Dual rectifier - volume levels & warm up question

[hydro]

Hi,

I have a recent (but not newest generation) Mesa dual recto (3 channel). It seems like it gradually gets louder as it warms up, and that I notice more variation between channel levels until it gets warmed up all the way. This is even if I leave it powered on for a bit, but on standby. Once I switch it off standby it seems that it gets louder and more consistent in volume after it's been used for ten or fifteen minutes.

Am I just imagining this, or is this something others have noticed, and is just to be expected with power tubes, etc.? It may be my old ears that are getting warmed up, not the amp! :lol:

In terms of settings, I put a fair amount of gain and my channel masters are typically between noon and 1 o'clock, my amp master volume stays around 10-11 o'clock or so. I don't have any customizations or mods... one set of power tubes has been replaced fairly recently.

This is not that big of a deal, but I just want to understand what's going on so I can plan for it.

Any advice much appreciated --

 

[Gnarkill3k6]

When at band rehearsal I usually let my Recto warm up as long as I can... most of the time it's 30 min+.
At home I usually let it warm up for 10 min. before playing it.

IMO my amp sounds best after 2 to 3 hours of playing it... then it sounds warm and saturated to me. But this could just be my ears

 

[deeman]

yea, op i'd say that sounds about right. I let my dual rec warm up at least 10 minutes and it seems like it takes a little bit to get to optimal tone.

 

[jbird]

I would tend to think it's your ears adjusting to the environment!

 

[screamingdaisy]

Most Mesa's I've used sound cold and harsh for the first 15 minutes, then they start to warm up, loosing some edge off the top end and compress more.

 

[rcerex]

I let my tube amps warm up on stby for at least 15 minutes, it seems that the longer I play, the better the amp sounds as it seems to get fully warmed up.

 

[hydro]

Yeah, maybe it is a combination of my ears and the warm up factor. What is interesting is that the clean channel seems quieter than the orange channel at first but gradually it evens out. Getting the channels matched in volume is the trickiest thing about Mesas, I think.

If I'm not mistaken, when you are in standby the power tubes are not getting juice but probably the preamps are...? I imagine that I just need to plan for about 15 minutes of warm up before I start really playing.

 

[screamingdaisy]

Standby feeds power to the tube heaters. The tube heaters warm all the thube up enough that they function properly... They don't get really hot until you start playing through them.