Speaker cable switch?

[tgs]

I've been told that tube amps can get damaged if you unplug the speaker cable while it's on. Fair enough, but here's my problem:

Often while recording I use two different amps, and I switch between them all the time. This means hitting the standby, hitting the power switch, waiting for a while, pulling out the cable and moving it to the other amp, hit the power switch, wait for the tubes to warm up, hitting the standby and THEN we're ready to go.
Ok, it's annoying that this takes time, but in my book it can't really be healthy for the tubes to turn the amps on and off and on and off again several times during the cause of a day.

What I'm wondering is:
* Would it be possible to move the cable while both amps are in standby or would that too damage the amps?
* If so, is there any switch that I could use that still kept the load on both amps?

 

[Fragle]

afaik you can just switch them to standby without damaging anything. well, at least i accidentally did this to my mesa head it was powered up but set to standby when i pulled the speaker cable, but well, it's still running strong as ever, so i suppose it OK.

 

[Andy Sneap]

as long as stand by is on it's fine, even if its not , it doesn't kill it straight away.

 

[Fragle]

well, iirc having no speaker plugged in once the standby is disengaged kills the amp right away. at least the tubes, possibly the output transformer, too.
however, mismatching doesn't kill it right away. it's always safe to for example put a 16ohm load on a 4 ohm output, as this just reduces power and output. while putting (extreme example) a 4 ohm load on a 16 ohm output is usually considered very dangerous, i KNOW most amps don't crap out immediately. for example, you guys might agree that the newer marshall amps, namely the jcm2000 line, isn't really up to specs in terms of reliability. even those amps can handle 2 4 ohm cabs plugged into the 2 4 ohm parallel outputs (essentially putting a 2 ohm load on a 4 ohm output) for an extended period of time, i know it, my lead guitarplayer does it all the time cause he doesn't know shit. he even plugged 2 4 ohm cabs into the 8 ohm parallel outputs (putting a 2 ohm load on a 8 ohm output) and played a whole show without problems.

it's his money..... i always make sure the roadies don't fuck things up when it comes to MY gear. period.

 

[Andy Sneap]

well i have to say, I've lost count the amount of times an amp here has been switch on accidentally without a speaker plugged in. I wouldn't recommend it, but if you do it by accident, 9 times out of 10 you'll be ok, as long as its not been like that for a prolonged amount of time.

 

[SymbolicSV]

Hi , if you are really worried about the cab switch , i just find this : http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/153911/

 

[tgs]

Thanks for the information! I will keep both amps running then, it will save me some precious time while producing.

 

[Asmus_Thomsen]

An amp-switcher i spretty expensive, so I would recommend some kind of loadbox if you're worried about your amp. It's definately not good to turn it on an off all the time...

 

[Kazrog]

That's a damn cool product! Radial kicks ass!