Tube Life Artifacts

Microphonics and Noise

Problems with preamp tubes are often due to microphonics and noise issues. A microphonic tube will ring and amplify any outside noises such as bumping the amp, tapping on the bottle, or even footsteps as you walk across the floor. All tubes will amplify tapping to some degree but an unusable tube will be very loud and often feedback or squeal. In a guitar amp with many preamp tubes it can be difficult to determine which one is microphonic. This is because tapping any tube near the bad tube appears to be bad as well. Rest assured it is very unlikely to find multiple bad tubes all at once. We suggest you tap each tube gently with a pencil or chopstick (something wooden or plastic, not conductive) and often the culprit will be louder or noisier than the others. Replace that tube and likely all will be quiet. In a home stereo amp or preamp these same steps can be followed. However one more trick that is useful is to swap a suspect tube to the same position in the other channel. If the noise follows to the other channel you know you’ve found the bad tube. If it doesn’t, you know the noise is caused by another tube and you can repeat this procedure one tube at a time until you find it. In a stereo amp you would use this same procedure to find tubes with any noise issues.

Tube noise such as sputtering, hissing, popping can be tougher to find in a guitar amplifier. If you have a spare tube of the same type it’s good to substitute it in place of one in your amp and then listen for the noise. If it’s gone you know you removed the bad tube. If not, re-install the original tube and move your spare to the next position. Repeat until the noise is gone and at that point you’ll know you’ve removed the noisy tube. Some guitar amps with more features can give you clues to where the issue is. For example an amp where the reverb is malfunctioning indicates the tube in that part of the circuit needs to be replaced.

Output tubes can also be microphonic. If you hear a rattle or ghost notes on certain lower notes you likely have a microphonic power tube. One way to confirm this is wear a glove to protect your skin from the heat and then gently hold the tube while you play the note that causing the rattle. Usually gentle pressure on the bottle is enough to stop the vibration and rattling, and will give you a clear answer as to which power tube is to blame. This problem will arise in guitar combo amps but is much less common in heads or hifi stereo amplifiers as vibrations are greatly reduced in these applications.

I still think it prudent to get some new output tubes.  That family of tubes run hard, and even with limited use, it's time. 

he tap test, no matter how widely used , even by some dealers, isn't a good test. Even the gentle focused tap test isn't what I would use.  A microphinic tube with make bad sounds, when moved and more importantly,  when played- they produce  a feedback sound and ring and they also transmit any physical perturbation. 

As for figuring out which of multiple potential tubes go I would be inclined to remove the suspect and roll in another tube.  That does require a set of "good" back up tubes.

  I was going to say remove and replace but I didn't want to get political.