Amp on standby all night.
- Thread starter Chryst Krispies
- Start date
Or the Sloan approach: I AM A CERTIFIED PEAVEY TECH PLEASE SEND AMP TO ME FOR QUICK REPAIR AND PRO SERVICE P.S. DO IT 
AudioPhile777
Mathew Cohen
Ok so I'm a fuckin idiot, as you guys know by now, but I left my amp on standby all fuggin night, and when I mean all night I mean like 14 hours.. So I was wondering if this is going to be bad for business if you know what I mean. This amp has been on three tours and it's going on another and it's my only head so it needs to be firing on all cylinders.
Halp plz?
If you're freaked out, buy a back up set of tubes and wrap them so they dont get damaged... other than that, you should be fine...
JeffTD
Senhor Testiculo
You're fine, broseph.
Before tour, though, I'd have the tube changed like a week in advance, and if you can swing it, have a tech give it a once over just to make sure you don't run into anything weird.
That said, fiddies are fucking tanks!
Before tour, though, I'd have the tube changed like a week in advance, and if you can swing it, have a tech give it a once over just to make sure you don't run into anything weird.
That said, fiddies are fucking tanks!
Guys, most tube amp manufactures leave the amp on standby for 24 hours and then on run for 24 hours before they ship it out. (or a similar time frame)
Even Mesa does it, so I don't see why they shun it.
All you did was put 6.3 VAC on the heaters all night. There would be no juice at all running through the cathode/plate/screen/grid/whatever, since it was on standby.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, all you did was age your heaters in the tubes for a bit, no big deal. You'll be fine.
Even Mesa does it, so I don't see why they shun it.
All you did was put 6.3 VAC on the heaters all night. There would be no juice at all running through the cathode/plate/screen/grid/whatever, since it was on standby.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, all you did was age your heaters in the tubes for a bit, no big deal. You'll be fine.
The Unavoidable
jättebög
I did the same damn thing.
Left my 6505+randall rig on stand by all night.
Haven't noticed anything yet.
Left my 6505+randall rig on stand by all night.
Haven't noticed anything yet.
GuitarHack
Krank it UP!
Your amp should be fine. My Krank head had 5 or 6 days (around 8 hours per day) worth of burning in done to it. The inside of the chassis has a sticker with the dates and times.
The plate voltage is also on in a 5150/6505 in Standby, not just the heaters, in addition to Wolfeman's comments.
The plate voltage is also on in a 5150/6505 in Standby, not just the heaters, in addition to Wolfeman's comments.
TheWinterSnow
Den Mørke Natt
I am glad you came in and shared your advice, too many speculations. From what I gathered from 5150 schematics and my own when I was troubleshooting it (when I found out my screen girds resistors blew out) is that both the heaters and the voltages are turned on. Current isn't going through the tube however because the +500v on the SGR is turned off via switch (the standby switch)
The idea mentioned earlier is that having any electronic device on for a long period of time is less stressful than turning it off and on repeatedly. What Happens in all electronics is when you first close the switch power surges and spike much higher than during normal operations, this is what cause most of your wear and tear on any component, this is why light bulbs blow up as soon as you turn them on, or repeatedly flip the switch on and off. That is what actually keep my computer, phone, stereo and monitors turned on 24/7.
The most sensitive and easiest to die component in a tube amp is the tube and the life is reduced by two things, initial voltage spikes (turning on the amp) and extreme heat dissipation (the result at playing at extreme volumes). Surprisingly turning the amp on and off does more damage than playing at higher volumes. this is why you are advised if you have a tube amp to use the standby if you are only going to step out and not play it for up to two hours (preferably in the 30 minutes to an hour range) because turning it on and off more than one is still more damaging.
So if you are really worried about it, the only damage you did was equivalent to turning the amp on and off about 4 or 5 times. And if you are still worried, get an extra pair of tubes and some fuses to take with you just in case one blows, because those will generally be the only things that would blow as a result of leaving it on.
the last thing I wanted to say is that Cathode poisoning is actually the result of having the cathode exposed to "boiled" off electrons surrounded by gases (usually oxygen from a leaking tube). Not to sure about it but in some tubes Cathode poisoning can be fixed by baking in the cathodes with variable amounts of current (usually for a good 10 hours). Even so if you had cathode poisoning anyway, it is a sign that the tubes are about to bad anyway. Again as said before, most amp companies burn in their new tubes for up to 24 hours to make sure the tubes are rock solid. EVH actually turned every knob on the prototype of his 5150 III all the way up to 10 on the high gain channel and laid his guitar sting side facing against the cabinet and let it feedback and left it there for 30 days and nothing including the tubes had blown up, its was merely a check to see if the design of the amp and the components used could handle that amount of juice for sustain amounts of time.
Metal Overload
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Sloan
Sounds like shit!
Or the Sloan approach: I AM A CERTIFIED PEAVEY TECH PLEASE SEND AMP TO ME FOR QUICK REPAIR AND PRO SERVICE P.S. DO IT
LOL.
You should be fine. Cathode burning shit, is what makes electrons flow - the 12v makes the heater hot which then burns electrons off the cathode. then the electrons flow through the grids which control the amount of electron flow to the anode(plate). By this time there's a larger flow of electrons = amplification.
DIAGRAM:
quiet signal > Cathode > Grids > Anode > LOUDER SIGNAL
Personally, I've left amps fully on for like 2-3 days straight. Just 'cause.
P-E
Munchkin
lolzgreg
Cereal Shipping Sneapster
Metal Overload
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ahjteam
Anssi Tenhunen
We once left the amp (Engl that we actually borrowed) accidentally on standby overnight (~12 hours) when we were at studio. It was pretty hot, we turned it off immidiately when we noticed it the next day and resumed tracking 3 hours laters. It's been 6 months, it still works perfectly and the tubes haven't been changes AFAIK.
