crackling in amp?

[chuckb]

hey guys , I recently acquired a matchless spitfire clone head and the problem I'm having is when I strum a chord there is a cracking noise . I replaced all the tubes with new tubes although I know new tubes doesn't mean good tubes. any ideas?

Chuck.

[stokes]

Could be any of a number of issues.First off I would check where the noise is coming from by turning the amp on and without anything plugged into the amp and the volume turned up,rock each tube in the socket one at a time and see if any of the tubes are causing the noise.It could be as simple as loose/dirty socket pins.

[Justin Thomas]

REALLY bad bias... Bad preamp tube... Bad resistor... bad build... oscillations... do any of the controls affect it while it's happening? At what volume? I know on my build, with the "Volume" up really high and the Master set low, it got pretty ugly - I think due to imbalace in the PI... Thrse things are meant for cranking. High notes, low notes? Try different guitar? Speaker connections? I'd check the stuff that can lead to Weenie-Roasting sessions first... (bias & speaker connections)

Justin