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GMC Forum _ GEAR & PRODUCTION _ How Damaging Is To Unplug Your Guitar Without Muting The Amp?

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic May 6 2014, 11:57 PM

I was always wondering, is it a myth or how really dangerous is to unplug or plug in your guitar when the amp is turned on and up to certain volume? I bet we all feel the ultimate non-comfort when we hear someone pulling the cord on a live amp or when we do it by mistake. All the buzzes and the occasional bang. This makes me wonder, can this really ruin the amp or speakers or they can take a good beating? I would assume playing djent riffs on full blast all night would be making the amp and speakers work much much harder than that short plug in buzz/bang.

Posted by: SteveGuitar May 7 2014, 12:27 AM

Unplugging the cable from the amp makes no noise. Plugging your guitar in makes a pop which can damage speakers at high volumes. At very high power levels, the sudden sharp transient Pop can cause cone excursion beyond what normal loud music produces. If this happens, the voice coil may become misaligned in the gap (which is VERY small in "vintage" type speakers) causing rubbing and noise. In that case you'd need a repair. Why not just turn the volume down when changing guitars? When I change my guitars, I usually just turn my tuner on, which mutes the signal to the amp Otherwise, go to standby or unplug your cable from the input of the amp first.

Read this in several Forums ^^

Posted by: Mertay May 7 2014, 12:55 AM

Makes sense, low freq.s makes the woofer move further and such blast if not break can shorten the life of the woofer.

What came to my mind is a mic. is actually very similar to a speaker but working backwards simply. On stage many tap the mic. to hear if its on which is a very bad thing as it has the same effect to the pop on speakers.