Can I ruin my guitar head by playing through it without a cabinet being plugged in?

[PaulKarate]

I have a Crate GX-900H Guitar Head. Solid State.

I want to use the effects loop "line out" to plug directly into my Fostex MR-8 recorder.

My question is: Eventhough I'm recording a direct signal do I still need to have a speaker cabinet plugged into the head?

Someone told me that if I have the Guitar head turned on and my guitar plugged in without the cabinet being plugged in I can ruin my guitar head. They said something about the circutry being damaged.

Is this true if so what can be damaged?


Thanks

Paul Karate

 

[Lt. Bob]

Depends on the head.
Tube amps cannot be run without a load (speaker).
But, in general, solid state amps can be run without a load. But there are a few that can't. You'll have to check with the manufacturer to be sure.

 

[kid klash]

Most of the time, the answer is yes. Don't do it.

 

[Lt. Bob]

Actually.....if it's solid state, most of the time the answer is it won't hurt the amp.
The key phrase is 'most of the time'. That's why you have to check with the manufacturer.

 

[Light]

Actually.....if it's solid state, most of the time the answer is it won't hurt the amp.
The key phrase is 'most of the time'. That's why you have to check with the manufacturer.

Well my four year old nephew lunched my solid state amp by turning it one and unpluging the cab while I was not looking, so I would say be safe, and don't do it. If you really need to, get a load box (or what ever they are called, I do guitars, not amps).


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[xion pu]

Well my four year old nephew lunched my solid state amp by turning it one and unpluging the cab while I was not looking, so I would say be safe, and don't do it. If you really need to, get a load box (or what ever they are called, I do guitars, not amps).


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

Your son may have shorted your output circuit by pulling the lead out while the amp on. I'd say that puts the question back on the board again, wouldn't you? By the way stay away from kids. They're evil. get a playstation instead

 

[mrhotapples]

Nevar evar. Murder anyone that attempts to even plug your head into a power source while it's not plugged into a cabinet with proper impedance to match the head. EVAR. Just a horror story, I've had a friend plug a frickin' Digitech RP100 into my head to see if he could use it as an attenuator. Blew up the output transformer and the RP100.

 

[Zaphod B]

It would be easy enough to wire a dummy load to your amp head, I would think - a power resistor of the appropriate impedance and wattage rating (8 ohms or whatever the nominal impedance of your speaker cab is, and a wattage rating at or above the stated rating of your head) would do fine.

Cheap insurance.

 

[Lt. Bob]

It would be easy enough to wire a dummy load to your amp head, I would think - a power resistor of the appropriate impedance and wattage rating (8 ohms or whatever the nominal impedance of your speaker cab is, and a wattage rating at or above the stated rating of your head) would do fine.

Cheap insurance.

Yeah, have you looked at resistors of that size?
They're huge and expensive.

An easy way to make your own which we used at Baker music for working on amps (although with SS amps they commonly used no load at all) but you can take a piece of wood about 3 or 4 feet long and buy a couple of spools of wire and wrap the wire around the wood until it reads a resistance of 8 ohms. The reason to make the wood long is 'cause you don't want any wire to cross over itself in the winding since that's where heat will build up. You want the wire wrapped up against itself in a single layer.
Mine took almost two rolls of 16guage Radio Shack insulated wire.

 

[jonnyc]

Nevar evar. Murder anyone that attempts to even plug your head into a power source while it's not plugged into a cabinet with proper impedance to match the head. EVAR. Just a horror story, I've had a friend plug a frickin' Digitech RP100 into my head to see if he could use it as an attenuator. Blew up the output transformer and the RP100.

That's not true at all. I used to run my avt50 line in without a load all the time. By the way, this thread is 4 years old

 

[Lt. Bob]

That's not true at all. I used to run my avt50 line in without a load all the time. By the way, this thread is 4 years old

Ditto ...... most of the time running a SS into no-load won't harm it.

Yep ...... it's an old thread but with recent responses.
I'm sure this is the kind of question that always gets asked by newbies getting into the field of amps.

Safest thing is never to run an amp into no load for anyone who doesn't already know the answers to these questions.
But, as I said above, in general never run a tube amp with no load .... running a SS with no load is usually harmless.
But if you don't already know about this ..... play it safe and don't run any amp no-load
Then you don't have to wonder.

 

[jonnyc]

Ditto ...... most of the time running a SS into no-load won't harm it.

Yep ...... it's an old thread but with recent responses.
I'm sure this is the kind of question that always gets asked by newbies getting into the field of amps.

Safest thing is never to run an amp into no load for anyone who doesn't already know the answers to these questions.
But, as I said above, in general never run a tube amp with no load .... running a SS with no load is usually harmless.
But if you don't already know about this ..... play it safe and don't run any amp no-load
Then you don't have to wonder.

You're totally right about the tube heads. I learned that lesson the hard way. And I also feel your correct about the noobs, had I always ran a load no matter what I wouldn't have had to spend 300 bucks fixing my mesa.

 

[Zaphod B]

Yeah, have you looked at resistors of that size?
They're huge and expensive.

Really? I had no idea. I was seeing some 50W resistors online for, like, 10 bucks, I think? Maybe I wasn't looking at the right thing.

An easy way to make your own which we used at Baker music for working on amps (although with SS amps they commonly used no load at all) but you can take a piece of wood about 3 or 4 feet long and buy a couple of spools of wire and wrap the wire around the wood until it reads a resistance of 8 ohms. The reason to make the wood long is 'cause you don't want any wire to cross over itself in the winding since that's where heat will build up. You want the wire wrapped up against itself in a single layer.
Mine took almost two rolls of 16guage Radio Shack insulated wire.

That's a great idea. And I guess that since the wire isn't close together, it doesn't act like a coil.

 

[Anfontan]

The way I see it, even if the answer is maybe, the best bet is to always run a load with a high power amplifier-that smoke that pours out of an amp head is incredibly expensive fireworks!

 

[TelePaul]

That's not true at all. I used to run my avt50 line in without a load all the time. By the way, this thread is 4 years old

I still do that. It's possible the original poster wanted to DI the head to cut down on sound - for recording late at night maybe - but if that's the case you can just connect the speaker and headphone sto the headphone sout I think. Would that be right?