable curse for the volume pot to dial in the exact amount of break up I want.

Thanks in advance for any input

You could try a voltage divider after the coupling cap from the plate of V1a. Start with a 1M pot for tweaking the values, so you can measure those and replace the pot with the desired resistors.
Another option is a split load plate resistor on the 1st or 2nd gain stage. Again you can use a pot to tweak the values. A 100k pot this time. Be aware this is only a temporary situation because a 0.25W pot is not ok to keep in that spot.

You could also try the Stupid Simple Master Volume mod.