Not a sound I want to hear...

My Gibsonette is ailing. About a week ago it started making crackling and hissing sounds sometimes growing in volume and intensity. Except for the fact that the pattern of sounds does not repeat exactly, old folks like me would describe it as sounding like a record player left on, after the record is over. Hiss, pop, skreek at different volumes and intensity with periods of silence. It had a cap job about 12 years ago. It does it with and without the guitar plugged in and does not respond one way or the other to the guitar being played. Anyone care to guess what maybe going on?




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i would check tubes first.

We may have a winner! Thought of that while I was typing put posted anyway thinking I could not be that lucky. Started with the single pre amp tube and worked my way over to the second power tube and no noise when I replaced it. It's a TungSol 6v6 about 3 years old. Played about 30 minutes with replacements (JAN Philips) and no noise except the micro phonics that I was already aware of in these.

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If it's not the tube(s), try re-soldering/re-flowing tube socket(s).

So far it has been working fine after removing the bad tube. That is only the second tube failure I have experienced. The other was a new old stock 6L6 that Angela replaced for me even though it was out of warranty. I'm kind of bummed the TungSol crapped out. It was nice to not worry about having to buy something expensive to keep the old Gibsonette going.