How long do you leave your amp on standby?

Will462

Will462

New member
I was wondering how long you guys leave your amps on standby? Sometimes I'll play for an hour or so, then take a break for 30 minutes to an hour. I usually just put the amp on standby, but I'm wondering if it would be easier on the amp to just turn it off when I take a break. Also, do you use standby to power down your amp, or just shut her down all at once?
 
Re: How long do you leave your amp on standby?

Depends, when I NEED to play immediately when I get back to the amp like at a church service, I leave it on standby. If I am at home, just turn it off.
 
Re: How long do you leave your amp on standby?

Will462 said:
I was wondering how long you guys leave your amps on standby? Sometimes I'll play for an hour or so, then take a break for 30 minutes to an hour. I usually just put the amp on standby, but I'm wondering if it would be easier on the amp to just turn it off when I take a break. Also, do you use standby to power down your amp, or just shut her down all at once?
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I'll leave my amp on for half a day sometimes between playing and it sitting on standby. I think cooling down, heating up, cooling down, heating up would be harder on tube life than just leaving it on for an extended period of time. I might be wrong and look forward to some tube amp veterans giving their insight.

I used solid state amps for the first 20 years of playing so I'm fairly new to the whole tube scene but I would definitely suggest that you flip on standby before you turn the power switch off.
 
Re: How long do you leave your amp on standby?

if you just turn the power off without going back to standby, chances are that you may not have to drain caps if you're about to work on it as it may not store charge (not saying "will not")

keeping the valves warm between sets may be easier on them, but i've never kept a new tube log book myself.
 
Re: How long do you leave your amp on standby?

I was under the impression that leaving the amp on standby for long periods of time shortened the life of the tubes. It keeps the cathode hot without any anode current flowing through . . . which can lead to cathode poisoning can't it? Probably not an issue if you're just leaving it on standby for a short period (less than an hour), but it would be a bigger problem if you leave it on for a half a day at a time on a regular basis.
 
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Re: How long do you leave your amp on standby?

In my experience a properly designed amp with good tubes can be turned on and left on standy-by indefinitely. I have amps that have been left on for literally years unless I moved it for whatever reason and they and their tubes are still doing just fine.
 
Re: How long do you leave your amp on standby?

SlyFoxx said:
In my experience a properly designed amp with good tubes can be turned on and left on standy-by indefinitely. I have amps that have been left on for literally years unless I moved it for whatever reason and they and their tubes are still doing just fine.
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Damn! I guess that settles that! lol

The man said YEARS!:bigeyes2:
 
Re: How long do you leave your amp on standby?

On the weekends my amps are on all day. The wife is always yelling at me to turn them off.
 
Re: How long do you leave your amp on standby?

thats fine man. I leave my Vox on whenever I know I'm going to play again.

as for warming up for the first time I usually turn it on first when I get to the gig and then set up all my pedals, etc.
 
Re: How long do you leave your amp on standby?

My guitarist left his amp on standby in our drummer's garage for 2 whole days... Yeah not very cool. Burned out the tubes pretty dang fast and probably could've gotten a lot more time out of them had he not done that. They only lasted about 7 months since we changed them before they started crapping out on us.
 
Re: How long do you leave your amp on standby?

I generally turn it on, then plug in my board and guitar, then switch it off standby. When shutting down, it's the same process in reverse. I never keep my amp (AC30C2) on standby for more than 10-15 mins, depending on if there's something I have to do during my play session.
I'm a home player tho. If I had a band (planning on joining/starting a new one btw), it might be longer, depending on rehersal structure.
 
Re: How long do you leave your amp on standby?

GuitarStv said:
I was under the impression that leaving the amp on standby for long periods of time shortened the life of the tubes. It keeps the cathode hot without any anode current flowing through . . . which can lead to cathode poisoning can't it? Probably not an issue if you're just leaving it on standby for a short period (less than an hour), but it would be a bigger problem if you leave it on for a half a day at a time on a regular basis.
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Standby keeps em in a low but still glowing state = yes, you're using up SOME service life. Though surely nothing like if you were pushing em past limit or running them way off bias (unbiased? debiased? whatevs, you get the idea)

BTW....anyone know if a properly executed standby circuit just feeds the big power tubes, or is the preamp section lit up too? And, on a separate note, why the heck are 12ax7's sooo often in those aluminium cylinder thingies you cant see through anyway?!?
 
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Re: How long do you leave your amp on standby?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with leaving your amp on standby indefinitely. In fact, you will baby your amp much more if you do that, as opposed to turning it on and off all the time. The same applies to most electronic, and mechanical, devices. Starting and stopping is what causes the most stress and wear, not continuous operation.
 
Re: How long do you leave your amp on standby?

ItsaBass said:
There is absolutely nothing wrong with leaving your amp on standby indefinitely. In fact, you will baby your amp much more if you do that, as opposed to turning it on and off all the time. The same applies to most electronic, and mechanical, devices. Starting and stopping is what causes the most stress and wear, not continuous operation.
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Tubes, dude... Unlike ICs, theyre more akin to organic lifeforms - theyre all ticking timebombs that WILL, with 100% certainty, eventually die. Not because they are faulty, but because their operational lifetime is limited.
 
Re: How long do you leave your amp on standby?

Adieu said:
Standby keeps em in a low but still glowing state = yes, you're using up SOME service life. Though surely nothing like if you were pushing em past limit or running them way off bias (unbiased? debiased? whatevs, you get the idea)

BTW....anyone know if a properly executed standby circuit just feeds the big power tubes, or is the preamp section lit up too? And, on a separate note, why the heck are 12ax7's sooo often in those aluminium cylinder thingies you cant see through anyway?!?
Click to expand...

Those little aluminum thingies are to protect the tubes from damage.
This is an interesting thread, cuz I always put my amp in standby to warm up and before powering down, but wouldnt have thought it would be good to leave in standby long. However, Ive been at clubs where the bands have the amps in standby during the opening band's (or opening bands') sets so they are ready to go when its time for their set.
 
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Re: How long do you leave your amp on standby?

When it's in standby, only the heaters in the tubes are running, so it's like running a radio all day long. The tube wear occurs in non standby mode.

One time, I left my Gibson Goldtone in standby for 3 months! It's because the 3 way on/standby/off switch is on the back of the amp and hard to notice. The tubes sounded just fine since then. That showed me that it's nothing to worry about.

What you DON'T want to do is keep it in running mode for days on end. Then, you will heat up the amp, and probably fry your tubes.
 
Re: How long do you leave your amp on standby?

Wow guys leaving their amps on all day and for years at a time ?? never heard of that

I always turn my amp off when done and leave it on standby for about a minute when starting it up
 
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