HamerDave

^ what he said. The all have about the same number of hours use on them. They’re not expensive at all and easily replaced. I’d also recommend replacing all of them as DaveH suggests unless you’re the sort that replaces the tires on your car one at a time as the go flat.

Rock/Blues machines. Amazing value to cost ratio. Very well built from quality materials by people who took pride in the product.

I have one on my Studio. No complaints. Stable for over 20 years.

Yeah. That capacitor is leaking or corroding. Even if that wasn't the source of the noise I'd probably swap it out. The soldering looks a bit rough but not terrible. That's a nicely put together Champ clone. I'm going to have to check those out.

Good advice that.

This can be caused by cold solder joints too. If you're going to open it up, carefully probe each of the component connections with a non conductive item. I use a cheap Chinese takeout chopstick so anything like that. Don't use a pencil though, graphite is conductive. Start closer to the input end of the circuit as any small amount of noise at the input gets amplified as it passes down the signal path. As you tickle each joint listen for the buzz to stop, get worse or for crackling. Be very careful. Tube amps have voltages present that can kill you. Keep your chubby little meat sticks (fingers) outside of the box. Usually when I'm presented with this problem it ends up being a bad ground at the input, or a screen resistor on one of the preamp tubes bleeding. Power section problems, like transformers, tend to be loud, brief, and a bit smokey. Fuses prevent the worst of the Damage. If you're not blowing fuses or looking for a fire extinguisher you're probably not looking at a high voltage issue. I'm not familiar with Valve train or their amps but, so long as they don't use any digital modeling components this might get you started in the right direction. Most of my work is on traditional tube amps up to current models like the Blues Jrs and Deluxes. Good luck and let's know what you find.

They're both great amps. The 5:25 Express is the older version. The Plus was a revision that includes a graphic EQ for those tweaky little tone touches. Really you can't go wrong with either one. I use a 5:50 Express + with my Blues/Rock cover band and adore it. Huge cleans and a ton of flexibility. Definitely Dave approved.

Not Man bun.. Topknot... It's Japanese for Man bu.... oh.. right.. sorry. I'll leave now..

I check in every day or 2. I don't tend to post though, unless I've got something to contribute to the conversation. I'm more of a commited lurker.

I would not on a plane. I would not on a train. I would not if it were blue. I would not, nor should you....

I own one and I love it. I’ve had it about 6 years now and have had zero problems with it. It’s got a sweet top end and the deeper cabinet gives it a nice bass voice. It lacks a bit of clean headroom. The “American” voiced channel, even set as clean as possible is always right on the edge of breakup. Blackface-ish sound profile. With a pull bright and a notch it’s very Blackface Deluxe Reverb. Drive channel is mucho Marshall. Nice grab and go. The only negative for me is the absence of an extension speaker output.

I’ve found that not plugging in really changes my tone. My air guitar, a vintage one owner Queef Deluxe, sounds best unplugged....

Musican’s Friend is offering the Way Huge Saucy Box for $69 again in case you regret missing it last time. Like I did....

I’ve got a Rivera Chubster 40 and I love it. They make them in a 50 watt similar to 55-12 too. The deeper cabinet gives you nice low end. The only knock, and it’s not a big one, is that the clean (American voiced) channel doesn’t have a lot of head room. It starts breaking up fairly early but in a very musical, almost blackface Fendery sort of way. Depending on what you’re looking for it could be a good thing. The British channel is everything an EL34 powered master volume amp should be.

My very first Reverb sale happened before I could finish posting my second item for sale. Full price and paid before I knew what happened. Maybe two minutes......