What happens when a tube amp fails?


I've been the very satisfied owner of a Yaqin MC-30L tube amplifier for the past few weeks and am wondering what to expect when a tube fails or something else fails? Is it going to just stop playing through one channel, start smoking, or start my house on fire?

Please give me some insight into the different types of failures and what the result is.

Thanks
mceljo

Showing 1 response by rlowe

I had a rectifier tube go (one of 2 5ar4s), and didn't notice till the next day. Usually they go gracefully, and no pasa nada. However....once, a 300b went supernova. Quite impressive, but heart stopping to say the least. That event took out a couple caps and a resistor or two. The good news is MANY tube amps aren't that complicated to fix. Point to point is obviously the easiest.
As has been said, enjoy. In more than 10 years with this amp, only once did anything serious occur. And it really wasn't that serious.
Rob