Is this a sign of a dying tube?

[mahler]

Well, the sound quality of my amp is the same as always, but lately there has been some cracking/ popping noise at random times. I checked the cords,pedals and everything, and it seems to be coming from the amp. Took a look at the amp everything looked okay, both preamp and power tubes. So is it a dying tube, if so which power or preamp. Also what are some other signs of a dying tube?

[mahler]

One thing I forgot to add is when there is nothing plugged in but the amp is on, there is no cracking noise.

[kingjoemom]

How long have you had the amp? Or, how long did the previous owner have it before he sold it to you, (if he changed the tubes out or not).

[mahler]

Its been under pretty intense use for 1.5-2 years. It's never at very high volumes, but It's being worked quite a few hours a day X 7 days a week x 52 weeks a year!

[kingjoemom]

Its new tube time buddy! It's most likely a pre amp tube since there is a lot of crackling, probably microphonics. If theres not any volume loss or muddiness in the sound than you may not have to replace the power tubes, yet.

And one thing you can try to make sure it's the pre amp tube, just take the eraser side of a pencil, than lightly tap the tube and if theres crackling, hissing, buzzing you know it's a tube that needs replacing.

[Kelly]

One thing I forgot to add is when there is nothing plugged in but the amp is on, there is no cracking noise.
Static build up on your cable will do this.

[mahler]

How do I solve this static build up problem?

[mahler]

???

[Don A]

That's about how long the PI/driver tube in my Mesa/Boogie Express lasted.

[Timbre Wolf]

Cracking, popping, sounds like squirrels chasing each other through your circuitry, hissing, etc. - preamp tubes fail like that. Try replacing, one at a time, with a known good one; that will help you track down the offending culprit.

- Thom

[harryjmic]

I had bad power tubes reproduce the same type of crap preamp tubes usually are known for. I spent 2 months chasing a problem down in my SC30, I thought it was preamp tubes, then the speaker and finally after giving up found out it was power tubes. I was getting cone cry type stuff going on. It only happened at higher volumes.

The kicker was the power tubes were new, they failed after about two weeks max on them. They were JJ el84s, I will no longer be buying any JJ power tubes as these tubes were not the first to go bad on me in a short period of time.

[Spudman]

I recently had an issue like you describe and it turned out to be loose tube sockets on the power tubes. I tightened those and no more problems. The amp had never been transported much so I'm not sure how the sockets got loose other than maybe the previous owner was swapping tubes a lot.