65 watt amp powered by a power strip?

[garrettendi]

Through a fair bit of "wheeling and dealing" and a lot of financial planning I have managed to acquire a very nice new guitar amp. It is 65 watts, solid state except for a tube preamp.

Plan is for me to use one of those power strips, perhaps a 4 way from B&Q to power the amp along with a small handful of pedals, so it is entirely likely I may end up using all 4 sockets in the strip, albeit all guitar related (no beer fridge!).

Is this safe? I want to know before I pop to B&Q during my lunch break tomorrow.

As I imagine most of you know, I am indeed UK based, so a... 240v supply? Google says for 65 watts and 240 volts it is 0.27 amps? Well below a standard 10 amp socket?

EDIT: Apparently Google tells me "wheeling and dealing" usually means fraudulently... Rest assured it was all above board.... I ain't done nuffin'!

[Wonks]

Absolutely fine, though if the amp is 65W of audio power, it will probably consume nearly double that (unless it’s got a class D power amp).

But don’t worry about that. Just plug it in and enjoy.

[James Perrett]

Is this safe? I want to know before I pop to B&Q during my lunch break tomorrow.

Yes, that will be perfectly safe.

The general rule is that you should plug anything that involves a large amount of heat like a kettle, toaster or heater directly into a wall socket. Most people run their home studio gear via power strips from a single socket. I checked the other day and my whole studio uses around 2 amps when idle and half of that is the big mixing desk.

If you think that you are going to use all 4 sockets then buy yourself an 8 way power strip because you will always find more stuff to plug into it.

[garrettendi]

Thank you both!

I shall keep the kettle and toaster out of the studio!

Also side question:

My new amp is great, very Marshally but doesn't hit the modern high gain sound. This is fine, I knew it wouldn't and I plan to use it as is most of the time... But I have a Biyang Metal End King pedal (clone of an Akai Deluxe Distortion), and I've heard of some people using these types of pedals straight from the guitar, into the pedal and then straight into the effects return. Is this also safe as it will likely bypass the tube preamp stage? I've seen people on YouTube doing similar with a Boss MT-2 and full head/stacks.

The amp is a Trace Elliot Tramp Tube and the manual says:

Effects send and return
This is a series line-level mono effects loop. The effects are placed in series with the original signal, after the individual channels but before the reverb and master volume section of the preamplifier, allowing post-overdrive effects such as delay, chorus and digital reverb to be used. Plugging an input into the RETURN socket disconnects the channel outputs from the master section so you could bypass both channels by connecting the output of (for example) a guitar effects processor directly into this socket

[Hugh Robjohns]

65W is a tiny load, so no problem running that from a plug-board, and a handful of fx pedals will add very little more.

As James says, if you have four things to plug in, it will be more sensible to buy a 6-way or 8-way plugboard, just because you're inevitably going to need to plug in other things sooner or later.

And as a general rule, it is better to plug the most power hungry device into the socket closest to the plug-board's feed-in cable, and lightest loads in the more distant sockets.

[Sam Spoons]

The back panel fuse holder on the 100 watt 'Super Tramp' version of your amp says it needs a 500mA fuse for 230V use in which case the max current the manufacturer expects it to draw from the mains is probably about half that which suggests your 0.27A calculation for the 65 watt amp is probably more than it will actually need.

FWIW I did a load of calcs and measurements a few years ago when I wanted to run my rig from a generator and, amongst other things, measured my 18 watt valve combo running flat out at 0.34A and my mates 500 watt Bass amp drawing 1.4A running hard. To draw max current you'd need to be running maxed out at peak level continuously but music is not like that and the current you draw will be better represented by the average level which may be as low as ⅛th of the rated power.

[Kwackman]

I have a Biyang Metal End King pedal (clone of an Akai Deluxe Distortion), and I've heard of some people using these types of pedals straight from the guitar, into the pedal and then straight into the effects return.

Personal taste, but my preference would be guitar > distortion pedal > guitar input on amp.
Other tastes are available….

[garrettendi]

I have a Biyang Metal End King pedal (clone of an Akai Deluxe Distortion), and I've heard of some people using these types of pedals straight from the guitar, into the pedal and then straight into the effects return.

Personal taste, but my preference would be guitar > distortion pedal > guitar input on amp.
Other tastes are available….

Yes thats an option for sure, but this pedal is more a preamp style pedal it even has a switch for a cab sim built in!

[Hugh Robjohns]

FWIW I did a load of calcs and measurements a few years ago when I wanted to run my rig from a generator...

A plug-in mains power meter is a really useful and inexpensive tool for checking real max/min/avg power consumption, as well as actual mains voltage, frequency, current and so on.

Such as this one:

https://amzn.eu/d/cMOysDn

[Sam Spoons]

Yes, I bought/used something similar what I was doing the aforementioned measurements.

[garrettendi]

Also side question:

My new amp is great, very Marshally but doesn't hit the modern high gain sound. This is fine, I knew it wouldn't and I plan to use it as is most of the time... But I have a Biyang Metal End King pedal (clone of an Akai Deluxe Distortion), and I've heard of some people using these types of pedals straight from the guitar, into the pedal and then straight into the effects return. Is this also safe as it will likely bypass the tube preamp stage? I've seen people on YouTube doing similar with a Boss MT-2 and full head/stacks.

I've had a think about it, and I think Kwackman is right. As well as being a more traditional way (going into the amp input) it also means along with the footswitches with the amp, the pedal can be switched on without having to mess around with unplugging from the input and then plugging into the effects return, thus meaning instead of 3 footswitchable channels, I would have 4!

Thanks Kwackman for bringing common sense to me!

[Kwackman]

Thanks Kwackman for bringing common sense to me!

There’s a first time for everything!

[Sam Spoons]

I'd agree with Kwackman but, ultimately, try both and let your ears be the judge.