Question for those who have a rack setup w/ tube power amp

[Brother Bill]

I wasn't able to find the answer I was looking for when doing a search.

I'm piecing together my rack while waiting for an axe and plan on getting a tube power amp (possibly a carvin or used Mesa). My question is this: are these amps subject to same situation as a regular tube amp where a speaker must be connected to load down both sides of a stereo amp whenever turned on (or must i bridge to mono when only running a single cab)?

I even looked through some online user manuals, assuming it was the same as a regular head, and didn't see the same warnings.... Which made me curious

Thank you

[Axe-Man]

Originally Posted by Brother Bill

I wasn't able to find the answer I was looking for when doing a search.

I'm piecing together my rack while waiting for an axe and plan on getting a tube power amp (possibly a carvin or used Mesa). My question is this: are these amps subject to same situation as a regular tube amp where a speaker must be connected to load down both sides of a stereo amp whenever turned on (or must i bridge to mono when only running a single cab)?

I even looked through some online user manuals, assuming it was the same as a regular head, and didn't see the same warnings.... Which made me curious

Thank you

Some are stereo and need a load for the unused channel, some like the Mesa's you can just turn down (the unused channels volume) and max the presence on it and they're ok...others are monoblock and you can run either channel completely seperately.

[paulmapp8306]

Indeed. TheMasrshalls are monoblock, and have seperate power switches per side. The VHTs arnt, but have standby switches on both channels, so you can run it without load to the second channel as long as the standby is off.

At least, thats how Ive run mine for nearly 2 years now with no issues.