Tubescreamer

[ciel]

its time to use it as a doorstop and get a new amp!

its cool, my first amp was a fender frontman 25 and i din know better and the fender tag looked cool and i though the thin fizzy distortion was da bomb.

and now i use it as a doorstop.

 

[guitarnub]

i still use it actually, its not my main amp, but for playing late at night or if im using my effects or if i just cant be bothered to warm up my tube amp.

 

[ciel]

+1 to you man. mine is just a doorstop with a fender tag hruhrurhurhur.

 

[nickyseow]

ciel: REALLY?? a tube amp. hey my first proper amp was this amp called the deluxe 900. it has almost been relegated to doorstop status. I also thought the djeng djeng from my amp was the bomb. haha

guitarnub: your post stumps me. it takes less then a minute for a tube amp to warm up. what kind of tube amp are you using?

 

[Phanto]

amp in the freezer.

 

[nickyseow]

and pray tell which amp is that phanto bro?

 

[Phanto]

 

[ciel]

ahhhhh nice looking amp.

 

[guitarnub]

i take 5 mins to warm the tubes up

 

[nickyseow]

which amp guitarnub bro?

my SF Twin Reverb plug in, on power, on standby, wait less then a minute can play already.. play awhile, tubes warm up already.. not 5 minutes!

 

[guitarnub]

its a 5150 combo

 

[ChanMin]

wa .. so careful ah ... well .. it will take less then a minute for the 5150 to warm up also ma... no need 5 mins la... my 5150 combo sometimes i get impatient
i just on both standby and power together ... the amp also still working ok... though i think i should stop doing that.

 

[leecs]

Less than a min? I warm up my Hot Rod tubes for at least 10 - 15 mins b4 i play. You may get vol fluctuation if you warm up a min or so..

 

[subversion]

5min is a bit too excessive for tube warm-ups... i go with 3min the max.

 

[ChanMin]

yea... i never really noticed... mostly its like turn power ON ... go take out guitar... plug in ..blah blah... STANDBY ON ... then play.

prob a minute to two minutes.. 15mins is an awful lot of playing time down the drain man! haha

 

[nickyseow]

yeah.. same here.. power on, then look idle, then standby on, then play. lol oh and about the volume fluctations? no hap leh..

 

[leecs]

hmmmmm, Thats what Randolf advised me.

 

[embryo]

It is not impossiblt to play a full tube amp merely minutes after just powering up. The warm up especially applies to the power tubes to reach it's optimum and consistent operating temp to consitently churn out the intended tones. This is why there's inconsistency in the 1st 15 mins. There will be sound within 1st few minutes but the tone will only be full bodied and consistent upon reaching it's ideal warmed up state.

Also most new tube amp users may seem like it doesn't matter but it's mainly because they're using less of the power tubes by dialing in low in the master volume but dialing in more of the preamp tube distortion which uses and generates less power and heat. This is one of several reasons why hybrid (tubes only in preamp but solid state circuitry in power amp) amps came into the offering by almost every amp manufacturer including Fender and Marshall. The heavily saturated preamp tube distrtion sound was especilly popular among 80's and shred styled players.

Things have changed or rather evolved these days as most of these 80's era shred players like Paul Gilbert have grown to discover the classy dynamic drive tones within the power amp tube saturation. Power tubes by nature of their technology is not exactly the most output/heat efficient. They take up alot of voltage and current juice, generate alot of heat when operating in it's ideal state but the tone when heard, experienced and played with is what it's all about.

 

[Paulo]

i turn on the JCM800 usually 25-30 mins before kicking off the set. to avoid inconsistency.

 

[nickyseow]

randolf'd.


thanks for the input, i'll try it out and see how it goes.., so you're saying leave the power on for at least 10 mins, then turn on the standby?