ADA Power Amps > Microtube 200 MT-200

Extended Breaks: Standby? Off? Leave it on??

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Dante:
I love my Microtube 200. It's tiny and powerful and sounds great. I want it to last. So, I ask you, when taking an extended break (let's say 30 minutes or more), should I put my amp in Standby or shut it off, or just leave it on??

It's an old amp, the tubes are in good shape, but to preserve the life of this dinosaur....what's best?

Soloist:
If it's going to be more than 20 minutes I shut mine off. Whether it's my Mesa or Microtube. They both warm up quick so keeping them warm isn't an issue like with 70's tube amps. Plus it let's the internal temp of the rack cool down.

rnolan:
Unless it's really hot and you need to let it cool down a bit (and mostly this isn't the case), put in in standby.  This is why there is a standby, this keeps the tube at a constant temp (heater filaments on). What kills tubes (and light bulbs, and circuits in general) is tuning on/off, hot/cold cycles and power spikes.  In hi end audio/studio etc, they never turn things off unless they have to. In bands you have to turn stuff off at the end of the gig, but during the gig leave it all on, all tube gear to standby between sets (as I said, that's why the switch is there), MP1/2 I leave on (they have no standby.  Also good to let the tubes cool down slowly at the end of the gig before moving it and even more so taking it outside into the cold (this is a good way to blow stage lights, not letting them cool down and tubes are not fond of it either).

MarshallJMP:
I leave my marshall heads on,not in stanby.This keeps the tubes hot,in standby they will cool down a bit because there's no anode current flow.Now for an amp like the MT200 there are only preamp tubes so i would leave it on stanby.

Dante:
Thanks Gents!!  Just the answer I was looking for.

Why did I ask? My band played a fundraiser a while back, and the hosting company was making announcements all throughout the night (typical for a fundraiser). At one point, they gave out a bunch of appreciation awards and told us to take a break (which is ironic since we only played a couples songs before the break). We didn't play another song for 45 minutes while they handed out all the awards.

I'll keep mine in Standby from now on

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