disappearing static

[arugula]

Hi and thanks. I built a crack and have the speedball upgrade ready to go. Have not put it in though because there was a lot of static in one channel. Tried resoldering all the joints and the problem did not go away. Even sent in pictures and John pointed out some additional places to touch up. I don't want to add the speedball until the basic build is OK. After putting the amp away for a few months and returning, all static is gone, even when I crank the volume up high with no source. I have used it now for a few days and it seems fine. My questions is: Should I poke on different parts with a chopstick to see what is causing sporadic noise, or just go ahead and install the speedball? The noise was in one channel. Is there anything else that I should check before going ahead. I was learning to solder with this kit so some of the joints and places with several wires coming together are somewhat burned. Thanks for your help.

[Doc B.]

At this point resist the urge to mess with it and just run it as is for a while. If the noise does not return after a week or so of play time you can probably assume the noise issue was in a tube that needed to burn in for a while, and you can go ahead with the speedball installation. If the noise does come back do try the chopstick method to see if you can locate a bad connection.

[arugula]

Thanks for your help. The noise did come back. Probably doesn’t change the strategy, but it is now a bit different than I remembered. It is a static or distortion that comes only when the music is playing. Maybe specific to lower midrange sounds, like trombone or male voice.