What is a tube amp and what do I need to know?

Status
Not open for further replies.

petereanima

Br00tal Bubbly Mofo
Joined
Mar 11, 2008
Messages
5,059
Reaction score
773
Location
Austria
I've left it on standby for an hour before, really the longer it's on standby the better it'll sound when you come back to it. Generally I only turn the amp off when I'm going home/leaving the gig. In fact, sometimes if we're headlining and the venue wants to setup a backline, I'll turn my amp on and let it warm up while the other bands play, then I just show up on stage and go.

So to answer your question: yes. :)

late reply i know, but i just read it and wanted to add a quote from the Diezel guys:

Question said:
]

Sometimes I turn the amp on, and play a little bit, but the switch it to stand by and go do something else and come back half an hour later and jam a bit more, then go do some other thing and so on, leaving the amp in stand by for more than 2 hours sometimes.

Is this safe? will this wear th tubes out faster?


Answer said:
You are wasting way too much ressources and increase the CO2 emissions when you are doing this.
Standby is ok for the startup (even that is doubtful) and for short (!) breaks.
If you keep it too long in standby mode you can get cathode poisoning as well.
 

Scali

Banned
Joined
May 3, 2008
Messages
2,604
Reaction score
189
Location
The Hague, NL
Added it in. Interestingly, in another thread, some people were recommending flipping it onto standby and then turning it off. Well, looks like that's the wrong way of doing it as well as the caps don't discharge, and something I never knew properly either! Well, kind of cool, as I am learning stuff by doing this!

I think it depends on how the amp is designed?
On my Marshall 6101 when I put it in standby, the signal will slowly drop out and distort until it's gone. Clearly a sign of the caps discharging. It does the same if you just turn it off (I'll see if there's something in the manual that recommends how to turn it on/off).
Aside from that, modern amps are required to have 'bleed resistors' on the caps. Basically this is an artificial leak, which ensures that the caps will always discharge to ground. I'm not sure how long it actually takes for the caps to bleed empty however, but it's probably below lethal levels in only a few seconds at most, so it's probably safe enough to open the amp right after it's turned off/unplugged.

Vintage amps are a death trap however. If I see how some of those old 50s/60s Fender amps were built... geez, I'd be scared to go near one.
 

7 Dying Trees

Forum MVP
Joined
May 6, 2004
Messages
10,053
Reaction score
1,868
Location
7th Ethereal Plane of interstellar hell, Innit Bru
Modern amps have bleed resistors, yes, but I've had a mid-late 90's rivera amp that retained charge for a very very long (as in keeping the standby light lit up) which would happen if you flipped the standby on, the powered off, as opposed to powering off.

It's not required by any means, ie, modern amps as you point out, however, as a general hard and fast rule, especially when dealing with vintage amps (ie, the ones you should not try to service unless you know what you are doing, or how to discharge caps) it works.
 

This site may earn a commission from merchant links like Ebay, Amazon, and others.

winterlover

Banned
Joined
Sep 3, 2008
Messages
809
Reaction score
38
Location
pantheon
what's an amp load i have to get then?

and also i have another question.
if an amp's bulbs are supposed to glow red and have faded what wpuld be a good way to make them red again? i thought maybe a paint pen, what would be the best way you think?

thanks again everyone
 

CrushingAnvil

Ironically enough, now in Jesus Land
Joined
Oct 26, 2007
Messages
8,529
Reaction score
1,564
Location
Wellington, New Zealand
Awesome Thread, Jimbo! If only I could memorise that list :lol: I'd land a job as a sales rep a little quicker ;)

+1

what's an amp load i have to get then?

and also i have another question.
if an amp's bulbs are supposed to glow red and have faded what wpuld be a good way to make them red again? i thought maybe a paint pen, what would be the best way you think?

thanks again everyone

:lol: you've got to be shitting me, dude...
 

chrismgtis

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2009
Messages
77
Reaction score
5
Location
Shelby, NC
So that's why the tubes in my amp went bad. :realmad:

Well I guess after 10 years or so that was expected.

I really didn't know the standby switch had such a purpose though until now. :lol:
 

chucknorrishred

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2010
Messages
673
Reaction score
26
Location
TEXAS
dam, i hade a pig nose tube practice amp that i ended up selling a long time ago, i would use it as a head for a marshal half stach i had

anyway u can also change the tubes out really easy and experiment with the way dif tubes sound
 

ShreddingDragon

Silence the discord
Joined
Mar 21, 2009
Messages
299
Reaction score
36
Location
Finland
Means your head can either run into a 8ohm cab, or a 16ohm cab. Use whatever setting on the head matches your cab.

I sort of figured, but what's keeping me worried is what the manual mentioned as "transformer damage due to a no-load scenario" possibility. Here are shots of the head outputs and cab input:

I normally plug into the upper center jack.




How should I properly do this? Use the upper right jack, and put the shorting plug into the one underneath it? Sorry to bug you about this :D
 

budda

Do not criticize as this
Contributor
Joined
Jan 22, 2007
Messages
32,422
Reaction score
17,148
Location
Earth
Tube amps kicks solid states ass.
Solid state :bowdown:-> Tube amps.

Not entirely true, at all. I'd quit believing that now, it will make your life much easier.
 

Hellbound

€£¥€£¥€£¥€£•
Joined
Jun 6, 2006
Messages
1,078
Reaction score
95
Location
In the dark side of my mind
Not entirely true, at all. I'd quit believing that now, it will make your life much easier.

This is so very true. Stop believing all the tube amp being better hype. Just got back from my local music store and played a Line 6 Spider III. Made my life much easier. I was amazingly able to play so much cleaner without one mistake and pinch harmonics on command! Then I got home and plugged into my Engl Tube amp.
Compared to the Line 6 I was horrible I could hear all my mistakes and gosh darnit I had to work at it to sound good.

Lol, just messing around but seriously the one thing I hate about solid state amps are that they IMO make it so much easier to play that some do not realize how sloppy their playing is until they have gone with the tube route(my life story)This is just my opinion......but As far as recording purposes I have grown fond of what some solid state units can do....but oh the warmth of a nice tube powered amp is the best.
 

snuif09

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2009
Messages
620
Reaction score
62
Location
Hoorn,The Netherlands
This is so very true. Stop believing all the tube amp being better hype. Just got back from my local music store and played a Line 6 Spider III. Made my life much easier. I was amazingly able to play so much cleaner without one mistake and pinch harmonics on command! Then I got home and plugged into my Engl Tube amp.
Compared to the Line 6 I was horrible I could hear all my mistakes and gosh darnit I had to work at it to sound good.

Lol, just messing around but seriously the one thing I hate about solid state amps are that they IMO make it so much easier to play that some do not realize how sloppy their playing is until they have gone with the tube route(my life story)This is just my opinion......but As far as recording purposes I have grown fond of what some solid state units can do....but oh the warmth of a nice tube powered amp is the best.

if i set my tubescreamer to the max and the gain on my DC-5 to 10 i get the same effect you need to be more gentle with the gain on most SS amps since they have buttloads of it :p

but yea me likey tubes altho i would kill for an axe-fx but then again thats the holy grail of amps imo
 

7 Dying Trees

Forum MVP
Joined
May 6, 2004
Messages
10,053
Reaction score
1,868
Location
7th Ethereal Plane of interstellar hell, Innit Bru
I sort of figured, but what's keeping me worried is what the manual mentioned as "transformer damage due to a no-load scenario" possibility. Here are shots of the head outputs and cab input:

I normally plug into the upper center jack.




How should I properly do this? Use the upper right jack, and put the shorting plug into the one underneath it? Sorry to bug you about this :D
What amp is it? You'r eprobably ebst off starting a new thread in the gear section, as someone will have owned one of whatever mesa it is at some point and be able to help you :)

the shorting jack worries me, plugging in a lower load to an amp can actually fry the oputput transformer and all the valves, so a shorting jack sounds like suicide unless it autodetects it inside, but, I don't know what the amp has or whether it has something like that in it.
 

ShreddingDragon

Silence the discord
Joined
Mar 21, 2009
Messages
299
Reaction score
36
Location
Finland
What amp is it? You'r eprobably ebst off starting a new thread in the gear section, as someone will have owned one of whatever mesa it is at some point and be able to help you :)

the shorting jack worries me, plugging in a lower load to an amp can actually fry the oputput transformer and all the valves, so a shorting jack sounds like suicide unless it autodetects it inside, but, I don't know what the amp has or whether it has something like that in it.

It's a Road King 2. I already started a thread a long time ago, but without pics I guess no one really had any idea what I was on about :lol: It's here: http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/gear-and-equipment/112163-cab-impendance-question.html

And this is the rear panel view, from Mesa's website: Mesa Boogie Road King Rear Panel Enlargement

There are channel-specific switches that allow you to choose whether you use only cab A, only cab B, or both A + B. I always keep them only A, so it shouldn't try to put anything through the B jacks, right? What I've understood from the manual is that IF I were to suddenly switch to B, I'd destroy something unless the shorting plug were placed in the relevant B jack.
 

Varjo

ss.org frenulum
Joined
Feb 3, 2008
Messages
299
Reaction score
86
Location
Helsinki, Finland
Hey I've got a question for ya and I'm new to tube amps.

Is there any kind of an list to what are the differences between tube manufacturers? I've been thinking of getting a Engl E530, which uses 2xECC83 tubes. A quick google shows that at least Sovtek, JJ and Mesa make these tubes, with varying prices, but I have no idea of the differences. I'm assuming there is one, since people often also tell who's tubes they have when they are discussing their tube amps.

Now before a flame war starts, I did use search but didn't find any straightforward enough answers. Also, I'm not asking what are the best tubes, but what are the differences in general.
 

budda

Do not criticize as this
Contributor
Joined
Jan 22, 2007
Messages
32,422
Reaction score
17,148
Location
Earth
Construction, longevity, quality of components.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top