Am i hurting my amp?

V

vintagetobes

New member
Hey, i use a pedal through my fender Roc-pro 1000 amp. Its a hybrid amp which the fender guys describe as having tubes in the pre amp(and you can hear them rattle when you move it) and is 92 watts. Anway. by using a pedal through it, i hav no idea what level i am putting into it. I run the out of my pedal into the return of the amp on the back which skips the pre stage. Anway, i only put the effects mix up to about 3 to amplify my signal and its like, wow! Thats loud!. Which leads me to wonder one of the following:
1. my amp has tubes in the amplifying stage aswell and that explains the volume.
2. i amp driving my amp too much, and it will explode.

Help me out guys.

And also, is it a problem that the amp vibrates alot, and vibrates the things in the room and is there a way to prevent it?

Ta very much
 
First of all, if it's a hybrid amp with tubes in the preamp, by going directly into the power amp, you are bypassing the tubes completely.

As far as I know, the volume is because you're using the 92W power amp turned up too high. The level on your pedal would be like the preamp volume, and the effects mix would act sort of like a master volume. Just turn it down.. :D
 
what kind of pedal is it? just a distoriton or single effect pedal, or is it a multi effects pedal??

you should be sending back from the amp a signal to the input of your pedal if it is a multi-effects pedal.

otherwise, the above advice should fix the problem. turning the output of your pedal down.

what should the output be ?? i dont know, but do this to find out.....

put your amp at a normal or even low volume level.
then compare the volume of just your guitar plugged straight into your amp(with no pedal hooked up in any way) to that of your pedal hooked up to it. adjust your volume on your pedal to match the "bypassed" volume of just your guitar plugged in with no pedal. then you should be able to control your volume with your preamp controls on your amp via volume knob, eq, gain ect.

hope this helps
good luck
 
thanks for the help guys but the problem isent the amp being too loud, its whether, by having it this loud, i am damaging it or not. The pedal is a multi effects one.
 
Yes and no, but that's its job and your not doing anything wrong. 92 watts is a lot of power for a guitar. Just be aware you may damage your hearing before you damage the amp.
 
yuck, i just tryed the method of using an effects loop which metal j suggested and it sounded horrible, gets a bit of effect and a bit of the original amp. Thanks for the help though. So i should not be worried about having the effects control turned to 3 and it being loud! it still gets louder past 3 which leads me to think there are infact tubes in the power amp stage. (from what iv heard, tubes are loud!)

Thanks for the help guys
 
The only tube is a 12ax7 preamp tube. The power section is 100 watts solid state. If you get the amp up off of the floor it won't vibrate as badly.
 
vintagetobes said:
yuck, i just tryed the method of using an effects loop which metal j suggested and it sounded horrible, gets a bit of effect and a bit of the original amp. Thanks for the help though. So i should not be worried about having the effects control turned to 3 and it being loud! it still gets louder past 3 which leads me to think there are infact tubes in the power amp stage. (from what iv heard, tubes are loud!)

Thanks for the help guys
Click to expand...

sorry, i should have mentioned if you are useing just effects, the effects loop is the way to go, but if you are using the amp modleing and speaker modleing and distortion settings in the pedal then yes, yuck would be a good term. you'll just want to plug into your pedal, then into the front of your amp

the effects loop is for just that, "effects", not disortion. try turning off your distortion, and modleing, and just use your effects in the loop, then try pugging your guitar in straight to your amp, and use the distortion from it. If you want to use the real sound of your amp for something different.

later man
 
To answer your question directly, no, you're more than likely not hurting your amp. A quick way to tell if you're overpowering it is this: turn your amp to a normal setting and put your pedal or whatever on clean. If your sound still sounds distorted, then chances are you're either overdriving the input or overdriving the preamp. Either way, you're probably still not hurting the amp unless your leaving your pedal with a highly amplified signal, which is very unlikely.

Also, to clarify some other stuff in your post, you mentioned tubes rattling, which should not be happening in working tubes. What you're probably hearing is your spring reverb box rattling, assuming your amp has one.

Secondly, tubes aren't just loud by nature. They can amplify to high or low levels just like solid state stuff. The reason people say they're "loud" is because a 30watt tube amp will get way louder than a 30watt solid-state, but this has to do with the way amps are rated; in fact, the loudest amps in the world are solid-state.
 
And one more thing, realise that 90 watts is very loud. I have had a session this morning with my Twin with 2 tubes pulled out and on low switch which gives 15 watts. 90 watts is not 4 times the volume of 15, just to confuse you but it should deafen you quite easily.I got a horrendous headache and my ears are still ringing, ahh the pain, it feels good .
 
dont think yr hurting your amp but you should put a blanket under the amp if u want the vibrations to stop
 
dementedchord said:
i'm afraid you'll need to speak up... they're back in '05:eek:
Click to expand...


Or take this one for a spin:

dlorean1.jpg
 
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