Amp left on standby

  • Thread starter Thread starter TelePaul
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TelePaul

TelePaul

J to the R O C
:o

I left my TSL on standby for around 23 hours...I was in a rush out the door. Is it gonna be royally fucked?
 
TelePaul said:
:o

I left my TSL on standby for around 23 hours...I was in a rush out the door. Is it gonna be royally fucked?
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i wouldn't think so. i leave mine on standby when i'm not using it. (but i do turn it off at night...most of the time) it'll shorten the tube life a bit but i like it to be good and hot when i get ready to play. =]
 
TelePaul said:
:o

I left my TSL on standby for around 23 hours...I was in a rush out the door. Is it gonna be royally fucked?
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Nah ...... shouldn't hurt it at all.
There is a school of thought that turn on transients are more harmful than just leaving stuff on.
I don't agree with that personally, but as long as your amp wasn't where the ventilation was blocked, then it's fine.
 
I vaguely remember that with the standby switch on, the heaters in the tubes are left on and the tubes are more or less 'idling'--like when you warm up a car in Winter. I'll probably be proven wrong but thats all my memory can recall about tube theory at this point...:eek:
 
true the heaters are on but the hi volt supply is removed from the output tubes so no problem....
 
When I first got my Mesa I accidently left it on standby when I went on a three day vacation. It was perfectly fine when I got back home. In fact I fired it up and played it for a few minutes and it worked great. Oh and when did you decide to get a real amp.:p I must have missed that one.
 
arcaxis said:
Yup, usually the tube filaments are left on and the B+ high voltage to the tube plates is off. May have shortened the life of the tube filaments a short bit, but that's about it. No big deal.
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This is correct.
 
I read some where that it takes a tube around 100 hours just to break in properly. So your just that much closer to getting the best sound possible
out of your amp actually on standby your could leave it on for a week with
out worrying as long as it doesn't have a cover on it.
 
actually ...... it wouldn't shake me up much if I left an amp on and not even on standby ...... that's what the amp is designed for and as long as it doesn't have something blocking the ventilation, then it's just doing it's thing and is happy as can be.
 
Lt. Bob said:
actually ...... it wouldn't shake me up much if I left an amp on and not even on standby ...... that's what the amp is designed for and as long as it doesn't have something blocking the ventilation, then it's just doing it's thing and is happy as can be.
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This correct too.
 
Lt. Bob said:
actually ...... it wouldn't shake me up much if I left an amp on and not even on standby ...... that's what the amp is designed for and as long as it doesn't have something blocking the ventilation, then it's just doing it's thing and is happy as can be.
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actually if it's a class A amp you could very well toast it... as the current flow through the tubes is constant whether a signal is present or not.... it's always ful tilt boogie...
 
dementedchord said:
actually if it's a class A amp you could very well toast it... as the current flow through the tubes is constant whether a signal is present or not.... it's always ful tilt boogie...
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i was just about to ask what's the point of standby. thanks.
 
dementedchord said:
actually if it's a class A amp you could very well toast it... as the current flow through the tubes is constant whether a signal is present or not.... it's always ful tilt boogie...
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Sorry but it's still not a problem .... if the amp does not have blocked ventilation then it's still doing its' thing and will be fine. It is true that you'd basically use up some of the useful hours on the tubes but there is absolutely no reason that leaving an amp on will 'toast it'. A couple of my amps are class-A and I routinely play double gigs that have it on for 8 and 9 hours. There is no magic line that the amp crosses and says, "oooh, I'm being left on and not played so I'm gonna blow up".
And as for the tube life ..... I retube my Mesa Blue Angel (class-A) once a year.
I play about 5 or 6 gigs a week so that's around 20 to 30 hours of use a week or around 1000 to 1500 hours I get out of a set of tubes. So leaving it on overnight would use up 24 hours of that time causing me to need to retube 1 week sooner if I want to be strict about retube on the stroke of exactly one year which I'm not that strict about anyway. For you guys that don't play that much then you'll have to retube say, 3 years and 50 weeks instead of 4 years. Not a real concern ..... it's only about 1/60 of your tube life.

I'm not saying you should leave your amp on all the time BTW, I'm just saying that if it happens by accident there's no reason to get freaked out about it ...... as long as the amp gets proper ventilation, which you should have made sure of anyway when using it) then it should be fine.

Also, I don't think that TSL is class-A anyway.
 
ok... well i'm getting to the point where i no longer care about the thread but i believe that some of the info given here is bullshit... and some people ya just can't help... so go ahead and do what ya want and i'll wish you all the luck O'Bob with your amps....
 
dementedchord said:
ok... well i'm getting to the point where i no longer care about the thread but i believe that some of the info given here is bullshit... and some people ya just can't help... so go ahead and do what ya want and i'll wish you all the luck O'Bob with your amps....
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It works fine if you were wondering.
 
Actually, you probably flooded your house with TTR (toxic tube radiation). You should move away immediately unless you want that third arm growing out of your neck!
 
dementedchord said:
ok... well i'm getting to the point where i no longer care about the thread but i believe that some of the info given here is bullshit... and some people ya just can't help... so go ahead and do what ya want and i'll wish you all the luck O'Bob with your amps....
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Dude , I don't need any luck or help with my amps. I have a major collection of good tube amps and I'm an electronic tech. I have a diploma in electronics and do all my own work and I clearly know more about them than you seem to.
I've been using tube amps 5 and 6 nites a week for 40 years. I know as much about them as anyone and I know exactly what a Class A amp is and how it works.
You're the one that doesn't seem to want to learn anything and you're full of shit about 'toasting' an amp just because you leave it on overnight.
Plus, you can't seem to pick up on the fact that I specifically said that I did not advocate leaving them on ..... I just said that if it accidently happens there's no reason to freak out about it and that's a fact, no matter how much you sneer and act superior.
 
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well i too am a tech... did warrenty work for marshall boogie crown crest qsc fender crate soundcraft allen and heath jbl ev ampeg yamama korg roland kurzweil and others.... have even done work for some big guys (though i wont play name dropper with you)... seems to me you did mention being a piano tech once... didn't remember you being electronic... but anyway i stand by my opinion and comments...
 
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