Tubes are always a source of concern for me. You never really know when one is going to give up the ghost or who knows what. OTOH, I wouldn't trade my tube preamp for a ss preamp, nor would I want to be without the tube sound in the amp stage.
Lloyd, if you are still getting that whistling sound, I would suspect that the tube in question is either getting noisy due to age or is possibly needing a re-seat. In an A'gon thread a while back, i had asked about a similar problem but in my amp driver section. I re-seated the tubes and the problem went way. Sometimes, the pins don't make great contact or are a little dirty, the re-seat can alleviate the problem.
BTW, tube rush can be a common problem, usually brought on by a faulty or aging tube.
Also, as for Tim's post about tubes in guitar amps, us axe players don't look for clarity as much as warmth in our guitar amps....accuracy to source isn't quite as important, IMHO.
That is NOT to say that an audio tube amp cannot be accurate to source and revealing of what is upstream, in fact IME, tube amps in audio are still slightly superior in this regard to ss amps. Therefore, I don't agree with Tim's observation or posting on this issue.
Lloyd, if you are still getting that whistling sound, I would suspect that the tube in question is either getting noisy due to age or is possibly needing a re-seat. In an A'gon thread a while back, i had asked about a similar problem but in my amp driver section. I re-seated the tubes and the problem went way. Sometimes, the pins don't make great contact or are a little dirty, the re-seat can alleviate the problem.
BTW, tube rush can be a common problem, usually brought on by a faulty or aging tube.
Also, as for Tim's post about tubes in guitar amps, us axe players don't look for clarity as much as warmth in our guitar amps....accuracy to source isn't quite as important, IMHO.
That is NOT to say that an audio tube amp cannot be accurate to source and revealing of what is upstream, in fact IME, tube amps in audio are still slightly superior in this regard to ss amps. Therefore, I don't agree with Tim's observation or posting on this issue.