Power Question

[citizenk74]

For forum electronics people: I am running my '64 Vibroverb on a power strip. If I leave the amp switches on (power and standby) and turn the power strip on and off, will it do any harm to the amp? Thanks in advance!

[BBGuitar]

39 years in electronic calibration and repair.

That said on my opinion your fine.

[j4zz]

So your amp is on but in standby mode when you turn it off, then on again later, using the power board? Anyway, no, no harm will come. The amp's power switch and the power board's switch are effectively doing the same thing, just connecting power to the amp's power transformer. So, turning it on this way at the power board, is exactly the same as turning on the amp using it's own power switch with the standby switch in the on position.

[John A.]

For forum electronics people: I am running my '64 Vibroverb on a power strip. If I leave the amp switches on (power and standby) and turn the power strip on and off, will it do any harm to the amp? Thanks in advance!

No, it won't. It's no different from turning the two amp switches on or off at the same time.

[EastwoodMike]

Probably do more damage to the power strip switch from inrush current if you do it frequently enough.
The Amp switch (should) be designed for this - not all power strip switches would have this usage or duty cycle in mind.

The Amp though- no problem.

[AllanAllen]

Didn’t this exact thread with comments happen like, a month ago?

I must be losing it.

[Litterick]

Are you all implying that an amp without standby would be damaged if you left it on and turned the power board off and on?

[EastwoodMike]

Not I. Not at all. The power strip switch and Amp power switch are in series with each other and both prior to the input power transformer. There is no theoretical difference between the two. Functionally the amp switch may be more heavy duty build quality than the power strip switch. Depends on the power strip.
standby switch is a whole different function.

[citizenk74]

Many thanks for the replies, Gentlemen!

[burchyk]

looking at the schematic, other than the ground connection should be pretty much the same no, and even that might be still on depending on the kind of plug you've got there now and if the strip ground stays connected

[citizenk74]

looking at the schematic, other than the ground connection should be pretty much the same no, and even that might be still on depending on the kind of plug you've got there now and if the strip ground stays connected

Many thanks for the schematic! I should have mentioned that this is the Brown Panel model with 2 - 10"s, not the later Black Panel model with 1 - 15" speaker.

I had one of those*, as well, but it had apparently been struck by lightning, or something. A series of techs were unable to keep it working. The BPVv, on the other hand, was sold to me by a jazzer and gigged by me exclusively for a good ten years without incident. I had it re-tubed once. The original phase inverter was a 5U4GB. Not sure what the pre-amp tubes were, as they never failed. I recently had all the electrolytics and so forth replaced. It's in remarkably good shape for a nearly 60 year-old amp. The harmonic tremolo, which I never until recently used, is just lovely. Using it in a stereo wet pairing with the recently-acquired Princeton tribute amp. The two different tremolos give a nice effect for the stuff I'm working on at the moment.

*Bought as a package deal with my '64 ES-345TDS.

[burchyk]

With the brown panel it's the same kind of deal, power switch, death cap and the fuse sitting on power transformer primary.

https://ampwares.com/schematics/vibroverb_6g16.pdf

[Gabor]

...as an engineer I learn one thing on university (well maybe some more, but this is the clearest in my memory) : If you make mistakes, be sure those mistakes favouring the safe side.

So my question is: What is your actual benefit to do that? If there is a measurable benefit, then you may (or may not) risk. However if the benefit is very low, then I would go for the sequnce power off the amp completely, the power off the strip, similarly first power on the strip, then power on the amp.
Meaning: maybe it is a mistake (unnecessary) but this mistake is on the safe side.

without measuring the transients of the actual strip, on the actual house network with all devices plugged in, and measuring the some points in the amp during the switching action we can say nothing for sure.