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Surge Suppressor--- and--'Use a kettle lead'


gypsyjazzer
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Two Questions:

a) I am wanting to buy a surge suppressor to use with my bass guitar amp. Do I buy [b]any[/b] surge suppressor on the market?--or do I need a special suppressor for a bass amp? Are all suppressors equal? Any recommendations?

B) When having mislaid a mains lead for one's amp you often hear: 'Use a kettle lead'. It fits--but are amp leads in any way different from a kettle lead?--fuse maybe? I know that a kettle takes a fair amount of electricity to use so should be OK?

What fuse would you put in a mains plug for an average amp?--the same fuse for a 50W amp and a 500W amp? Your knowledge welcome.

(Ps--I'm to young to die!)

Edited by gypsyjazzer
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No idea about mains suppressors/conditioners. My amps have always just run on what comes out of the socket.

As for kettle leads, try to go for the standard connectors - without the gap between live and neutral, as they are the proper plug for the job plus kettle leads tend to be quite short. As for the fuse, the small glass one in the back of your amp will be lower rated than anything you stick in the plug. I just use a 13A one in there. Your amp fuse is the one doing the protection

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Surge suppression - My advice is to save your money or spend it on something much more useful such as a set of strings or some new leads. The reason I say this? Any reputable amp manufacturer will invariably include surge protection within the amp itself. The amp will have gone through surge testing as part of its CE marking process and so will be capable of withstanding a reasonable amount of surge pulses. The addition of an expensive surge protection board is only going to duplicate what is already in place. If you're lucky enough to be using some sort of vintage valve amp then again I would say that surge protection is not needed as those things were virtually bullet proof anyhow.

Kettle leads - There is a difference between a kettle lead and an IEC lead (which is the type of connector used on virtually everything except kettles!). As mentioned earlier in the thread kettle leads have a notch in them and the reason for this is to prevent an IEC lead from being used with a kettle. IEC leads are generally rated to 10 amps, the early IEC leads were only rated at 6 amps. If you look carefully at the IEC connector on the lead you will see that there is a 10A or 6A figure stamped in the molding. These cannot carry the necessary current to power a kettle.

On the other hand a true kettle lead with a notch in it will generally be rated to 13amp and so these could be used for most other applications if necessary, but my advice would be to stick with the correct type of IEC lead though.

The fuse rating for the plug will be determined by the input power of the amp (this is [u]not[/u] the same as the audio output power). On the back of the amp there should be a voltage / current / power rating plate, usually located close to the IEC socket or mains lead input. This will indicate how much current or power the amp needs from the mains. For example if an amp is rated at 2A then a 5A fuse would be used in the plug-top. Equally if the amp was rated as 500W (and remember we are talking mains power here and not audio output power) then as a rough rule of thumb divide the 500W figure by 250 which will give to 2Amps. So same as before you would use a 5A fuse in the plug-top.

The thing that you have to watch however is swapping round IEC leads as some may be fused at 10A for higher power devices whereas some could be fused with 5A fuses. If you then use a lead fused at 5A on a high power amp for example then you could end up with the fuse blowing unintentionally. So best try and keep the lead together with the amp that it is intended for if you can.

Just shout if you need any further help :)

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Notch = IEC Hot Rated.. the clue is in the name. Perfectly usable for gear that doesn't get so hot, but the notch makes sure you don't do vice versa.
http://www.cablewarehouse.co.uk/display_category.php?cat_id=10&gclid=Cj0KEQiAuJXFBRDirIGnpZLE-N4BEiQAqV0KGuW_1qpFSZWfOp4kRN7c1jBNdFn-QIUTS9hlOR_zUPwaAqBs8P8HAQ

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The fuse in a detachable mains lead is there to protect the lead, not the equipment it is attached to which will have its own appropriately rated fuse.

The difference between a lead for a kettle and a "kettle lead" has already been adequately explained in previous posts.

Surge protectors/power conditioners and similar are only really required in places like the USA who have a considerably less than robust electricity supply compared with the UK. IME when there have been mains problems in this country nothing less than a properly spec'd UPS would have been suitable.

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[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1487243103' post='3238278']
The fuse in a detachable mains lead is there to protect the lead, not the equipment it is attached to which will have its own appropriately rated fuse.

The difference between a lead for a kettle and a "kettle lead" has already been adequately explained in previous posts.

Surge protectors/power conditioners and similar are only really required in places like the USA who have a considerably less than robust electricity supply compared with the UK. IME when there have been mains problems in this country nothing less than a properly spec'd UPS would have been suitable.
[/quote]Correct this is why "power conditioners" are big in the USA and not here. Much old waiting in the US was done with aluminium not copper and that is more problematic, much noisier. Surge Protectors and power conditioners are sna[size=4]ke oil over here. [/size]

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[quote name='Chienmortbb' timestamp='1487775356' post='3242722']
Correct this is why "power conditioners" are big in the USA and not here. Much old waiting in the US was done with aluminium not copper and that is more problematic, much noisier. Surge Protectors and power conditioners are sna[size=4]ke oil over here. [/size]
[/quote]

Predictive text does it's magic again...

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