watt
New Member
Posts: 15
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Post by watt on Feb 5, 2021 15:00:27 GMT -7
Hi, I just received a Cure (used). I plugged it in, turned it on, and spent a few minutes fiddling with knobs before I figured out that the reason I wasn't getting any sound was that one of the two speaker connects had come off at the speaker. I immediately turned off the amplifier.
I have a tube amp owner's deathly fear of turning on an amp with no speaker load. In this instance, there was a speaker cable connected to the amp, but one of the two connects at the speaker was unconnected.
I connected the connect, plugged in, turned on, and all seems well. A slight fizziness with a couple of gain pedals, but nothing significant; could be that the speaker isn't broken in. The clean sound has no sort of artifacts that I can discern.
I'm just wondering if having the amplifier turned on for 2-3 minutes, with a speaker jack into the amp but an incomplete connection at the speaker, could cause the sort of harm that is associated with turning on a tube amplifier with no speaker load. Is that something that I should be concerned about? Thanks for any help.
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Post by "Z" Steve on Feb 5, 2021 15:06:57 GMT -7
You should be fine. All amps built by Dr Z are built like tanks. There is a story here somewhere where a member left his Carmen Ghia powered up over night (maybe 2?) with no speaker load attached. The transformer was smokin hot when he caught it, but after it cooled down and he connected the speaker he swore it sounded even better. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME FOLKS!!
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watt
New Member
Posts: 15
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Post by watt on Feb 5, 2021 15:36:29 GMT -7
Thanks so much for reply! I should have mentioned that the power tubes were barely lukewarm when I (lightly) touched them upon powering off, after a few minutes of power. I was kind of surprised.
I am very afraid of turning on a tube amp with no speaker load. Years spent on guitar and amp forums have inculcated that fear. Based on what I've read, though, I probably don't have to worry about 2 or 3 minutes of the above-described situation (which I believe is different from a no-jack no-load, flyback threat is different, I don't know what I'm talking about), but I definitely would like to get opinions from others. Like you said, the amp is built like a tank, and people have gotten away with it...but do not try this at home.
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Post by premiumplus (Dave) on Feb 5, 2021 15:56:49 GMT -7
I agree with Steve, over the years I've made that mistake more than a few times and I haven't hurt an output transformer yet. Shorted turns due to flyback arc through is a real threat, but like I said, I haven't seen it and I've been at this since the '60s.
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Post by DRZ on Feb 5, 2021 16:02:52 GMT -7
No you didn’t hurt anything. Just don’t make a habit of it.
Z
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Post by Jaguarguy (Mike) on Feb 5, 2021 19:13:01 GMT -7
No you didn’t hurt anything. Just don’t make a habit of it. Z There you have it Watt!
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Post by zpilot on Feb 6, 2021 3:20:33 GMT -7
Probably your saving grace was the fact that you were not applying a continuous signal. I assume you just hit a few notes or chords intermittently to test for sound.
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watt
New Member
Posts: 15
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Post by watt on Feb 6, 2021 19:58:03 GMT -7
Probably your saving grace was the fact that you were not applying a continuous signal. I assume you just hit a few notes or chords intermittently to test for sound. I did turn Level/Volume/MV knobs up while the amp was on. That's one of the things that I thought might have caused issues. I didn't send much playing through the amp, though, just a strum or two.
edit: btw 2 days later and the amp plays like a dream. Z-12 speaker is fascinating...topic for other subforum!
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