hello!

will playing this tube amp with the speaker unplugged fry the amp?

so i bought a superchamp x2 in hopes of furthering my direct recording technique.
i've been having good results with the headphone out of an old ibanez non-tube practice amp.

i had heard that J mascis did this with his 80s superchamp. line out direct to board.
i was skeptical about the updated version, but the x2 sounded great imo, even with all the digital crap, so i got it.

but it was when i got it home and put it into my setup that i realized that the line out does not silence the speakers. i kind of need that because i live in a condo with neighbors and a roommate.

i noticed one has the option of playing with the speaker disconnected from the back. this fixes my problem. but will it eventually fry the amp?
this is my big question.

if so, can you guys help me on what to do next? is there yet another workaround?
should i return the amp? if so, what amp might be good for my needs?

thanks!

Yes. It *DEFINITELY* will. Never, ever turn on a tube amp with no speaker connected. I actually fried one of my beloved amps recently because I was changing cabinets and accidentally plugged the speaker into the wrong jack. Fried the transformer instantly.

Yeah, it probably will fry your amp. A good work around may be getting a power attenuator or a dummy load.

You could also try taking the speaker out of the cabinet. Without the baffle, it should cut out a lot of the sound due to phase cancellation. Don't disconnect the speaker from the amp, just take it out of the cabinet and set it on it's back, somewhere safe.

thanks for the help,

im kind of scared of taking the speaker out as a solution at this juncture, since i just got the thing.

what about these dummy loads you speak of? i googled and learned something about them and they seem to be exactly what i need. but finding a cheap one is a different story.

any recommendations for dummy loads? i don't really want to wire anything, so quarter inch inputs are a must in my case, i apologize.

Build A Guitar Amp Dummy Speaker Load

That's how to build your own.

You also might be able to just pull the tubes, they aren't doing anything for the pre amp I don't think. I'd check with Fender before I tried that though.

a workaround for this is to play at low volume . but boost the signal through your recorder .luckily these amps can get a decent sound at low volume . thats the beauty of them . the tone snobs insist on a pure valve amp at loud volume .with natural overdrive . sure thats great .but not practical for most of us.