Road King II.. Ran head without a load :/

[Schulzy]

Hey guys just picked myself up a road king II head for an awesome price.

I plugged it in for the first time today and being the idiot I am I plugged the speaker cable into the B output instead of A.... I turned the head on and let it sit for a minute or two to warm up the tubes and then I flicked stanby to start playing.... Obviously there was no sound... But i had the head running for at least 2 - 3 minutes trying to work out why there was no sound.... Switched it off and then realised what i had done.

So in a nut shell i had the head running for a total of 5 minutes without a load.. It seems to be still running fine... But is there much damage to anything that would have been caused in this short time?

 

[Schulzy]

Anyone?.... Im really stressing out about it.

 

[YellowJacket]

Phone up Mesa. . .
My assessment: If you haven't heard or smelled anything funny your amp is most likely still in working order. You probably just shortened the life of your tubes so keep your ears pricked listening for microphonics etc. I think they try to 'idiot proof' these boxes as much as possible. :shock:

 

[jtroska]

I don't think you were doing any damage at all while not actually playing. So that cuts down the abuse time a little. The reason I think this is because I have a Palmer PGA04 load box that indicates with leds how much power is being absorbed. If I don't play anything, it doesn't indicate any power absorption.

My Line 6 amp has built-in protection from this. If it runs too hot because no load is connected, the amp shuts down. One time I blew a speaker and made the same mistake you did: Kept playing to diagnose the problem. After a while, the amp just shut down. Once it cooled enough to be powered on again, it ran fine for years. On the other hand, I blew a Peavey Classic on stage because I didn't understand impedance and how to hook up the extension cabinet. Pop. No more sound at all.

So my feeling is since I ran that Line 6 for several minutes with no load without any long-term adverse effects, you are probably ok too. Just try not to make that mistake too often.

Edit: To clarify... I had been running the Peavey into too low of a load for extended amounts of time before it finally popped. I forget exactly what I did but basically the sum of my speakers was lower than what it should have been.

 

[c.t.d-nicke]

Last summer at a festival gig I accidentally forgot to plug the cable in (used my old 9200 dualblock) when we did the short sound check.

I was banging away and wondering why no sound for a good 3-4 minutes checking pedals and patch cables whit the output maxed..

... even in the gentle evening breeze and 15 feet away I could perceive the sweet smell of overheating trannys ... plugged in the speaker cable and everything worked as it supposed to!

maybe I was lucky, but I don't think you should worry.

/nicke

 

[cheameup]

I wouldnt worry I did the same thing with my brand new DR in the 1st week . Came home a bit drunk and wanted to show my new amp to a mate . all my gear was packed up from a gig the night before so I had to set up . Turned it on and no sound. took me a 2 minutes to realise my amp wasnt broken I just hadnt plugged the speaker cable in .

I freaked out for a day or so after but its fine . as others say you might shave some life off your tubes

 

[clutch71]

Usually if you run it without a load for too long you'll take out your power tubes and or a fuse.

I have more heads than cabs now and I recently took out the HT fuse not making sure I had the right head hooked up. $3 bucks for 5 fuses and all is good. Easy to do.

 

[Schulzy]

Thanks for the replies and support guys... It does seem to be fine I was stressing bad haha

 

[clutch71]

You know ironically enough...after this post I ran my Marshall head with out a load and popped the HT fuse. At the time I had more heads than cabinets and forgot to check. The JJ's in there were getting old too and I think it strssed them as well. Got a set of Tung Sol EL34B and all is well....except for the fact that the 34B's lack the mids I'm lookin for. Great sounding tube though.

 

[GuitarCarr]

Ok, I just did the same thing with my series 1 rectoverb 1 speaker combo. Acually I did not do it one of my band mates did. They unplugged the speaker cable for some reason in the back and when they got the gear back home form a show they turned it on and poof hardly any sound comes form the amp. It not the tubes changed those so somehting else must have blown.........

 

[Old BF Shred]

Sounds like your band mate owes you an amp....or at least the repair bill.
Good luck with that!

 

[clutch71]

Ok, I just did the same thing with my series 1 rectoverb 1 speaker combo. Acually I did not do it one of my band mates did. They unplugged the speaker cable for some reason in the back and when they got the gear back home form a show they turned it on and poof hardly any sound comes form the amp. It not the tubes changed those so somehting else must have blown.........

Mains fuse. Always replace that first and then replace the power tubes.

 

[konstantine RK]

wow.... I hate it when that happens lol!