[HAM] Fire In the Hole!

[OF]

How do you know when you need new tube sockets in a 122 amp?

I was checking the high voltage at one of the 6550s. I touched the probe to 
one of the pins, and suddenly.....a little fireball was born. It danced 
around like a little fire sprite and danced right up a wire, burning the 
insulation off. After being mesmerized by the magic for a second, I came to 
my senses and cut the power.

These amps are really getting old! After all, these sockets had already 
been replaced once before. So this amp will be on its second set of new 
tube sockets.

Another thing worth talking about is how incorrect parts replacement and 
strange mods can affect both the sound and the safety of these amps. These 
two 122s I'm restoring right now had been described as "hot-rodded" to the 
previous owner by some tech who apparently liked a good story and had a 
boat payment to make. What he had done was replace the 10K input resistors 
at pins 1 and 6 with 6.6 Ks. This was apparently meant to attenuate the 
input signal less. Well, it sure did THAT! These amps went into distortion 
real quick. Those of you who are in love with crappy, distorted sound might 
love this "mod"!

The four .005 MFD caps at the 6550s in both amps had been replaced with 
round ceramic caps. Oy veh. So I have 8 orange drops coming in the mail 
just to fix that little detail.

Hoping this post starts some discussion.