[mikenohio]

I have a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp, and i went down to the basement the other night, and turned the amp on to warm it up. I ended up getting called upstairs for one reason or another, and never made it back down. I discovered this the next morning.. so my amp was turned on for about 12 hours.

How bad is this? I assume it could have a detrimental effect on the tubes.

This is probably a silly question, but when you are playing electric, should you be able to hear the strings on your guitar? or should you only hear sound from the amp?

I've noticed that if i stand to close to my amp, a lot of the sound goes right past me (i.e. past my knees), and i can hear the guitar as well as the amp. Even when i "back away" to get more of the sound, i still hear the strings... I wondering if i don't have my amp turned up enough. (Note this was jamming at a friends house, not the typical evening in the basement after the kids are sleeping with the volume way down...)

[strumminsix]

Your amp is most likely fine. Assuming it was on standby, leaving an amp on for an extended period of time is less damaging than turning it on and off a dozen times.

Yes, I hear my strings.

[jackr]

If it is working fine I wouldnt worry about it a bit. Tubes will not last indefinately but I only had tube problems when bouncing the amp around too much. I dont think I have ever had one burn out on me from too many hours.

I only play an hour or two a clip though normally. Way back when it was not uncommon for me to play with some buddies all day long.

This does make me curious to how many hours a tube will actually last.

[tigerstrat]

power amp tubes (the large ones, of which you usually have either 2 or 4) will start to either glow red or sound bad or both after a few months of heavy use, up to maybe 2-3 years of light use.

preamp tubes (the little ones, 12ax7[ECC83/7025]'s, 12at7[ECC81]'s) should last for decades... the older, better-made ones do anyway. Recent production ones from China and Russia, etc, probably have a much shorter lifespan ... still several years though.

Don't let an amp tech simply replace your whole set of tubes in the name of "scheduled maintenance", unless they've actually failed! That is a scam to make you buy expensive tubes you probably didn't even need. Only your power tubes should ever need replacment (always followed by bias adjustment)... but I highly recommend swapping out different preamp tubes to improve/tweak the preamp's sound... darker, brighter, more headroom, quicker breakup, whatever you are looking for, you can usually find a tube that will get you a little closer.

[tigerstrat]

On the "hearing my strings" question...

If your amp is pointed at your knees, that's problem number one.

Since its not pointed at your EARS, that means you likely turn the amp UP to compensate, and anyone else unlucky enough to be in the speaker line-of-fire is getting a much louder sound from it than you, the person playing it! That's about the time you start having people demand you turn down...

Elevate, people. Get the speaker up as close to ear level as is practical, so that YOU are hearing more of it than anyone else around. At the very least angle it back so that it's pointed up at yourself more than anyone else. This way, you'll hear it to your own satisfaction, and not be blowing peeps' ears out. If the amp is just sitting flat on the floor, you should probably be standing at least 15ft in front of it.

[strumminsix]

+1 to TS's point.

Here are my solutions:
#1 all my cabs have an angled baffle
#2 install tilt back legs on combos
#3 buy a nice amp stand (my favorite = http://gruven-stands.com/Amplifier.htm )

There is another concept most musicians don't utilize but should is a concept called "washing". Say a guitarist and bassist play one side of the drummer what you do is have the bassist's rig behind the guitarist and the guitarist's behind the bassist. Doing this allows ensure that your sound hits your ear instead of the back of your head.

Good luck trying to get anyone to do this. I finally got my old bassist to do this with me and we agreed that we heard ourselves clearer and turned down.

[mikenohio]

Thanks for the replies...

The Amp was in standby mode, and it sounded fine last Saturday night.

I figured i needed one of those amp stands... either that or sit indian style on the floor in front of the amp...

[BuddhaG]

I am definitley going to have to make an investment in one of those amp stands to tilt the speakers back and lift em up off the ground. This makes perfect sense as I feel that I have to strain to hear myself sometimes unless the amp is pretty damn loud, of course its always pointing at my shins...

I'm a little confused about "washing" though,

Say a guitarist and bassist play one side of the drummer what you do is have the bassist's rig behind the guitarist and the guitarist's behind the bassist.

I don't quite get what you mean here, say in the group of people I jam with there are two guitars and a bass. Would rhythm guitar be in front of the bass and then the lead be alone or would they all be "washing" in each others sound?

We haven't really figured out who will play lead, we switch it up on different songs and what not, but my amp is the only one that is vacuum tube powered, so it carries a hell of a lot better than the transistor amps my buddies own, we have some problems with that because my amp "sounds" a lot louder so sometimes the other guitarist will turn up and his amp will scream while mine sounds quite clean. In any case, how should we arrange the amps in this set up, any advice? I would really love to be able to hear each other better so we wouldnt have volume issues.

thanks guys

[strumminsix]

BuddaG the systems simply implies that your amp is not directly behind you but more to your side.

In most band settings this means you have somebody else's amp behind you.

The purpose is to help you to better hear yourself.

If you have trouble with mixes than it's very likely the instruments are sitting to broadly across the tonal spectrum vs being tight into their respective registers.

As far as tube vs ss... There is no perceived volume difference. My 160W ss amp is louder than a 5W tube amp. Granted most people say that a tube amp is louder than an equally rated ss amp but IMO that is more due to there being no real standards with wattage plus clean headroom comes into play, etc...


BTW, that Gruven stand is awesome! Had mine for a few years and very happy. Plus it is so simple that if anything breaks I could easily fix it!

[BuddhaG]

thanks for your patience, strumminsix!

i was overthinking the whole thing, i think we do this to a certain degree already but i will introduce this idea and see if we can mess around to get things where we like em.

as for having trouble with the mixes, i guess it is because we are still slightly confused about how each of us as individual players contribute to the overall sound of the group assault.

i think time and more practicing will work out the rough spots and help each of us define our tone and place in the group as a whole.

keep truckin' and good luck with your gig, i'm glad you found a live drummer who can play dead.

[strumminsix]

Hey bro no patience exerted here just helping you out with a new concept!

The biggest mistake guitarists and bassist make is to not change their tone from practicing alone to the band tone. I see this over and over again...

Too many electric guitarists setup their tonestack so that their range is as broad as an acoustic and dip too far into the bass register and not have enough mids.

(I was very guilty of this until I realized my tone's mix with the band is more important than my individual tone)

[tigerstrat]

2 words: milk crates