Really daft tube amp question

[la bam]

Hi all,

Just got my first proper tube valve amp.

Daft question, I get the switching to stand by before switching on properly etc, but.....

The standby and power switch have a 0 and 1. For power obviously 0 is off and 1 is on. 

So, at 0 is that 'standby' off, and therefore the amp is running, and when at 1 amp is in standby?

To help, what should the switches be set at when switching on for the first time? Power 1 and Standby 1?

Then to get volume, power 1 and standby 0?

Any help really appreciated, before I turn it on for the first time!

[la bam]

It's a laney nexus tube if that helps.

[spyder]

With both switched to 0.

Switch power to 1.

Leave for 5 minutes. 

Switch the standby to 1 to turn the amp on. 

Its a wonderful amp and always regretting selling mine. 

 

[la bam]

Perfect thanks.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

There's no need to wait for the tube heaters to warm up before switching standby to on. The standby is there to allow you to turn off the main power rails while leaving the tube heaters on, so there's no wait to warm them up again after you've had your pint and are ready to play the next set.

[la bam]

The manual says to wait 2 minutes Bill.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

There's no technical reason why. If you turn on the B+ power rails before the tubes heat up no harm will come of it, you just won't get any sound out of it until the tube heaters get up to temperature. It never causes a problem for amps that don't have separate switches for the heaters and the B+.

[la bam]

Ok, thanks.

[xgsjx]

My valve amp only has an on/off switch.  No "Standby".

 

[Reggaebass]

My Ashdown LB30 has an on/off power switch but  also has a mute button , which I use when I’m switching basses or leads etc , and I always let it warm up for a few minutes 🙂

[la bam]

All sorted now. As spider said - start with both at 0, switch on power to 1, leave for a bit, switch on standby to 1.

This now means it's in run mode (ironically, not standby!) but all good.

So, to summise, on the standby switch, 0 is standby (ie on but no sound) and 1 is not in standby / run mode (sound).

 

[Beer of the Bass]

Yep, the labelling on Standby switches can be counter-intuitive - usually 0 is "standby" and 1 is "run".  On my DIY amps, whenever I've used a standby switch I've labelled the two positions as Standby/Play rather than 0/1.