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Standby Etiquette
02/25/2009

Q: I've read in forums that it really isn't necessary to use the standby switch on a tube guitar amp if the high voltage in the amp is less than 500 volts. Is this true?

A: Opinions seem to vary. Here's ours: a tube amp's standby switch is designed to allow the tubes to warm up before they are hit with high voltages. The idea is to turn the amp on with the standby off (no sound passes), let it warm up for 30 seconds to two minutes, then flip the standby on (sound passes) and play.

You're not going to hurt anything by using the standby, so why not baby your amp and let it gently warm up? At worst you'll extend the life of your amp's tubes...

The recommended procedure for turning off a tube amp is to turn off the power switch with the standby still on so that the high voltage bleeds out of the amp. Just remember to turn the standby off before you turn the amp on again.



Other Techtips from February 2009:
February 27 - Proper A/B Test Etiquette
February 26 - PT LE Versions
February 25 - Standby Etiquette
February 24 - Rebiasing after changing preamp tubes
February 23 - Speaker Impedance
February 20 - Audio Hard Drive Maintenance
February 19 - Hot Rod Speakers
February 18 - Aftermarket MIDI
February 17 - Preventing Power Supply Roulette
February 16 - Documenting Sessions
February 13 - Exercise Regularly
February 12 - Embedding ISRC Codes
February 11 - Tube Substitution
February 10 - Amp Volume Management
February 09 - Volta Interfaces
February 06 - RAID 0 or JBOD?
February 05 - Avoiding Palm Muting Injuries
February 04 - Nano PT?
February 03 - Torn Between Two Libraries
February 02 - RAID 0 or 1?
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