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Another Tube Amp Question


savethematches

Question

I just finished performing in the "orchestra" for my school's production of "Little Shop of Horrors," and I noticed an issue with my cheap-o Crate tube amp. During intermission, I would flip the Standby switch. After the intermission, I would flip the switch back off, and herein lies the problem. My volume was noticeably lower on both channels after the intermission standby. I also noticed that the jewel light would go out and then back on when switching off the standby; I don't know if it's related or not. During today's performance, I didn't use the standby, and I had no volume issues. Any ideas what's going on?

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Any ideas what's going on?

That could be a lot of things.

First, it could be a bad standby switch. Most toggle switches aren't meant to handle 400V, and flipping the switch can throw an arc that burns the switch.

That's REALLY REALLY REALLY rare, though.

It could also be a power supply cap dying, so you're not getting the same filtering after the standby as before. I'd normally expect variation in volume regardless of standby there, but flipping off standby provides a short period of high current where the caps in the power supply charge up for the first time.

Or a tube could be dying.

These are all WAGS (Wild Ass Guesses). REALLY hard to tell without poking around the amp. If you don't have some known good tubes to swap in and try, you'll probably have to take it to a tech who can get a look at it.

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Don't use the standby switch at all. I've always just left the standby off and just use the power switch to turn the amp on and off. Doing this also extends the life of the filter caps.

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