Amp Standby Switches: How strict are you?

[JasonE]

Sorry if it has been said already. I didn't read all of the posts ahead of mine.

I was watching an episode of Tone Talk this weekend and this question came up with a little different wording. Dave Friedman said you can leave the standby switch on all the time and just turn the amp on and off with the power switch and it will not cause any issues at all. He was in favor of not using the standby switch.

 

[la szum]

A good chunk of us guitarists are neurotic.

Hey man! Them TV tubes did fail, and always at the wrong time---as I recall.
I can remember them coming out to the house..... like clockwork... to plop in
a fresh tube. Just replace a bad one with one about to fail and you have a
great business model.

 

[la szum]

Sorry if it has been said already. I didn't read all of the posts ahead of mine.

I was watching an episode of Tone Talk this weekend and this question came up with a little different wording. Dave Friedman said you can leave the standby switch on all the time and just turn the amp on and off with the power switch and it will not cause any issues at all. He was in favor of not using the standby switch.

He's wrong again!!

I am beginning to wonder if he really is from Detroit like he says he is.

 

[Achilles]

I can remember them coming out to the house.....

Our local pharmacist/soda stand/general store right around the corner stocked all the common ones!

 

[Alex Kenivel]

 

[la szum]

Nostalgia is cool, but man, I don't miss them TVs one bit.

 

[JasonE]

He's wrong again!!

I am beginning to wonder if he really is from Detroit like he says he is.

Is he? I have heard this quite a few times over many years. The Peavey Classic amps didn't even have standby switches on them. I am not trying to start an argument. I honestly don't know. I use the standby switches on my amps but it is mostly because I was told to when I bought my first tube amp. I have just continued on with it.

 

[GreatGreen]

I wait about 30 seconds to a minute between turning on the power and then flipping the standby switch to on.

To turn off, I always hit the power switch, then standby a little while after. I do this because I think it might help all the components fully drain on some amps.

I've also heard that standby switches really only matter when you're dealing with tens of thousands of watts or millions of volts. At that point, standby misuse can lead to cathode stripping, but no guitar amp has ever even approached developing that kind of power, so the argument there is that the standby switch doesn't matter, and can even reduce tube life if the amp is left in standby too often, which can result in cathode poisoning.