How many of you turn your amps on before your set at a gig.
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highwaynine
Well-known member
I've only been the first band on...but in the hopes of one day headlining, I'm very interested to hear what ya'll say...
Dead Moon Rising
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I turn mine on when i set up for my set, not before. I can't hear a differnce after letting it run for a while. i mixed a band where a guy wanted his marshall to warm up on standby for 20 minutes before his set, which is bad for yer tubes, and his tone wasn't that great sounding anyway. It's mythos IMO.
its actually better for your tubes to let them run constantly than to be switching them on and off all the time. Tubes used to be the mainstay for everything from military hardware to tv's and the ones that lasted he longest had duty cycles where they were basically always on until they died. constantly turning them on and off at varied voltages will stress the tubes and wear them out faster. also, as far as i know its not really good for your power tubes to be on standby for long periods of time. it will cause 'cathode poisoning' and striping. when i want to warm my amp up or take a break i just leave it on, standby is for the first minute or two while the tubes warm up enough to amplify the signal and pretty much no more. a well warmed up amp sounds fuller and deeper, with a more pronounced mid-range sound. when the amp is cold it sounds more shrill, this is good in some cases when you want a tight focused sound, but it will warm up and you will lose that sound... its all in how you eq it up...
stand by if i can...
usually the first thing i do is plug the head to the cab and put the head on stand-by... then i plug the pedals (only 2, but you know...) , guitar, tune it... if there's a line/sound check i check the last...
usually the first thing i do is plug the head to the cab and put the head on stand-by... then i plug the pedals (only 2, but you know...) , guitar, tune it... if there's a line/sound check i check the last...
Sixstringpsycho
Well-known member
I let mine warm up a bit before i go on. maybe 10 min
MusicManJP6
Well-known member
It says in the manual to use the standby when powering on the amp to prevent tube shock and also during set breaks...
MusicManJP6
Well-known member
I sometimes use the standby switch when powering down, but as some one else said, turning the amp directly off drains the caps completely (more or less). I usually just hit both the standby and power switch at the same time when powering it off. I don't think it really matters how you power it off. The initial warm-up is the key IMO.
Sustain
Well-known member
realistically there is nothing to gain by letting your amp warm up its tubes for more than about 30-60 seconds before turning out of standby. the goal is to let the tubes heat up a little bit beyond room temp before running significant power thru them.
ralphie19
Member
njsurf said:
I am the same way. I just don't feel safe turning it on cold.
Sustain said:
+1. Any longer and you are just wasting electricity.
For power-down it's fine to just shut off the amp. BTW- Turning off the amp without going into standby WILL NOT drain the filter caps, that's just a dangerous myth.
Dom
guitarsawicki
Well-known member
I agree with you. But how come I always turn stand by switch off for a couple of minutes before I turn the power switch off? Not because I want to protect power amp tubes. You know that after you finish the gig, jam session or rehearsals, somebody always says: Let's do one more number! So you don't have to worry about warming up the tubes.
212Mavguy
Well-known member
dmt said:
Could not agree more.
There is a distinct difference in tone when first putting the b+ to the power tubes and a few minutes later, yes, more treble, not as sweet sounding in the mids, not as pretty, musical harmonics either. Class AB biased amps can take longer than in class A for current draw to properly biased power tubes to gradually climb up in current draw and hit their tonal sweet spot. I found that out using my Siegmund Midnight Blues Breaker, it has a class A/AB bias switch. Also most tube amps sound louder after a few minutes, the smaller the power tubes the quicker this cool to hot bottle effect happens. My Mesa Maverick sounds noticeably different after as few as three-four minutes. Some chassis parts get hot also in some amp designs and that has an effect on the sound too, carbon comp resistors go up in value when hot for instance. So I prefer to hit the b+ at least 10 minutes before the sound check or first song.
I leave my tubes on during set breaks, why have to deal with tonal changes over and over again going from cooler to hotter? I'm not a big fan of tubes heating and cooling several times a night, I prefer to get them hot and keep them there. The amount of time spent in set breaks is not enough to worry about for overall tube life. I worry more about the effects of repeated expansion/contraction inside the power tube bottles. That can cause microphonic problems to come into play sooner in my opinion. Warm 'em up, keep 'em hot, and use standby for a few minutes before shutoff mainly in case of the "one more song" thang. Otherwise I just turn the thing off. I discharge the caps if I'm about to work inside the chassis. Peace.
Gtr_Pkr
Well-known member
I like to have my guitar tuned and ready to go before the first band finishes. This allows me more time to setup the rig. Usually my amp gets plugged in and turned on before I setup pedals and pull out the guitar. Standby is used for breaks under one hour and about five minutes before shutting down for the night.
