Ideas for reducing gain on a Belles 21A pre-amp?

The B-52 has gain switches, what's the problem with using those?

Harrison Labs 12b attenuators cheaper than Rothwells and do not blunt the sound.

Hi there and thanks for the comments.
The B52 does not have gain switches (I wish it did.)

It's surprising how common this problem is. I have to wonder why manufacturers design preamps with so much gain. Five or 10db should be adequate for most systems. The 21a is rated at 17db.

I used 10db Rothwell attenuators to tame my preamp and it worked to some extent, but I never had the kind of control for low level listening that I wanted. Maybe 15 db attenuators would have helped. I don't know.

For what it's worth, I had a similar experience when I contacted Belles about a problem with a 150A. No response. Fortunately, my problem went away without needing any work, but it bugged me that David didn't seem willing to help. Yes, he's in business to sell gear, and he probably doesn't have a lot of time for non-revenue generating questions, but companies that stand by their gear get rave reviews from customers and those raves usually lead to sales.

Rgs92,
Sorry, I must have been picturing the Apache.
Which tubes do you have in the driver section, 12AU7 or 12AX7? On of them has less gain than the other (I think the 12AU7 is lower gain).