Storing amp in garage

TTBZ

I know this is far from ideal but wondering if there's any good way of storing a combo amp in the garage without ruining it? My guitar room has now been turned into a nursery so currently the amp is living in the dining room which according to the wife isn't a long term solution (despite me being allowed to have the guitar on a hanger as it "looks nice")

It's not insulated so I imagine it'll get all the extremes. It's brick wall with single glazed windows. Doesn't seem to have any damp or mold. Have a lot of space in the garage so wondered if I could build some kind of insulated cupboard for it? Alternatively the more expensive option would be a live-in flight case - would that work? 

ICBM

No matter how 'not damp' you think a garage is, it is from the point of view of electronics and it will start to corrode, even if slowly.

If you don't need to get at it often, seal it up in a plastic bag with tape to make it airtight - do that in the house so you're not sealing in damp air.

If you do need to get at it regularly, a full flightcase is a good option - in the winter, run some tape around the joint to make doubly sure.

Fishboy7

Loft might be a better option than your garage

Jimbro66

Wrong priority. Put the kid in the garage - they don’t corrode

ecc83

If you have power in the garage plug the amp into a time switch so that it comes on for 20 mins or so every day or if you get a digital timer, once a week.

Or indeed, seal in plastic.

Dave.

Roland

Can you use your combo as a bedside table?

TTBZ

Roland said:

Can you use your combo as a bedside table?

This received a lol but just glanced over and there might actually be enough space down my side of the bed and it's tucked out the way enough to get away with it! Crisis could be averted

Fenderish

use a dessicant gel pouch (the same you can find in new amps packaging or guitar case) in your store package, it helps a bit

ToneControl

What happens is that moisture condenses from the air every night onto the cold parts of the amp

This is why car collectors seal their cars in huge plastic bags, and why big plane scrap yards are usually in a hot dry place like Arizona: https://www.axiomimages.com/aerial-stock-footage/view/AF0001_000865

lukedlb

TTBZ said:

Roland said:

Can you use your combo as a bedside table?

This received a lol but just glanced over and there might actually be enough space down my side of the bed and it's tucked out the way enough to get away with it! Crisis could be averted

Yep, there’s a high probability that the arrival of my artiste combo might coincide with the arrival of a temporary bedside table, ie being one and the same thing. 

LuttiS

TTBZ said:

Roland said:

Can you use your combo as a bedside table?

This received a lol but just glanced over and there might actually be enough space down my side of the bed and it's tucked out the way enough to get away with it! Crisis could be averted

I used to use my Marshall as a bedside table, had a little piece of wood balanced on top. It later became a TV stand in the bedroom... 

sgosden

I used a 4x12 as a TV stand in living room for ages multi functional 

57Deluxe

mice and spiders will love it and yes, spider webs can cause shorts!

fastonebaz

Time to move to a bigger house 

ICBM

57Deluxe said:

mice and spiders will love it and yes, spider webs can cause shorts!

That's the other advantage of a flightcase - rodent and spider proof. Although I doubt mice would chew through a good thick polythene sheet either.

I did once work on a bass combo - one with a port at the bottom - which mice had got into and chewed not only the speaker cone, but some of the wiring on the power transformer too!

TTBZ

fastonebaz said:

Time to move to a bigger house 

We just did that I would have liked a 4 bed or something with a home office situation but couldn't get anything within budget or the right area. I would love to convert the garage into a soundproof studio space but not sure on the costs of that, probably too much right now!

Anyway I've managed to shuffle a load of stuff round to avoid the amp going in the garage or loft so I'm sorted for the time being.

ecc83

ICBM said:

57Deluxe said:

mice and spiders will love it and yes, spider webs can cause shorts!

That's the other advantage of a flightcase - rodent and spider proof. Although I doubt mice would chew through a good thick polythene sheet either.

I did once work on a bass combo - one with a port at the bottom - which mice had got into and chewed not only the speaker cone, but some of the wiring on the power transformer too!

Ha! When I was a snot nosed apprentice there  were "console" TVs. A 12" CRT, B&W of course, atop a square box and in the bottom a decent, for the day, 8 or 10" speaker. One came in for "very weak sound" and , yes, you guessed it, mice had completely eaten away the cone leaving only the coil and dust cap. Most of the cone was in a pile as a nest in the bottom of the cab!

They did not do that to table top TVs I guess because they could not get in and in any case would be close to the 10.125kHz line whistle which was quite audible to humans ten feet away. Must have been bloody deafening to a mouse!

BTW IC earwigs are insulators! I had a Hoover fan heater at same place, rotary switch, contacts like old car breaker points. Anyhoos an earwig had crawled between the contacts and stopped it working. We could not work out how it got in because the switch was two moulded halves of plastic hollow riveted together. We concluded it must have got in at the switch factory during assembly.

It was of course dead! But not "crisped" or black despite holding back 240 volts.

Dave.