Guitar Gear Forum

Hello everyone,

I'm opening this topic to pick your knowledgeable brains. Here is my problem, I own a few tube amps, none of them have line outs (except for well the FX-loop send before the power stage). I don't want to invest, like nor have the use for and attenuator or loadbox/dummyload, as I can play at high volumes, but what I would like it to take the signal after the power stage and before the speaker to my audio interface for recording, then apply cab impulses after.

For that I wanted to know if I could use a simple DI box in between my amp and speaker (still have the sound coming out of my speaker of course). A DI box like this (i'm open to other DI boxes than this one of course, but without any speaker emulation) :

https://www.thomann.de/gb/millenium_die ... passiv.htm

Now it has a 50db pad so a hot signal shouldn't be a problem, but what I'm wondering is if the output impedance will be conserved when going in and out of the 1/4 jacks.

If this doesn't work what would be my best solution apart from a loadbox/attenuator ?

Thank you all for reading

Not sure if the Direct Box will do what you want.
As far as I know, Direct Boxes are meant to plug into your Guitar > Foot Pedal > Direct Box > PA Mic Input/DAW


The Rivera Rock Crusher, Weber Mass, TDH Hotplate and Fryette Powerstation are popular attenuators.
The Fryette Powerstation has the bonus of being able to change the input Ohms and the Output Ohm settings, allowing you to use different ohm heads with different ohm speaker cabs.

Hope this helps!

As long as your cab is plugged in to the box - no danger - it will tap a signal safely off your power amp for use elsewhere.
(with the switch set to 'speaker')

Your cab will supply the load - and of couse (as the OP stated) will still be playing at normal volume.

Mamberg is the man!

Thanks for your answers !

Yes that is what I though the 1/4 out would just be a bridge in theory so should hold the same impedance. Palmer do a DI box specially for that purpose (PDI 09) but the speaker emulation can't be deactivated but I believe that it is the same thing just with the emulation added I don't think there is any wizardry going on

One last question. What would be the best for my usage ? Active or Passive and Balanced or Unbalanced XLR ? (going into a focusrite 6i6)

This has a lot of info: http://thehub.musiciansfriend.com/live- ... direct-box

Thanks a lot.

The Hughes & Kettner RedBox is great for this application. It's been the industry standard since the 80's. I have the RedBox Pro (passive) and I use it a lot. It even has a speaker simulation, which can be turned off if you are using IRs. The Behringer Ultra G is also really good and it also has a speaker simulator although the RB sounds better. The Ultra G is active and requires a 9v battery or phantom power.

Ended up getting a ART Z-Direct, works perfect, it's a real pleasure using IRs, just got to get myself some good IRs now, was thinking about two notes wall of sound.