I've never seen a guitar amp with the power switch on the back, at least it isn't not the norm. But why bass amp has them on the back? 
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Why bass amps has the power switch on the back?
- Thread starter crguti
- Start date
My MarkBass F500 and LMII, MusicMan HD-130, SWR Electric Blue and Bass 750, and Ampeg B15 all have front mounted power switches.
Old Fender tube amps had both a power switch and a standby switch on the back.
One thing is, for some designs it's simpler to route the mains power if everything is close to the power entry point in the back. I'm actually surprised when amps have the complexity of additional wiring (my two GK heads) to get the power switch to the front.
I've never seen a guitar amp with the power switch on the back, at least it isn't not the norm. But why bass amp has them on the back?
Many vintage (and modern vintage-inspired) guitar amps have the power switch mounted either on top or rear. I think the idea was to place it where it was protected from being accidentally switched off while the player worked the tone controls or just bumped into the amp on a crowded honky-tonk stage. (Also why the power switch tends to look and feel different from the amp's other controls. Many a musician has fumbled power off on the old tube amp designs, when the rear-mounted power + standby switches were two of the same type of switch mounted side-by-side.)
Edit: Hats off to Howlin Hanson, who is a faster typist than I am.
This. It simplified the engineering of whatever amp you are referring to, OP, and kept the circuit cleaner. If I were designing and amp I would do it as well.
That being said, I despise an XLR level control on the back next to the XLR line out. Go figure.
Some of the D class amps have the switch and power socket in the same unit. So that's why they are on the back.
The smaller the amp the more problems there are fitting the components in the desired place.
Most of these amps are not racked so in reality it doesn't matter where the power switch is located.
Fender put switches on the back, and, my other hate, frequently installed inadequate handles even the very heavy stuff. Leo Fender even did that with MM amps.
The smaller the amp the more problems there are fitting the components in the desired place.
Most of these amps are not racked so in reality it doesn't matter where the power switch is located.
Fender put switches on the back, and, my other hate, frequently installed inadequate handles even the very heavy stuff. Leo Fender even did that with MM amps.
I prefer the power switch on the back-it keeps the front plate less cluttered and avoids an accidental power off snafu. However, anything that might be used during a gig, like DI
level should be on the front IMHO.
level should be on the front IMHO.
I'd always assumed they hid the switch, so like kids & drunks wouldn't switch it on when the amps owner wasn't around to keep an eye on it.
I tell you what bugs me is a sideways set DI. I prefer up or down. Easier to access the button to disengage. 
Because they tried them on the bottom and it didn't work out?
I've never seen a guitar amp with the power switch on the back, at least it isn't not the norm. But why bass amp has them on the back?
My Traynor YSR-1 (nominally a guitar amp) has the power switch in the back and the standby switch in the front. That seems to be fairly common among tube amps, at least older ones. My YBA-1 (nominally a bass amp) is the same.
I think it was partly due to layout. You wire power into the back of the unit, through the fuse, to an aux power outlet on the back, through the switch and to the mains transformer
Otto
