nash Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 it has a signal indicator light that shows green and then shows red when i clip. my question is, can i clip it all the time without damaging it seeming as its an all valve amp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gypsymoth Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 the longer harder you run anything, the faster the components (valves) wear. that being said, I think your biggest concern should be overheating your speaker voicecoils, which can arc, creating a short, which can then destroy your transformer. theory roughly being that a heavily clipped signal appears almost as DC current to the speaker, which is not a good thing. I am not a tech, this is roughly the explanation I got after some misfortunes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodl2005 Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 Isn't the signal light only showing the signal above the threshold of the compressor & glows red when this is clipped- or summink. I'm just referring to what it says in the manual. But - I'm in same boat here.... if I play lightly-light doesn't come on at all. Play normal- light -green. Whack strings HARD & light sometimes goes RED! ????!!!!!???????? I'd be interested to know more here also! Will do some enquiring this end & see what I can find. Get back 2 U. Rod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joegarcia Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 I have exactly the same issues/concerns with my 1200s which I think has the same preamp. Do occasionally drive mine very hards when I've got my noisest fx on full. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gypsymoth Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 it's not that you can't ever clip an amp - guitar players usually do. the problem is heat buidlup in the voicecoil, so if you are clipping long or hard (the DC thing), your speaker gets very hot. if your speakers are inadequate to start with .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrGonzo Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 Hmm.... I think it all depends really on what kind of clipping is indicated by the red light... If it is a valve pre (which I think it is...) I think that you might be OK (ish) as valves "soft clip", meaning that the waveform simply won't reach the dreaded DC pattern like a solid state pre would... (apologies if that's all a load of crap. I'm sure someone that knows more about valve amp will correct me...) Certainly I've never experienced any problems with clipping my head - I run the input gain pretty hard to get a little valve compression and grit from the front end, and that's without the fx running... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gypsymoth Posted June 2, 2007 Share Posted June 2, 2007 I think you are right, that if it is pre-amp clipping it likely doesn't matter, but that if it is the power section clipping it is a different story. I would GUESS that the light is there for power clipping, and that some isn't a big deal, but a lot is. unless the light is simply there for entertainment value Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nash Posted June 2, 2007 Author Share Posted June 2, 2007 its pre amp clipping. so its all good then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrGonzo Posted June 2, 2007 Share Posted June 2, 2007 I'd still suggest not running it in the red all the time, but it really shouldn't do any harm, no. go for it son! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gypsymoth Posted June 3, 2007 Share Posted June 3, 2007 I would caution that flickering red may indicate pre clipping, but constant red could mean both, whether by design or accident. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodl2005 Posted June 4, 2007 Share Posted June 4, 2007 With the 300T-as its an ALL VALVE amp-POWER & PRE amps... wouldn't it NOT matter too much if EITHER was clipping- I mean thats what guitarists do ALL the time aint it???????? Even says in some manuals to "turn it way up for that lovely power amp saturation" I know I like it & haven't had ANY issues with MY valve amps... Anyone know more PLEASE chime in!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gypsymoth Posted June 4, 2007 Share Posted June 4, 2007 "guitarists do it all the time" and if they don't have sufficient total wattage speakers? all I KNOW is that after 8 trips to 3 techs, a box of shot kt88's, a rewound transformer, and a new delta lite and kappa pro replaced by eminence, is that their explanation seems plausible and some caution is worthwhile to me. the deltalite was smoked, 0 resistance. the kappa pro measured OK, but when I tried two other heads through it they both blew their el34's - so it went back to eminence and they found "mild" arcing in the voicecoil, which would cause intermittent 0 resistance. and this would seem to be what smoked the transformer. mr. blackmore destroyed many a marshall major - and although most blame the early transformers, I THINK it may have been due to insufficent speakers for running a big amp flat out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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