Variac question

[Capt Vemo]

I have whats probably gonna sound like a dumb question to most of you. So get your jabs in LOL but I was curious if I have one of the Lar/Mar MVs installed in my plexi replica. Im running the volume on the front of the amp on 10 and the MV around 3 for a nice comfotable bedroom volume. If I was to use a variac turned down to 90 volts like EVH did would it still give me more gain at that volume setting? Or would I need to really crank it to get abit more sustain and gain out of it?

[YMI5150?]

gain is similar, less harsh, but volume drops a bit.

be careful if you're using George's PT. from my experience, the heater voltage drops below 2.7VAC once I get below 100 VAC input on the variac. I've been instructed to stay above 2.7 so have not explored variac settings below 100 VAC.

[Capt Vemo]

Ive been steared away from dropping the volage on one down to say 90volts like EVH did. But I have another question about using them. I honestly think my voltage in some of the outlets in my house vary abit. And is actually going up and down while Im playing. Would this be something I could use to keep the voltage at a steady 110 voltage for my amp ?

[Tone Slinger]

Yes

[AustinTx]

No....you need a voltage regulator to keep you AC steady.
Variac will just give you a percentage of the wall voltage,
if the wall voltage varies...the output of the variac will vary also

Dropping voltage with a variac will drop the volume a bit but..
2.95v is as low as you wanna go on a heater, according to the gurus...

[908ssp]

According to experts I respect heater voltage issues are way over stated. Nobody has ever posted loss of a tube due to too low heater voltage. And the spec everybody quotes is developed for extreme high power broadcast tubes not tubes is guitar amps. I personally don't go lower than 100 volts as I think the quality of the tone changes in a way I don't care for. I am not worried about wearing out a tube in any case.

[AustinTx]

According to experts I respect heater voltage issues are way over stated. Nobody has ever posted loss of a tube due to too low heater voltage. And the spec everybody quotes is developed for extreme high power broadcast tubes not tubes is guitar amps. I personally don't go lower than 100 volts as I think the quality of the tone changes in a way I don't care for. I am not worried about wearing out a tube in any case.

True True...in my post I said "according to the gurus"

I have been running with low heater voltage since 85..without any problems