Put amp in standby to change power modes

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Marshall Boogie

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I recently had a problem with my Mark v 90 watt. I was mysteriously blowing pre-amp tubes and couldn't figure out why. I started evaluating the way I was using the amplifier for clues as to what could be going wrong. One of the things I had taken to doing was to enter variac mode from normal without putting the amp in standby. Thinking I might just be surging the tubes with this move I suspended it and started only changing power modes in standby and sure enough, no more blown pre-amp tubes.
 
The reason I even posted this was because I recently watched a youtube video reviewing the Badlander amp and watched the guy reach out and flip the power switch from full power to variac exactly as I described in my post(without standby). I thought it might be a useful reminder.
 
It can handle the voltage drop and increase just fine. The only change you need to put it on standby for is going, to or from 10 watts, because of the pop. Even that probably doesn’t hurt the amp technically. It’s just to avoid the loud pop. If an amp can handle being turned off without standby (which all can), dropping to the variac setting is nothing, as is raising from the variac setting. The voltage jump from standby to full power is much larger than the jump from variac to full power. Been doing this without issue for 10 years on my V. But I’ve also been running 34’s for that long often using full power, which some people think is not right either... 🤷‍♂️
 
Me too, I’ve always just flipped directly from Variac to Full power since 2012. Maybe I’ll use Standby nowadays just in case after reading this. but I think if flipping directly from Variac to Full (or vice versa) damages the amp mine would’ve been damaged a long time ago.

When I switch wattage modes I always just do it in the non-active channels to avoid that pop.
 
The pop will also happen when you switch channels between a 10 watt setting and either of the other two. 45 and 90 can switch channels with each other without issue.
 

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