Why do tube amps need to warm up

So, if you want your playing to sound its best at all times, make sure to warm up your tube amp thoroughly beforehand! It is important, too, that the warmup that you give your tube amp is very thorough. If they are not warmed up properly, the tone of your playing will not be as good as it ought to be. As a rule of thumb, your tube amp needs to be warmed up for 20 to 30 minutes at least before you can start playing your guitar.

Most of the time, tube amps have warm up specifications included in their instructions for use. These specifications will tell you how long you need to spend warming up your amp before your guitar will be ready to play. It is important to follow these specifications and even to err on the side of caution and leave them to warm up for a little bit extra time, too. Some people only warm their tube amps up enough for them to pass sound - however, if the tubes are not thoroughly warmed up, then you will end up with the same problems with tone mentioned above.

The best way to warm up the amp is to flick the standby switch and leave your amp on the standby mode for however long it takes to warm the tubes up thoroughly. For instance, you could leave the amp warming up and get on with preparing the stage for your gig. In my admittedly limited experience with tube amps, they simply didn't work before they were warmed up. No signal came through. So anyone who tells you to let an amp warm up for 30 seconds probably has that in mind. The amp I had the most experience with was in a public address system, and the usual way of checking whether it was warmed up was to talk into the microphone until the sound came out at the speaker.

I don't think the tubes were replaced very often, if ever, so I doubt they were damaged by this practice. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams?

Learn more. Is it mandatory to let tube amps warming up? What are the risks of not doing that? Ask Question. Asked 1 year, 8 months ago. Active 1 year, 8 months ago. Viewed 3k times. Lot's of guitarist seems to don't care about it and directly play whithout reporting any issue. Improve this question. Welgriv Welgriv 1 1 silver badge 4 4 bronze badges.

Related anecdote - Richard Feynman as a child "fixed a radio just by thinking. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. I have played many Eastman archtops. The Pisano model is most impressive and would be my choice in an Eastman archtop. There's a 3-volume expansion of "Jim Hall Live" from the same set of appearances in Canada. It was offered by Artist Share, I thought the Pisano looked the nicest. I don't know what else to go on since I've never played any of them.

So, great choice and good luck with it! Search Titles Only. Tube Amps Need 30 min Warm-up? Thread Tools. A guitarist friend he plays Rock and Blues on High Wattage Amps swears that go get proper tone on tube amps, they must be allowed around 30 minutes warm-up time. Now I have noticed a difference in tone by letting my '65 DRRI and other large amps have several minutes to warm up, but 30 minutes?

Doesn't that sound excessive? I don't have enough experience to speak about this subject. Can anyone share their warm-up habits with their tube amps? The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary. I thought that's what the standby selection on the three-way power switch was for on tube amps.

The middle position was off, one side of middle position was on and the other side was stand by. And when I owned tube amps I preferred them to have an outlet on the back so I could plug my muffin fan in and try to keep things cool er.

Ask your friend where he got the information about high power tube amps needing a 30 minute warm up. I've asked amp techs about this and each recommended about 5 minutes. Unless you are 'burning in' a brand new amp or new tubes, why would you need more than that?

Some players claim to hear stuff in amps and guitars that we mere mortals cannot. Maybe they can. Maybe they are just blowing smoke. But when it comes to blanket statements about electronics, it helps if they have credibility, training, experience Join Date Jun Location Sweden.

Posts Originally Posted by Gitfiddler. Join Date Jun Posts 1, Complete nonsense. I turn on the amp and play. John A. Originally Posted by AlsoRan. Join Date Sep Posts In the old Jukeboxes the amplifier was off until you put your nickel in, then in order to have it up and running high voltage somewhere around volts was applied to the 6 volt filament supply.

There was a relay in series with the output plate circuit as soon as the plate current came up to operating current it pulled in and dropped the filament voltages to 6 volts. So the amp was up and running when the needle hit the record. It took seconds. There may be some difference when the whole tube is hot but it is doubtful it sounds or lasts differently. It is back to if you believe it sounds different then it does.

You and your amp may nay, should! That's why I always arrived early enough to the gig to get in at least an hour's worth of un-plugged playing. I did a long stretch with a band that liked to open with "Crossroads" or "I know a Little" or, all too often, both.