Sleeping Sickness: or how to use your standby

Lasse Lammert

Lasse Lammert

HCAF Blitzkrieg
Feb 12, 2009
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www.lasselammert.com
this is an interesting read (RCA):

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until I learned this like 2 years ago I often had the amp on standby for an hour or so....


EDIT: summarized: amp on standby for a long time (>10mins) = very bad for your tubes.
leave the amp on in breaks, or turn it off completely. The standby should only be used in the heating phase when you switch it on (30-60 secs).
 
Yeah I always thought the Standby switch was for purely warming up/cooling down the amp before and after use, I've never used them any other way heh
 
Harry Hughes said:
Yeah I always thought the Standby switch was for purely warming up/cooling down the amp before and after use, I've never used them any other way heh
Click to expand...

no need to use it when you turn the amp off.
The only reason some manuals are suggesting that is because they wanna make sure you're not accidently leaving the standby on by just turning the power switch off.

turning the standby off (or actually "turning the amp on standby") doesn't cool the tubes off, cause it's just cutting the plate voltage, the heater will be shut down with the powerswitch
 
^ Yes but doesn't it prevent having the tubes cool down too quickly? Leaving it on standby for a few seconds should provide some sort of a middle ground.

Not sure about this, though. All I know is the guy who build my amp recommended that I leave it on standby for around 30 seconds before turning it off.
 
Lasse Lammert said:
no need to use it when you turn the amp off.
The only reason some manuals are suggesting that is because they wanna make sure you're not accidently leaving the standby on by just turning the power switch off.

turning the standby off (or actually "turning the amp on standby") doesn't cool the tubes off, cause it's just cutting the plate voltage, the heater will be shut down with the powerswitch
Click to expand...

Okay, makes sense.
But what about the "Don't move the amp for x amount of time to allow the amp to cool down(usually 10 minutes or so as quoted in many manuals), otherwise tube damage/damage to tube elements may occur"

Is there any real truth to this?
At gigs I often see bands just turn their amps off, and they have to move their shit off stage ASAP sometimes to make way for the next band and it doesn't seem to do any harm to their amps:confused:
 
Harry Hughes said:
At gigs I often see bands just turn their amps off, and they have to move their shit off stage ASAP sometimes to make way for the next band and it doesn't seem to do any harm to their amps:confused:
Click to expand...

This is why you always have an extra set of tubes for shows... but generally speaking, newer tubes will be able to handle the moving afterward, you just don't want to jar the amp or slam it down or anything that you normally wouldn't do... just a little more careful.
 
Shadow_Walker said:
^ Yes but doesn't it prevent having the tubes cool down too quickly? Leaving it on standby for a few seconds should provide some sort of a middle ground.

Not sure about this, though. All I know is the guy who build my amp recommended that I leave it on standby for around 30 seconds before turning it off.
Click to expand...

well, he's wrong.
putting the amp in standby leaves the heating still 100% on, it's not cooling down (if it was cooling down it'd defeat the purpose of the standby switch in the first place!).
it's perfectly safe to turn the amp off without even touching the standby

when switching the amp on it's different of course...switching the POWERSWITCH on starts the heater and the heater should have the chance to heat before you put Ua on the tubes.

the standby switch does not affect the heater coils in any way, und (fortunately!) having the amp on standby doesn't cool the tubes down significantly....
@Harry: yep, let the tubes cool down entirely before moving the amp...if possible...often it isn't
 
ahhh I love this debate. if you read up on it more, it will make your head spin. you really don't need standyby in modern amps. I'd explain in detail, but its really not worth the effort.
 
It seems as though this article is mainly concerned with small short pulses of current that dont apply to guitar amps .
Im no tech head though ....
 
What the article is referring to is cathode stripping, and yes, it doesn't 'really' affect us in guitar amps. Some people says it does, some people says it doesn't. Bottom line is, my tubes always last up to 3 years in my amps(even then I just change them for piece of mind). Some of those amps I always have in stand-by, some I don't, yet they all last the same. So I wouldn't get all caught up in it.
 
Harry Hughes said:
Okay, makes sense.
But what about the "Don't move the amp for x amount of time to allow the amp to cool down(usually 10 minutes or so as quoted in many manuals), otherwise tube damage/damage to tube elements may occur"

Is there any real truth to this?
At gigs I often see bands just turn their amps off, and they have to move their shit off stage ASAP sometimes to make way for the next band and it doesn't seem to do any harm to their amps:confused:
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure this is because the tubes are more fragile when warm, so it's best to let them cool down if possible. As long as you're careful with your amp it should be fine to move it straight away though.
 
Wolfeman said:
What the article is referring to is cathode stripping, and yes, it doesn't 'really' affect us in guitar amps. Some people says it does, some people says it doesn't. Bottom line is, my tubes always last up to 3 years in my amps(even then I just change them for piece of mind). Some of those amps I always have in stand-by, some I don't, yet they all last the same. So I wouldn't get all caught up in it.
Click to expand...

3 years ?? Please explain how are you able to do that ?? IIRC you should change tubes twice a year or once a year.. I know it depends on how much time you are using the amp..
 
Dude, if you're having to change tubes twice a year then either something is seriously wrong or you're playing with your amp at very high volumes VERY regularly.

I've only changed tubes in one of my valve amps once, the amp was 4 years old and to be honest I was only changing tubes to see if it would make a difference in tone but the original tubes were still fine.
 
^---- +1

My old-ass laney pro-tube is only on its second set since I bought it (s/h) 10 years ago (I was using it every day and gigging it at one point). And it doesnt have a standby switch or anything.
 
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