Cooling ideas for Super Twin/Reverbs?

PhatBoy · March 14th, 2004, 12:49 PM

Those of you who have/had a ST/R, how do/did you cool
the beast?

I know heat will kill an amp short choice, so what to do?

PB

:? :?

JohnnyAtomic · March 14th, 2004, 01:36 PM

is your amp really getting that hot? if you haven't had that much experience with tubes amps, maybe you just think it is gettting too hot. but, if it needs service it may actually be getting too hot. but then just service it. there have been fender amps that people have been using for 50 years with no fan or other special cooling devices.
johnny atomic

Dacious · March 14th, 2004, 10:49 PM

Like your vehicle's enigne, heat is what makes it work. Why do you think it needs to be cooled? If it needed a fan or other device Fender would have stuck one in there.

If you want to feel hot, just check out a Vox AC30.

MJ Harnish · March 15th, 2004, 08:32 AM

Hmmmm, heat is actually wasted power. Tubes are incredibly inefficient and most of the power they consume is turned into useless heat. You can prolong tube life by keeping them cool; it isn't necessary for the amp to function but it certainly doesn't hurt. The only heat the tube needs is that supplied by the heater filament. Anything radiatiing form the tubes is wasted energy and is nothing but exhaust. It can't do anything but hurt your reliability (by stressing other components like resistors and caps). You can cool an amp pretty efficiently just by handing a small 12vdc fan off the back of it and running it at 9v (it turns slower but is plenty fast enough).

I'm also not sure I would buy into the "if they had needed it Fender would have included one." Most of the Fender designs were not created by engineers but rather guys coping circuits from tube application manuals. Fender's choice of hanging the tubes upside down is a classic example of a bad engineering decision: Heat rises into the amp chassis rather than away from it. In addition a lot of the SF amps were made during an era of cost cutting: Every fan would cost $x.xx and that can add up to a lot of money when you're building thousands of amps. There have several examples of companies that built amps that were notorious for bursting into flames (e.g., Vox).

March 14th, 2004, 12:49 PM	#1 (permalink)
PhatBoy Tele-Meister Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: OKC, OK Age: 54 Posts: 365 3 Photos	Cooling ideas for Super Twin/Reverbs? Those of you who have/had a ST/R, how do/did you cool the beast? I know heat will kill an amp short choice, so what to do? PB :? :?

March 14th, 2004, 01:36 PM	#2 (permalink)
JohnnyAtomic Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Little Rock, AR Posts: 1,352	is your amp really getting that hot? if you haven't had that much experience with tubes amps, maybe you just think it is gettting too hot. but, if it needs service it may actually be getting too hot. but then just service it. there have been fender amps that people have been using for 50 years with no fan or other special cooling devices. johnny atomic __________________ flaming hamper of rock! www.myspace.com/johnnyatomicmusic

March 14th, 2004, 10:49 PM	#3 (permalink)
Dacious Friend of Leo's Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Godzone Posts: 2,623 35 Photos	Heat is power Like your vehicle's enigne, heat is what makes it work. Why do you think it needs to be cooled? If it needed a fan or other device Fender would have stuck one in there. If you want to feel hot, just check out a Vox AC30. __________________ My other Telecaster is a Thinline The Tele Bible, Ch 1, v 10 Love thy Telecaster, covet not thy neighbour's Strat!

March 15th, 2004, 08:32 AM	#4 (permalink)
MJ Harnish Tele-Meister Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Hattingen, Germany Posts: 457	Hmmmm, heat is actually wasted power. Tubes are incredibly inefficient and most of the power they consume is turned into useless heat. You can prolong tube life by keeping them cool; it isn't necessary for the amp to function but it certainly doesn't hurt. The only heat the tube needs is that supplied by the heater filament. Anything radiatiing form the tubes is wasted energy and is nothing but exhaust. It can't do anything but hurt your reliability (by stressing other components like resistors and caps). You can cool an amp pretty efficiently just by handing a small 12vdc fan off the back of it and running it at 9v (it turns slower but is plenty fast enough). I'm also not sure I would buy into the "if they had needed it Fender would have included one." Most of the Fender designs were not created by engineers but rather guys coping circuits from tube application manuals. Fender's choice of hanging the tubes upside down is a classic example of a bad engineering decision: Heat rises into the amp chassis rather than away from it. In addition a lot of the SF amps were made during an era of cost cutting: Every fan would cost $x.xx and that can add up to a lot of money when you're building thousands of amps. There have several examples of companies that built amps that were notorious for bursting into flames (e.g., Vox). __________________ MJ Harnish Suburbs: Where they cut down all the trees and then name the streets after them.