Bottlehead Sound Fading Out

[Jake1]

So I just finished my bottlehead and the sound is working fine through both channels.  If i bump the crack while it's on though, I get a crackling noise and sometimes the sound goes out completely.  I got the sound back just from tapping on the side a few times which I'm totally confused by.  My only thought was that maybe a connection is loose somewhere, but I looked everything over and things seem connected well.  Also, where I tap crack doesn't make a difference, which makes it seem like the issue is something general and not a single section that isn't connected well.  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[Doc B.]

 Do the tubes stay lit when the sound cuts out? You most likely missed a solder joint.

[Paul Birkeland]

You almost certainly have a missed or flaky solder joint.  The general approach for this is to run the amp upside down with a pair of cheap headphones plugged in, then use a wood chopstick to poke around in the circuit until you find the joint that creates the noise.

I would pay special attention to the twisted green wires (Doc B's recommendation) and the junction of the black wires on the headphone jack.

-PB

[Jake1]

I can't get the sound to go completely out anymore and the tubes stay on consistently.  When I bump the side sometimes I get a bit of static but the sound stays normal, so it might just be the input bumping around a bit.  I'll try testing as you suggested and update with what I find.

[Jake1]

Sorry for the late update but I figured I'd post it in case anyone else was having similar issues.  The green braided wires were indeed responsible for the cutting out.  The red and black inputs were the source of the buzzing.  I re-soldered all of the white red and black cables associated with the inputs.  I also noticed I was getting buzzing when the braided cords (associated with red/black input) were moved at all, so I secured them with a wire and it seems to have solved everything.  Thanks for the help!