Grateful Dead Music Forum

73 dual showman reverb dead stock just arrived. Upon further inspection, i've found that when switching on the standby switch, then power switch, then shutting off the standby switch, the amp powers down. no sound. tubes go dark. Amp only works when that standby is on. Does anyone know what that could be? and any potential harm that is being caused? like cooking tubes or anything like that? Contacted previous owner, and he said he always used it like that. Every fender i've ever had did not have a standby switch that required always being on to operate.

-Vic

I haven't seen a fender amp without a standby switch except for newer like blues junior etc.
Anyways, Turn Power on ONLY (up position)
Let it warm up for a couple mins
Then switch Standby on (up position)
In other words,
Turn on the the power switch, but leave the standby switch in the down position, "standby", which leaves the standby engaged. Let the tubes warm up for a few minutes. Then put the standby switch to the "on"(up) position which disengages the standby, in effect, turning off the standby.

Listen to hippieguy.

well this is embarrassing haha. Yep, blues jr. is what i've been using. bought one then bought another. Never came in contact with the standby switch. Thanks for the info. Cant believe i called the previous owner and said "whats up with the standby switch?"

We all do bonehead things from time to time an! That's how we learn. One time I was playing a solo gig and the audience was having a hard time hearing me so I kept turning things up, moving things around finally decided to move my Mains closer to where the audience was. Walked up to the mains and saw that I had not run any chords to them for my mixer and was only hearing myself through my monitor. And this was only a few years ago, I've been digging for over 30 years.

Hippieguy is correct
I read somewhere that the standby was meant to allow the power section to fully warm up before the tone section is introduced
T