Did I just kill or maim my amp?

[Ripthorn]

Hi guys, walked into the other room this morning and noticed that I left my amp on all night. This is my first all tube amp, so I was worried. Plugged in and the volume is massively reduced from what it was last night even on the same settings. Did I potentially damage something or does it simply need a break?

[briane]

well if its not working right, then something is wrong... someone needs to go in....

That said I leave my amps on all night all the time with no issues. It gives me confidence in their stability. I even know some who leaves all their amps on all the time. They say they were designed for that, and that way they always sound their best when they pick up an axe, though of course it is wearing the tubes hard.

Sounds like an overheated component failed, though no idea what. Take a look at the board and see if theres any obvious black or brown marks.

I have also seen amps that got way too hot, then bumped around, and the solder dripped right off the joints.

I assume you had a load connected during the night, otherwise you have got larger problems...

[Ripthorn]

Yeah, the really interesting thing is that the tone is still good, so it doesn't seem like anything in the signal path failed. Also, the power amp and phase inverter both seem to work just fine, so maybe something happened to lower plate voltage. I will open it up and see what I've got. I was just wondering if leaving amps on all night is a problem or not. Thanks for the reply.

[dano-rator]

Man, i've done this before... Late night partying at my place, impromptu jam session, pass out between songs. We've all been THERE right? Right? Thankfully it was fine the next day, more than I could say for myself.
Hope your's isn't too bad off!

Dan

[Wayne]

Man, i've done this before... Late night partying at my place, impromptu jam session, pass out between songs. We've all been THERE right? Right? Thankfully it was fine the next day, more than I could say for myself.
Hope your's isn't too bad off!

Dan

Yeah. I was there. Or at least that's what they tell me!

Ripthorn - what was the health of your tubes? Is it possible that they were getting near replacement age, and leaving them on just used up the last 8 hours of productivity?

W

[Ripthorn]

The tubes have less than 20 hours play time on them, but I think I found the issue. It looks like there was a dodgy joint near some heat, so I fixed that up and it seems okay, though the volume still seems slightly less at the same settings than last night, but that could just be that I forgot just how loud (or not loud) it really was last night (especially after the audio probing and tinkering). Thanks for the suggestions and comments. Unfortunately, late night jam sessions don't work when you share your guitar room with a 4 month old who goes to be at 7 pm.