10 Year old Crack Poppin' off

[scavvy]

Excuse the title, couldn't help it.

It is indeed, making a loud Pop noise every so often that sends my ears ringing at times. I built it in 2015, and it still has the original tubes. I use it every day, all day, and i basically just leave it on 24/7 (i know i shouldnt)
So i expected something to fail at some point, would this perhaps be symptoms of the tubes failing?

thank you for any insight.

 

[Doc B]

It's possible that it's a tube, but the first thing to check is if a solder joint has become loose. First try doing your voltage measurements to see if there are any discrepancies and then go over the wiring to see if you find any loose joints. If you don't see an obvious loose connection the "chopstick" test might be in order here - with the amp on and some sacrificial headphones connected (in case the pop is loud enough to damage the cans) take a chopstick or other insulated stick and carefully poke around at the wiring to see if you find a particular connection that creates the popping when poked or wiggled with the stick.

 

[Paul Birkeland]

While the Crack is running, slap the top plate pretty hard with your hand to see if the pop noise happens. If it does, that is a good way of quickly confirming that you have a flaky solder joint acting up.