1000s standby? tube? footswitch? reverb?

[xChesterx]

After a little while of using my 1000s (which is very nice) I have a couple questions you guys might be able to help me with.

I have been told the standby is to warm up or cool down the tubes, but how long does each take? What is so bad about turning it off right away, or playing through it right when it is turned on? Is it less stress on the tubes if the amp is always on, with the standby on when it isn't being played through?

When are you sure the tubes in it are broken to the point they are unusable? I have been told they will eventually burn up completely, but when do you know they are fried? is it when there is a huge black spot, or the whole thing is black, or it burns through the glass completely or something?

Was there actually a footswitch used with the 1000s although it has one channel, or was it there because sunn used the same chassis for multiple amp models? If there was a footswitch, what could it be used for?

The spring reverb unit has a locking mechanism on it, its like a metal lever that digs into the metal casing on the reverb unit when you lock and unlock it. I'm not sure it locks right. It does work when unlocked and connected to the lower plugs on the back of the amp.

Any insight is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[EdBass]

The standby mode turns off the current flow to the tubes, except for the heaters. Until a tube has some heat in it, it's resistant to current flow and you could shorten tube life by blasting a cold tube with current. Common wisdom seems to indicate that with a tube rectifier, current won't flow to the other tubes until the rectifier tube(s) is/are hot enough anyway, and therefore the other tubes will be warm enough by then. With a solid state rectifier, the current blasts through when you turn it on, and you should probably use standby to warm the tubes up a little, at least 30 secs or so, I have heard and read all kind of pros and cons for standby, but I have tube and SS rectified Sunn amps, and I turn them all on in standby for a minute or so before playing them. I also put them in standby before I shut them down, but I don't think that's really too important, it just minimizes the chance I'll turn them back on out of standby. It may just be me, but I think all my tube rigs sound better when they have been played for an hour or so, but I don't know exactly why this would be.
About 30 years ago, a highly respected sound engineer told me that electronics, particularly vacuum tube devices, are kind of like living things and every cold start is like using a defibrillator on a human after cardiac arrest. Backing this up would be the fact that almost everytime I've toasted something, it's been at startup. With this in the back of my mind, I always leave my gear on standby between sets when I play.
The standby question seems to be extensively argued among gear heads, some see no use for it at all. I figure that greater minds than mine designed these amps, and they didn't add the standby switch just to add to production time and cost.
Those black markings on the tubes are the flash mark made during manufacture to burn out residual gasses, primarily oxygen, after the tube has been sealed. When the power tubes get weak, the amp starts to sound like crap. Of course, it's difficult to judge this unless you have heard the amp with fresh power tubes. Get a new set, at least then you will know. If one shorts out, it sounds like silence or a very nasty distinctly un-musical noise. If you are running on the original capacitors, odds are you need new ones. Pre amp tubes generally last a long time unless you beat on them, as is possible with a master volume amp.
The footswitch is to turn on and off the reverb and tremelo. You can find them on eBay fairly regularly.
Hope this helps and remember, this is only my opinion as a user, not an electrical engineer!