Who plays for 20 minutes ...

[MesaDCLP]

... only and cuts the amp off.

is this bad?

I personally won't turn my amp on unless i know i will play for at least an hour. And after an hour or so, when i take a break, I hit standby only if I will be away for more than 30 minutes.
Otherwise i play through a solid state practice amp for that moment. No the tone isn't right and it ain't there. But tube amps are like women, they have to be taken care of.

Ok, 60 sec warm up from a cold start at least, but the manual doesn't say what to do about taking care of your tubes after start up. I think i know what i'm doing, but i think i'm narcissistic, lol ... who doesn't.

 

[tele_jas]

I'll do that since all my amps are tube amps..... I'll do that at a gig too, set up and check out my tones and make sure my 4 yr old hasn't "zero'd" out my knobs, which he's famous for :? , and then chug on it a few minutes and turn it off and finish helping the other guys load in. But I do put it in Stand-by for 30-60 before shutting off and when I turn it on I put it in stand by for about the same. If it's only gonna be 10-15 minutes or so before I return, I'll go ahead and leave it in Stand-by.... If it's gonna be more like 30 minutes I'll turn it off.

That's just what I do, everybody has different practices.

In the past with my old Deluxe, I would flip the power and stand-by switch at the same time - hit a chord and listen to it fade in, and then I'd flip both switches off at the same time when I was done. I did that for 10 years (every weekend) before I found out it was bad for the amp but it never hurt the amp (at least not that I can see now).

I think tube amps are tougher than people give them credit for, but it's still best to "baby" them rather than take chances.

 

[MesaENGR412]

Yeah, I sometimes play with my Triple for about 10-15 minutes, and then turn it off. I do notice that the hotter the tubes get, ( the longer i play) the better they sound. I do the same thing that Tele does as far as start up and shut down, and one other thing that i also do is change the channel back to the default ch 2 ( i have a three channel) so that there isn't a click of the channel switching when i shut off the amp completely.

-AJH

 

[screamingdaisy]

I play for however long I feel like it.

I usually switch onto standby as soon as I can, so by the time I'm done f*cking around the amps ready to go. When powering down I flip both switches at once....all the standby does is power your tube heaters, and I see no need to keep the heaters on when I want the tubes to cool down.

 

[user 1198]

I'll turn on my Mesa even if I'm only going to play 5 minutes. If my tubes wear out faster, I'll just buy new tubes.

 

[Bloodstone]

^+1

I wouldn't own it if I didn't want to play the living $*&^ out of it :twisted:

 

[ibanez4life SZ!]

^

The Reason we all own Mesas!

 

[Mr.Hetfield]

If its going to be longer then 5 mins I shut it off and I let it warm up for 50 seconds (the book says 30 is enough) and then I slowly raise the volume and go to it.

 

[srf399]

I played on the road for 6 years in Western Canada back in the early 1980's... and it get flippin cold in Northern Alberta in January... I used Marshalls, Music Man, & a 1965 deluxe reverb. They bounced around in the back of a 5 ton truck at -45 degrees below zero and I never thought back then (early 1980's) to carry spare tubes. None of us ever did. I never heard of any guitar players or bass players in any of the other bands carrying them either. you'd never be able to get replacements outside of Edmonton or Clagary...usually 3 - 6 hours away hours. Never had a tube go on me. And I never heard any of the other guys having a problem either. Guess I had a horseshoe wedged up my *** all those years. And back then tubes were harder to find. Needed a rectifier tube for my 65 deluxe in 1985 and they didn't exist anymore. All of the American tube manufacturers either closed or stopped making them... no demand. And the Iron curtain prevented getting eastern bloc tubes. So the repair tech soldered diodes into the rectifier circuit of my 65 deluxe!!!! Yikes... anyway, you guys are all a bunch of spoiled pussies now days. Learn how to play good enough to quit worrying about your tubes! LMAO

 

[Bloodstone]

Yikes... anyway, you guys are all a bunch of spoiled pussies now days. Learn how to play good enough to quit worrying about your tubes! LMAO

LOL AMEN BRUTHA!

These amps are built like tanks not like a house of cards!

 

[t0aj15]

The only time I worry about tubes is when they start sounding bad or just plain fail altogether. I just turn it on let it warm up for a few minutes and go, whether it's on standby for 5 minutes or 45 minutes doesn't matter. At my age it takes me a lot longer to warm up and cool down then the amp.

 

[eaeolian]

I'm a fanatic about warming up the tubes - I seldom play my amp at home, since it's just too freakin' loud for a townhouse, but if I do it's always on for at least five minutes before I start playing. At gigs, it's on and on standby from load-in forward, if possible, so sometimes the tube heaters are on for 3-4 hours before we play...

 

[Valtyr]

I'll use the amp if I think I'll be playing for 15 min or more, otherwise I'll use my POD xtl/computer rig.

 

[strumminsix]

Sure. If I just want to noodle for 5-10 minutes or work on something really quickly I'll grab my acoustic. If I've got time to really play 15+minutes, amps go on!!!

 

[Dreads]

sometimes I'll play for hours and sometimes I'll play one song and either way.. my LSC kicks ***! This was money very well spent! I keep it on the 50 watts/ Tube rec. & Tweed setting (with EL34s) and so far no tube problems. I changed out all the Mesa tubes.. to hell with the warranty! Their tubes suck wind.

 

[strumminsix]

to hell with the warranty! Their tubes suck wind.

if i had a warranty issue i'd pop in the old tubes and take it on in.