Dang, I left my amp on all night

kjrocks

New member
Came home from a hockey game last night and plugged into my Silvertone and played for a few. Got distracted by the wife talking about a new dog and ended up leaving it and my Twintube on all night. They got more hours last night then they get in 3 months normally.
 
Re: Dang, I left my amp on all night

I've used amps for years around the house that just got put into stand-by unless being moved or unplugged during lightning storms. Never had problems with premature tube failure.
 
Re: Dang, I left my amp on all night

I've used amps for years around the house that just got put into stand-by unless being moved or unplugged during lightning storms. Never had problems with premature tube failure.

That's good to hear, I always put my amp in standby for a little bit before turning it off and forget to switch it off a lot of times.
 
Re: Dang, I left my amp on all night

I'm not too worried about the tubes really,even though they are still the originals.No standby on this old girl.
 
Re: Dang, I left my amp on all night

That's good to hear, I always put my amp in standby for a little bit before turning it off and forget to switch it off a lot of times.

Heh i know you're just tryin to take it easy on your sweet Orange, but putting it on standby first doesn't really make the tubes cool down any differently. It's safe to just shut the whole thing off at once.
 
Re: Dang, I left my amp on all night

Heh i know you're just tryin to take it easy on your sweet Orange, but putting it on standby first doesn't really make the tubes cool down any differently. It's safe to just shut the whole thing off at once.

Really? I've always heard to leave in on standby for a little while like 30 sec, to supposedly lengthen the tube life.
 
Re: Dang, I left my amp on all night

Really? I've always heard to leave in on standby for a little while like 30 sec, to supposedly lengthen the tube life.
Actually, if you wanted to be totally anal, you'd shut the amp off with the On-Off switch while it was playable, not in standby.
All the B+ voltage gets drained off the power supply while the tubes are still hot and conducting.
Leaving an amp ON while not using it for more then 20-30 mins is a waste of good power tubes as they are still drawing lots of current and burning it up in heat.
Preamp tubes can run for thousands of hours but many power tubes are using half their power rating sitting at idle making ZERO sound!
 
Re: Dang, I left my amp on all night

Man, that reminds me. My Alesis AirFX is still on from last night. I'm at work right now, and I have to go somewhere tonight. I probably won't get a chance to turn it off until tomorrow.
 
Re: Dang, I left my amp on all night

Did you at least play it a little? It seems like after an amp has been hot for 3+ hours it really starts sounding great.
 
Re: Dang, I left my amp on all night

Too bad you didn't get to play.... I left my dad's Super on for over 24 hours once (accidentally), and it sounded awesome when I found it :)
 
Re: Dang, I left my amp on all night

Here's a story from years ago when I was in a band. We used to practice Monday through Thursday. I went out to where we practiced on a Monday and I was the first person there. As soon as I opened up my car door I could hear the feedback just absolutely screaming. I ran over and threw up the warehouse door and ran inside. I thought my ears were gonna start bleeding. We had left our PA system on. There's no telling how long the thing had been feeding back. My guess would be since the last time we had been out there. And that was the previous thursday night...lol.
 
Re: Dang, I left my amp on all night

Here's a story from years ago when I was in a band. We used to practice Monday through Thursday. I went out to where we practiced on a Monday and I was the first person there. As soon as I opened up my car door I could hear the feedback just absolutely screaming. I ran over and threw up the warehouse door and ran inside. I thought my ears were gonna start bleeding. We had left our PA system on. There's no telling how long the thing had been feeding back. My guess would be since the last time we had been out there. And that was the previous thursday night...lol.

I read recently in one of EVH's 5150 III articles that this is his final test of an amp. He cranks it up, set's the guitar on the stand where it will generate killer feedback, then leaves it for a while (?weeks or a month, can't remember which.)
 
Re: Dang, I left my amp on all night

I read recently in one of EVH's 5150 III articles that this is his final test of an amp. He cranks it up, set's the guitar on the stand where it will generate killer feedback, then leaves it for a while (?weeks or a month, can't remember which.)

I think he said a month. It makes me question the truthfulness of his statements.
 
Re: Dang, I left my amp on all night

if I was EVH, I would definitely let an amp feedback for a month to test it out. Why wouldn't he? He's got a mansion and all the gear he could want. He's probably got a room in his house where he lets that happen and can go about his life as usual without it bothering him.
 
Re: Dang, I left my amp on all night

i'm famous for falling asleep with my axe in my hands... i wake up with a guitar and my practice amp still on.... it got really bad at one point all i could hear was my mom screaming get rid of that dam guitar in my sleep.... she got sick of waking me up to turn it off.... being a shift worker i sleep odd hours and sometimes i just crash when i don't think i will.... it just hits me...

I remember years ago i was playing a few riffs before i went out for the night.... phone rang and i left without turning the amp off... came home the following day and my guitar with the volume off was still sitting there with the amp on...
 
Back
Top