Tube amp care + Standby

[Paul Seager]

I just want to say thanks to all of you. When I go through the whole chain, I get all my questions answered and feel a whole lot more confident about using the amp.

Currently my biggest challenge is that these 22 watts are so freaking loud! I've actually gone back to using my (pretty horrible) tranny amp for home practice, only way I can keep the volume under control!

\ paul

[Karl Paulsen]

Sounds like you've got your advice. I had similar worries when I switched to an all-tube bass rig (peavey VB2) that has 225 watts pushing through it!

After all my reading I came to the conclusion that while amp designs do differ, for mine, the standby switch is for powering up only. When powering down I take both down at the same time though I don't think my amp design needs to remain on to drain the power.

For switching instruments, in between sets or similar situations I use the mute button or just turn down the volume.

I have a question regarding how and if, these suggestions apply to my Carvin BX 500. It only has one tube, a 12AX7 in the pre-amp. There is a switch on the back that allows me to use the tube or to bypass if for a solid state sound. The tube makes a big difference for steel. It is a bass amp, so maybe for bass or lead guitar, solid state might be better.

Nope, no relation The standby switch relates to power tubes. The preamp tube in your Carvin is just part of the preamp and is there for tone shaping qualities. Use it or not, but there's no need to use the switch for any kind of tube preservation worries.

Different bassists have different prefferences, but I don't know alot of guys who deliberately bypass the preamp tubes in their bass amps with solid state power sections. I didn't when I used such an amp.