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    voltage on Attax is 230. I've been playing at 110V what am I missing?

    guitarch
    guitarch


    Posts : 1
    Join date : 2020-09-02
    Location : Orlando Florida

    voltage on Attax is 230.  I've been playing at 110V  what am I missing? Empty voltage on Attax is 230. I've been playing at 110V what am I missing?

    Post by guitarch Wed Sep 02, 2020 2:32 pm

    Can you run a lower voltage, 11oV into a rated 230V and get the same response from the amp.
    Will it hurt the amp doing this?
    Thanks!!
    bordonbert
    bordonbert


    Posts : 1790
    Join date : 2015-01-28
    Age : 72
    Location : Southern England

    voltage on Attax is 230.  I've been playing at 110V  what am I missing? Empty Re: voltage on Attax is 230. I've been playing at 110V what am I missing?

    Post by bordonbert Sun Sep 20, 2020 8:55 pm

    Apologies for not replying sooner.  I'm not getting messages from the forum when new posts come in for some reason.  I just passed by and looked - fortunately.  Hope you haven't had any bad experiences since you posted.

    Short answer - NO! DO NOT USE A 230V AMP ON A 110V MAINS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!!!!!!  It is perfectly possible to do this with some other modern consumer equipment.  That is usually gear which has a switched mode power supply fitted.  Your amp does not!  It has a mains transformer in it which is specifically designed for either 110V or 230V.  You cannot mix and match these voltages without perhaps rewiring the secondary outputs to suit if that is even possible.  Don't go by any Guitar God techniques of using a Variac to drop the mains voltage to achieve brown sound.  You can't do it without bad consequences to your amp.  The Spandex Heroes who do that can afford to just kick in another vintage Marshall when they do go wrong, you probably can't!

    So there you have it.  Stop there if you just wanted a Twitter style response, "NO DOOD S WHACK"   Wink But if you want to understand a bit more...

    First, your amp uses solid state circuitry in part.  Don't believe the gutter hype, that is not in any way a bad thing if done well.  SS circuitry does NOT have a signature sound if it is designed correctly by people who understand how to do that, (NOT your average "back to back diode pedal modder" type who thinks he understands electronics.)  It actually has a LACK of any particular sound at all, it's often criticised for being too sterile or "hifi" sounding, so it is incapable of spoiling any tone which is already there as it adds absolutely nothing to the existing sound.  Your solid state circuitry is powered by DC lines usually generated from regulators which fix the noisy and sometimes slightly variable voltages fed to them to a smooth constant level free from the hum and spikes and mains voltage fluctuations which can get onto the original.  That original voltage is produced by a standard old fashioned transformer/diodes/smoothing cap power supply.  And as it is the transformer which starts the process you will have the problem that if you halve the voltage in you will get half the voltage out.  We may have something like the regulators taking in 22V rough DC to drop it to a steady 15V clean DC which they do easily.  When you halve your mains voltage the transformer can only give half of the voltage it once did so you now have about 11V to the regulators who are set to give 15V out.  That can't happen!  You will get no DC lines for the SS and low voltage circuitry as the regulators drop out.

    Second, your valves may not work as well as you think with only half the voltage on their anodes.  The output valves may not work well at all and I mean reliably and even safely with the drastically reduced changes to their screen grid setup.  EVH got away with dropping from 110V to 90V (he says) on old style Marshall amps.  The jury is still out as to how much he says about this is his marketing hype and how much is genuine but he seems to keep the myth alive.  And, as I said, he doesn't care about damage.  That isn't the major problem they experience however so on to that.

    Your amp uses valves.  Valves are heated devices.  They need high temperatures on their metal oxide coated cathodes to make them give up the electrons which make up the anode current.  In order to keep them working accurately and predictably so we can design reliable circuits the temperature of their heaters while working is strictly controlled.  That means that the heater voltage must be kept within strict limits.  These are either 6.3V or 12.6V @ +/-10% for optimum valve performance, though it is even better to stay within +/-5% if you can.  If you halve the mains voltage, guess what?  You are of course using the same mains transformer as before and your heater voltage has now become 3.15V for 6,3V or 6.3V for 12,6V, 50% down so WELL outside the limits.  Running them as we do in guitar amps at outside the 10% band can cause damage to the valves.  Though it may not be intuitive, it is just as much a no-no to run them with low heater voltages as it is to run too high.  You prevent normal electron emission and can cause damage to that metal oxide coated cathode.  These effects are well known to engineers, if not accepted by all techs!

    So no, I would not under any circumstance recommend that you use your 230V amp on 110V.  It just won't fly.  It might not even fly ever again!  Is it worth risking it?


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