What does it take to damage a solid state preamp?

#24
Don’t have too much experience with the Workingman series. But my SM-400 will run very hot if you push into heavy clipping for prolonged periods of time. And I doubt all that heat is beneficial to anything inside the head regardless of its source, which I’m guessing is the power stage rather than the preamp itself.
 
#27
Hogarth said:
Just bought the SWR Workingman's 160w Solid State Bass amp for my guitar rig. In order to get the warmth I want from the preamp section I am maxing out the gain, plugging into the passive pickup input, putting a max volume distortion pedal in front of it, and playing a guitar with active pickups. The clipping led is constantly on.

If I run this for 20 to 30 minutes at club level volume will I risk damaging the preamp or any other components in the amp?

And, out of curiosity, what would it take to damage the preamp in this manner?
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I would think the Frequency of each tone knob is really for bass not guitar. I don't even like most SWR's for bass outside a few of their original early design's "think The Baby Blue" If money is an Issue buy a cheap Gorilla or a line 6 and mic it.
 
#28
40Hz said:
Well they’re exceptionally roadworthy and they sound really good, so…problem? ;)
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No problem, except they are not basically available here in Europe, and they are really expensive even taking into account the quality.

Don't get me wrong. I appreciate them as a brand and quality, but sometimes hype is bit too much.
 
#29
What does it take to damage a solid state preamp?
Maybe a full bath tub will do the trick, if you submerge the preamp in it. I guess thsi is most effective if th epre is polugged in whilst in teh tub.
A bucket of water may also do the trick.
A more expensive oprion might be a house fire.
If you are lucky, your preamp gets hit by lightning whiltst you are on break at an outside gig.
If you are in the US: I hear people there like shooting things, so the obvious thing to do is to line up a few people who are so inclined and have them shoot at it.
Aahhh...dropping it from a great hight on to concrete may do it as well, or dragging it behind your car, whilst driving home from a gig.
 
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#30
Mesa Boogie made the D180 I know full tube amp but up to a point slamming that tube preamp lead to unmusical tone and that amp probably did not have op amps or ICs like the SWR. I have SWR amps and they do not like to be slammed. Get your tone set from your pedals and just send a strong signal to the preamp but do not overload it constantly. Diminishing returns.

I had played all Boogie amps and owned some versions of Mark II to V and left with the IV. They are not good for bass even for dirt and crunch. They could be but they are already not intuitive for guitars and usually at high gain, the advice is to cut the bass to 0 - so imagine a bass guitar that goes 1 octave lower or more. You are better off with a Fender Bassman or a Twin Reverb
 
#31
ihixulu said:
I imagine clipping the preamp as the OP suggests runs the IC's in the circuit at full bore, at the maximum end of their ratings. Won't that shorten their lifespan, due to the heat that would generate? Or are the voltages and currents too low in SS preamp circuits to be of significance?
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The voltages and currents are generally too low, combines with the devices being designed around these parameters.

40Hz said:
Don’t have too much experience with the Workingman series. But my SM-400 will run very hot if you push into heavy clipping for prolonged periods of time. And I doubt all that heat is beneficial to anything inside the head regardless of its source, which I’m guessing is the power stage rather than the preamp itself.
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That would be the power amp and not the preamp.
 
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#32
Hogarth said:
Just bought the SWR Workingman's 160w Solid State Bass amp for my guitar rig. In order to get the warmth I want from the preamp section I am maxing out the gain, plugging into the passive pickup input, putting a max volume distortion pedal in front of it, and playing a guitar with active pickups. The clipping led is constantly on.

If I run this for 20 to 30 minutes at club level volume will I risk damaging the preamp or any other components in the amp?

And, out of curiosity, what would it take to damage the preamp in this manner?
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First and foremost, the preamp EQ section of that Workingman's 160 is kinda missing the "sparkle" and "twinkle" that even moderately priced Guitar amps have. This is the reason most Guitar players use tube amps .

The enclosure isn't really designed for full frequency response and the speaker is built for Bass Guitar. The Workingman's series of bass amps were SWR's econoline amplifiers, primarily designed for students and non professional players.

So in some ways ( I know a few players who kept theirs and swear by them for Bass) isn't even that great of a bass amp. Those Working Man's amps were some of the last products to come off the line at SWR. They were introduced

to help put the company back on it's feet financially. In the end it didn't work.

P.S. there's a Youtube video of Jimmi Hendricks playing through a B 1N on the Dick Cavette

show, even with Jimmy's stellar technique and masterful soul it still sounds like a Fender Stratocaster being played through a bass amp.
 
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#34
Mike Marshall said:
I would think the Frequency of each tone knob is really for bass not guitar. I don't even like most SWR's for bass outside a few of their original early design's "think The Baby Blue" If money is an Issue buy a cheap Gorilla or a line 6 and mic it.
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Yep. The SWR has its signature sound. Kinda clean and hifi to my ears. You either like it or you don’t. I like mine more as a pedal platform than a grab it and go gigging amp. For everyday bass playing I use something else. It’s just a matter of personal preference. :)
 
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#35
I’ve never played through a SWR, but I have played both bass and guitar at high extended volumes through my Peavey TKO 115, and the chassis gets detectably warm after 2 hours of band practice but not anything scary.

I find with my guitar that it helps to roll off below 100 Hz, dip around 400 Hz (there’s a 340 Hz slider on my amp), and do a broad gentle boost through 1.3 kHz and 2.6 kHz, and roll off gently above that. I also push the bright switch, further boosting a broad peak centered at about 2 kHz.

Looks kind of wrong but sounds good turned up. Not super crunchy, just a bit, but lively. Even cooler with a compressor in front, set to gentle compression and a bit above unity gain.
 
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#37
What does it take to damage a solid state preamp?

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:)
 
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#39
Unfortunately, I had a very popular bass amp in the early noughts that had a tendency to blow the input of its preamp. The input card had an op-amp chip on it to get the signal into the preamp, and the way it was wired was such that plugging or unplugging, could cause the chip to fail. If the chip failed, the preamp was basically silent.

Their solution? "Here's another board+chip to wire in." and then after the 3rd board "Buy one of our new models that doesn't have the problem."

That aside, if you're playing your gear in a carpeted room, in socks, and you build up static electricity, you can damage the input of some bass preamps from the zap you give your amp when you make contact with it. It used to be a bigger problem than it is now, though.
 
#40
frankie5string said:
Unfortunately, I had a very popular bass amp in the early noughts that had a tendency to blow the input of its preamp. The input card had an op-amp chip on it to get the signal into the preamp, and the way it was wired was such that plugging or unplugging, could cause the chip to fail. If the chip failed, the preamp was basically silent.

Their solution? "Here's another board+chip to wire in." and then after the 3rd board "Buy one of our new models that doesn't have the problem."

That aside, if you're playing your gear in a carpeted room, in socks, and you build up static electricity, you can damage the input of some bass preamps from the zap you give your amp when you make contact with it. It used to be a bigger problem than it is now, though.
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That’s a design defect and not a normal type of failure.
 
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