How do you turn off your gear?

[alund]

I have about 10 things to turn on and off in my rig. I turn each one off individually but why? Is there a reason to shut the power at the on/off switch on the unit or just pull the power plug for everything at once? Is there a detrimental effect by this? Do you guys have an order?

 

[shredi knight]

How do you turn off your gear?​

Playing naked usually does the trick.


Seriously though, I have an Axe-Fx rig, with studio monitors and a Ground Control Pro foot controller. Everything is left in the "On" position and gets turned off (and on) via the power strip it's all plugged into. Been doing it for the better part of 10 years with no ill effect.

 

[TheGreatGreen]

Here's my order:
1. Manually turn off any power sections that drive speaker cabs
2. Click power button on power strip to turn off everything else

 

[retrorack]

I use an APC rackmount power filter. It has 4 isolated banks that power down in sequence. 2 are always on, which is handy. I always power down my amps manually first. But the rest of my rack gear, including pedal shelf with it’s power brick, get shut down from the APC. Order doesn’t always matter, but if certain items make a ‘pop’, I put them in the last bank. Like my Torpedo Live reactive loadbox and IR unit.

 

[alund]

I use an APC rackmount power filter. It has 4 isolated banks that power down in sequence. 2 are always on, which is handy. I always power down my amps manually first. But the rest of my rack gear, including pedal shelf with it’s power brick, get shut down from the APC. Order doesn’t always matter, but if certain items make a ‘pop’, I put them in the last bank. Like my Torpedo Live reactive loadbox and IR unit.

Yeah. So here is what I’m getting at… “the pop!” My axe fx will do that and the Caswell will do that. Is the pop bad? I typically turn those off last because …. Well maybe lightning will shoot out ? Who knows. I have a power strip that will do it all at once but if we think about a computer requiring a hard shutdown… the techies say that’s bad… same for guitar equipment? I cant imagine a head would matter ? But the computer and chipped devices. Idk.

 

[retrorack]

Yeah. So here is what I’m getting at… “the pop!” My axe fx will do that and the Caswell will do that. Is the pop bad? I typically turn those off last because …. Well maybe lightning will shoot out ? Who knows. I have a power strip that will do it all at once but if we think about a computer requiring a hard shutdown… the techies say that’s bad… same for guitar equipment? I cant imagine a head would matter ? But the computer and chipped devices. Idk.

The pop is likely the power supply filter capacitors discharging the energy they’ve stored (which is what they do). It’s not going to hurt the unit it’s coming from. But to prevent that spike from hitting the circuitry of any other device, turn those pop-producing units off last.

 

[retrorack]

And being of those said techies myself, we would tell people not to hard power-off computers because it has things like spinning disk hard drives that could be in the middle of writing, which could cause data corruption. That’s not really the case with guitar equipment.

 

[tallcoolone]

Playing naked usually does the trick.


Seriously though, I have an Axe-Fx rig, with studio monitors and a Ground Control Pro foot controller. Everything is left in the "On" position and gets turned off (and on) via the power strip it's all plugged into. Been doing it for the better part of 10 years with no ill effect.

My studio monitors have been ‘on’ for 7yrs now lol. Is there a disadvantage to never turning them off?

 

[retrorack]

My studio monitors have been ‘on’ for 7yrs now lol. Is there a disadvantage to never turning them off?

The energy police have a warrant out for your arrest. Otherwise, I can’t think of any. I always figured, if it’s good enough for big studios to leave gear on, it’s good enough for me.

 

[alund]

And being of those said techies myself, we would tell people not to hard power-off computers because it has things like spinning disk hard drives that could be in the middle of writing, which could cause data corruption. That’s not really the case with guitar equipment.

My work partner is “Nazi like” about order of electronic things but never explained or I never listened. This helps.

@retrorack “But to prevent that spike from hitting the circuitry of any other device, turn those pop-producing units off last”

We hear the pop in the speakers; I assume it’s not bad for them but presumably that audible pop hits the entire rig if connected? Even if the unit (Lexicon) etc is off already, does the internal chips still see the spike? I have always been told to unplug stuff during lightning storm. If that’s true; the smaller surge of power through the system still touches everything right?
This is probably a stupid thread BUT started pondering yesterday after bandcamp practice.

 

[LPMojoGL]

Put the amp in standby, hit the power strip off.

 

[psychodave]

I unplug everything. ?

 

[TheGreatGreen]

My studio monitors have been ‘on’ for 7yrs now lol. Is there a disadvantage to never turning them off?

You could argue it's better to leave some equipment on all the time, as the most significant wear the components will endure is caused by the temperature changes that happen during power on and power off. Leave it on all the time and the temp stays constant = less wear.

This is probably not the case for stuff like tube amps that run exceptionally hot when on, but for anything that generates about as much heat as a computer or less, that's probably the "healthiest" way to run them.

Not exactly ideal for the power bill though.

 

[GOHOINC]

I turn off amps individually but mostly power is controlled through my power conditioner on/off.

 

[gibsonash]

I just standby power amp(s) and click power button on power strip to turn off everything else

 

[skoora]

Posters of hot women does the trick. My gear is exceedingly gay.

 

[8len8]

Common topic covered in many threads already with no consensus. I torn off amp standby, turn off amp, then turn off effects.

 

[alund]

Common topic covered in many threads already with no consensus. I torn off amp standby, turn off amp, then turn off effects.

My other forums are on Gunboards, k98k forum, and twatter…. None of them cover this topic?.
The “No consensus” is what I’m looking for. Probably no 100% correct way; not even sure of a wrong way. I’ll continue to do what I do.

 

[rsm]

Set instrument and amp volume to zero. Turn on gear: from instrument to amp; turn off gear: from amp to instrument.

I keep all my gear unplugged when not in use. Neighbor had a lightning strike that burned out their wiring and everything plugged in including all appliances; another neighbor's house hit by lightning caught fire. Enough warnings for me.

 

[MusicIsLife]

With my live rig, everything plugs into a Furman. I'll put my amp in standby, and then power everything off via the Furman.

At home, everything is on/off with a power strip. The only exception is if I have my computer fired up, and then I power it down first before switching off the power strip.