Vent on top of Guitar Head?

[ERiCARDEN]

I notice that on some brands of guitar heads there are "vents" on the top. Like this:
http://tottinge.blogsome.com/images/...tageClub50.png

I was wondering if there is a way to put a vent into my guitar head to help prevent it for overheating?

The head is 8ohms ONLY. If I plug it into a 16ohm cab I know its fine, but could this make the head run hot?

[llwhtt]

Most GOOD guitar amps are tube based and therefore the vents.

Craig

[nigelwright7557]

Originally Posted by llwhtt

Most GOOD guitar amps are tube based and therefore the vents.

Craig

My Simms-Watts 100watt amp has a huge vent on the rear.

[ERiCARDEN]

Sorry just not a fan of Tube Amps. They have a much better clean channel but I don't use them often enough to care. As far as distortion goes Tube amps aren't usually as harsh as some good SS amps. I really like the brutal distortion and low maintaince of SS. Besides tube amps don't necessarily sound better than SS its just that there are very few well made SS out there.

[llwhtt]

There are plenty of bad tube amps out there too, such as your example the Vintage Club 50. The way that amp is built is just a nightmare. I deal with many professional musicians, ALL use tube based amplifiers, occasionally a solid state bass amp will sneak in for repair though. You like the solid state sound and that is fine, I was just answering your question. Many solid state amps use the back panel for a heatsink and the vent is not needed.

Craig

[leadbelly]

Rather than debating tube vs SS, can you maybe just tell us what your amp is, and its age? Do you know if it the heatsink is exposed or internal by any chance?

EDIT: On rereading your post, does your amp run fine on 8 ohms, but you are worried about it overheating into 16 ohms? If so, just forget about it, non-issue.

[ERiCARDEN]

Its an Eleca EG100R Solid State Head.

The heat sink is exposed, but it get super super hot. I'm talking hot enough to cook an egg!

I was pluging the 8 ohm head into a 16 ohm cab. I know that taking lower ohm heads and plugging them into higher ohm cabs is typically fine, but could the amp be running hotter because of it?

Btw the head has ONLY 8ohm out and the cab ONLY has 16ohm in.

Would getting a 8ohm cab calm down the heat? Or do I need a new cooling system for the head? Vent, Fan, Heatsink?????

[Steerpike]

A 16-ohm speaker (cab) puts LESS of a strain on an amplifier; it ought to run cooler than with an 8-ohm loudspeaker.

You can always add a 'computer' style fan to help cool it. It doesn't necessarily have to have vents to the outside - just circulating air around the heatsink will cool it substantially.

If it gets excessively hot when just sitting idle - i.e., not producing sound, it could be a mis-adjustment of the transistor bias current. That should be fixable with a trivial adjustment - but best done by someone who knows what is going on and has tools to measure it.

Your photo link gives:
"You don't have permission to access /images/CrateVintageClub50.png on this server."

[Andrew Eckhardt]

I'd definitely get the bias checked. It doesn't take anything to see if it's out of whack. Just leave the amp on at idle for a while and if the sink is above very slightly warm it's set too high. It doesn't make much sense that it gets frying hot into a 16 ohm load. Something is probably defective or soon to become flat out broken.