Amp Safety
Thu, 02/04/2010 - 16:49
Hello, Skip, and thanks for being here.
This must be a question that most people know the answer to, since I haven't heard anyone ask, but...
I know that the capacitors in amps, particularly in tube amps, can store some dangerous current after the amp is unplugged. So naturally I'm worried about absorbing some of that If I'm fooling around in the amp, changing tubes, checking connections, cleaning out the dust bunnies, etc. Is there a safe way to discharge things, or at least the killer ones, before sticking my hands in there?
Thanks
Hello Marcos- Let's break it down between new and old amps.....
With a new amp, there are no bad connections or dust bunnies, and tube swapping can of course be done without taking the chassis out of the cabinet. You should not "poke around" in there anyway, but if you insist, your FIRST step is to get a multimeter and learn to use it so that you will KNOW if a particular amp has stored voltage inside.
With a vintage amp, you can have an almost infinite variety of potential problems, but it is unlikely that you will be able to fix them without some experience and a lot of background knowledge on how amps work. As with the answer above, your FIRST step is to learn some amp basics and to learn to measure key voltages.
Don't memorize those "pat" answers that only apply to certain amps like "connect a jumper from pin such-and-such"......study up a little and actually understand what you are doing. And please don't experiment on a cool old amp yet!
Skip
Skip Simmons Amp Repair