Hey, I have a ENGL powerball head with a Mesa 4x12 cab, and I was just wondering what I can do to protect my half stack from getting fucked up by say like, the power suddenly going off in my house, or power surges or anything like that. I'm always a idiot when it comes to stuff like this, so any help would really be great. Thanks in advance guys.

Maybe look into getting some kind of furman device. If you dont mind racks get a nice furman power conditioner/surge protector. Invest in a nice cab cover, and head case/cover also.

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power conditioners and voltage regulators.

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Unplug it if you dont play it or go in vacation or anything

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Would the amp get seriously damaged if it is on and the power suddenly went out or a fuse blew?

the idea behind the fuse is the fuse blows protecting the circuitry dude.

it sacrifices itself so that you just have to buy a new 50c fuse instead of a new 4,000 amp

as to protect it? Buy an amp head case. theres bound to be lots on ebay. Search for "Amp head case"

Oh, alright. I wasnt entirely sure about the fuse, but thanks for clearing that up.
Is the amp head case/cover really necessary? As long as you be careful and dont take the amp head and chuck it around or place it on an unsteady surfaces, it shouldnt need the amp head case.

of course you should allwasy be carefull with your amp head.

But i am thinking of getting a road case for my JSX because i would get all emo bosnian if i dropped it and it brokeded

Wrap a giant rubber over it.

What if it breaks? Will the guitar give birth to pre-amps?

Ninjas

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ooohhh....

Haha what the fuck?

ninjas will protect your amps. it's a solid investment.

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Ninja's have to go to sleep sometime.

thats why you get two so they can cover each others shifts...

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They sleep together,and the fat one is to lazy.Fuck ninja's,actually.

Ok, i read this thread and i need to ask:
1.Do you really need a power conditioner?
2.What could happen to your amp if the power suddenly goes off?

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If you get a power outage(and not a surge) nothing should happen. Just hope it's not momentarily(ie: lasts only 2 seconds), cause switching your amp off and then back on quickly can cause damage.

You don't really need a PC, many pro's don't even use one, but it's a nice investment.

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1. No
2. Im not sure but I turned the mains off once without turning off my amp and it still worked fine.

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If you really care about your gear,they are a solid investment.

Most Furman and similar units are just over priced, rack mount, power strips with no more protection then a $10 power strip from Walmart.

A normal power conditioner will have EMI/RFI filters that will help make the AC power supplied to your gear smoother. This means less noise and hum. What basically causes AC to become dirty in the first place? Well, the AC line that supplies your gear has other loads (maybe a blinder, vacuum cleaner, or refigerator) on it that kinda jumps on the load really hard (kinda like a surge and a big surge will blow fuses). Also, a power line that conducts current actually builds an electromagnetic field around itself, so other power lines or tranformers with electromagnetic fields near by cause the AC sine wave to deform. If you could see the AC power then it would look like a sine wave with static everywhere. Even your nieghbors can fuck up your power. How do you stop this or smooth the AC waves back out? With EMI/RFI filters. There are many different AC power filters and some work better then others. The more filters stages the better, but to many can choke the power to your gear. If a company will not display the noise attenuation spec of there filters then you don't want to buy the product. You can even have a EMI/RFI IEC connector ( cost about $10-$30 ) installed in you amp or whatever. Then you have an amp+AC power conditioner in one unit. Basically, it is kinda silly to pay big money for a rackmount power conditioner if all you are really getting is a cheap EMI/RFI power strip. Besides, you amp or whatever is going to rectify the AC then smooth it out and filter it again until it becomes a DC reference signal, but starting with a smooth AC signal makes that job easier. Noisy AC will become noisy DC.

Power regulators are another story though and they cost a shit ton more Its basically like a giant surge protector that prevents really slow power spikes and dips from ever reaching your gear. It will give your gear a nearly constant line voltage. It can be nice if a place has a higher, lower, or changing average line voltage. It will prevent your tone from changing due to changing line power levels.

Surge protection? You know what a fuse is? Surge protection is a fancy word for fuse.

BTW, Moster power conditioners look nice and are hella exspensive but they seem to think their products are to good for them to display the result specs of their uber 2 stage EMI/RFI filters Looks like hyped up BS to me. Beware!

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