Powerswitch - dumb question

[fjk1138]

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but please humor me.

Say you are in whatever of the two power modes (Full or Variac), the tubes are warmed up for the min 30 seconds, but you change your mind and want to switch to the other power mode. Do you have to switch the power off, put it back on standby, and then power it up in the other mode and wait another 30 seconds

....or.....

Can you just flip the switch to the other power mode quickly and skip past the "off" portion?

The manual doesn't say you can't do this, but my guy instinct tells me it wouldn't be good for the amp if done repeatedly and may cause the power switch (or more) to need replacement over time.

 

[sevycat]

I have only ever done what your talking about once. So, unless your doing often I would say no problem. I can't say that it is good for the tubes, if your doing this that often, call mesa and ask the tech rep what they think about it. Then, please post what you found out for the rest of us.

 

[fjk1138]

I've only done it once also, and it was purely by accident. I really have no intention of doing this, but I was just curious if anyone knew offhand. If I get a chance, I'll ask Mesa and post.

 

[SteveO]

I don't think it will hurt anything, I have done it many times. The tubes are already warmed up, so no issues there. If anything, just flip the standby switch, change the power setting, and then take it off standby. I usually don't even do that, though.

 

[pathos45]

It doesnt matter, essentially the tubes are warmed up already and by just switching it on standby mind you is just like switching the power rating down to 45 or 10 on standby. Or even switching triode to pentode which some people do while playing to figure out which sounds better. If anything does happen thats what the fuse is there for.

 

[eudaimonia02912]

Switch at will and don't worry about it.

 

[jb's 52]

I've been skipping over the "off" and jumping from full to variac power
as well...and back again. No ill affects as far as I can tell. I would expect
to hear a pop or some like that so it's robably no different than going
from 10W to 45W but I'm no electrical engineer.

Plus if it wasn't good for the amp, I would hope Mesa would have
thought about that before putting that kind of switch on there. It's
easy enough to do it accidentally.

 

[fjk1138]

Plus if it wasn't good for the amp, I would hope Mesa would have
thought about that before putting that kind of switch on there. It's
easy enough to do it accidentally.

This is my thought on it. Mesa is extremely thorough on their products overall, so I would have assumed if it was an issue then they would have called it out in the manual. But since I basically baby my equipment, I won't be doing it. But, I just wanted to see what my fellow Mark V users thought.

Thanks Guys.

 

[mejoshee]

Plus if it wasn't good for the amp, I would hope Mesa would have
thought about that before putting that kind of switch on there. It's
easy enough to do it accidentally.

This is my thought on it. Mesa is extremely thorough on their products overall, so I would have assumed if it was an issue then they would have called it out in the manual. But since I basically baby my equipment, I won't be doing it. But, I just wanted to see what my fellow Mark V users thought.

Thanks Guys.

in standby, no problem. if it's running and they're not warm yet and you switch it may be bad, but once they're up and running, you can pretty much switch on the fly. i would think if anything the real problem is the unncessary mechanical wear on the switch. it may also cause a popping sound, fwiw.