Idle Amp

[Hotrod]

Hey guys - Been a heck of a long time since I've posted or even visited this site. Almost as long since I laid my guitars down :-( Anyway, my life situation has changed to where I can blow the dust off the rig and start firing things back up. My question to the gurus of the amp board: Is there a procedure I should follow to power up my tube amp as it's been sitting for so long in the closet? It's a Mesa Boogie Trem-O-Verb and was in great shape when I put it up and worked fine. It's been stored in the closet and under a cover so it shouldn't be too dusty. Should I anticipate any issues with the pots being "scratchy" from lack of movement? I'm hoping I don't run into this with the guitars/pedals as well if it is. Anyway, it's great to be back on this fine board and look forward to chatting with some of the old timers I remember as well as the newer faces... :-)

Thanks,
Hotrod (Eric)

[charvelguy]

I think Pete posted some amp tips long time back. Check in search, Twisteramps in case you should need a refresher. Course, google is the next best avenue to spend some time on. Startup is the same tho, I liken it to much like a car that has been sitting - depends on how its been sitting and whether or not its been exposed to any adverse condition. Given your description, just warm it up in standby for a couple minutes to allow the heater to get some temp.

The main issue with not powering up a tube amp up on a regular basis is the caps are not getting charged to values on a regular basis and therefore there some issue with retaining voltage value or possibly leakage, which will effect an amps tone. You'll notice that right away. It'll sound much thinner, distorted in a harsh way...like crap essentially than how you remembered it and it won't have anything relative to rust or any lack of practice in your hands. If you kept it under a cover and powered it up within a year or two or so, it should be without issue if it was maintained previously. Ideally, stored amps should get some voltage into them at least every 6 months to get the caps charged.

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/columns/gear_maintenance/taking_care_of_your_tube_amp__ii.html

Someone else asked the same.

http://www.marshallforum.com/workbench/9173-powering-up-stored-amp.html

[Cygnus X1]

Great response, ditto to all of it.

It is the electrolytic caps that are in the danger zone, but who knows.
Best way to go forward is get the amp to a tech and he can give it half a chance
by bringing it up on a current limiter or variac.

[Hotrod]

Thanks for the response guys! I knew I could count on something from this board. I'll let you know how it goes...

[DonP]

+1. I power my amps up every so often to keep the caps in good shape. Usually the worst "vintage" amps are ones in mint shape that haven't been powered up for ages.

[Cygnus X1]

Same thing can happen to old solid state equipment.

[DonP]

Same thing can happen to old solid state equipment.

I don't know if you noticed, but I said amps instead of "tube amps" to include solid state amps. But yes, anything that uses a capacitor can fail. Many PC motherboards die because of cap failure. The most recent PC I threw together uses special caps that have a very long lifespan.

[Cygnus X1]

No, I didn't notice.
Good point!