In past attempts to learn to play guitar I have used THD Hotplates on 2 different amps and had totally different experiences. In one situation, I used a Hotplate with a Dr. Z Carmen Ghia head and Matchless cabinet.....sounded very nice, with nice sounding tube saturation at a low volume. The 2nd time was with a '66 Super Reverb and an ohm-matching Hotplate........sounded pretty bad to my ears. With that very limited experience, my guess is that some amps take better to attenuators than others.