Sounds like a stylus on the paper label

[garrardfisher]

Has anyone has ever noticed this particular sound?  The
seduction started out quiet for a month or two after the build,
but now has an itermittent noise that can be temporarily cured by
tapping on the top plate, so I suspect it's a joint.  The sound is
much like that of a stylus crossing onto the inner record label, but
softer and staccato and sometimes it has a pattern as in it fades away
by going from pop pop pop to pop....pop...........pop.........  :

It's only in one channel and I've eliminated tubes and interconnects. 
It is definitely the left channel circuit.  I have also reflowed
the solder twice on every joint on the left channel.  I have not reflowed the
solder elsewhere, and I haven't reflowed the common ground plate. 

Is it possible that a component could have been overheated from the solder iron, or is it
definitely a broken joint that I'm just missing?  I'm new to tube gear, so I am not familiar with
all the odd sounds they can make.

Any suggestions appreciated!

 

[Doc B]

Could be either a tube or, somewhat less likely, a cap. Did any of the caps get nicked by the soldering iron?

 

[Grainger49]

The easiest thing to do is clean the tube pins and the socket.  Read Question #2 in the FAQ Thread.

 

[earwaxxer]

Sounds very much like a tube sound to me. A worn out carbon pot sometimes sounds like that when the volume is turned up or down.

 

[garrardfisher]

Could be either a tube or, somewhat less likely, a cap. Did any of the caps get nicked by the soldering iron?

No caps were nicked, but towards the end of the build, I had to use some 96% silver solder, which is tough to work with.  It may have caused me to overheat some of the components.

I will try cleaning the socket because I swapped tubes and the problem stayed with the left side.

Thank you for the suggestions.

 

[2wo]

Yow, 96% no way that will work, short of using a torch. Pick off any loose bits, then as there is silver involved. Get some 2% silver electronic solder. The Kester 2% is excellent, and hit those  connections again...John 

 

[Laudanum]

I would go with Johns advice, re-wet with a 2% silver lead based.  But Im assuming a 4% silver solder was used.  Ive never even seen 96% silver content solder.   
96% Tin / 4% Silver is a bear ... basically plumbing solder but also seen it sold as lead free electronics solder. 
Lead based 4% silver is do-able.  I have a small container of it and it's not too bad but I stick with my 2% Multicore if Im using silver solder.

Anyway ... +1 on what John said.   

 

[Grainger49]

He mis-typed.  It has to be 4% silver, 96% whatever.  We used silver solder for thermocouples at Alcoa.  They had to be assembled with an oxy-acetoline torch.

 

[garrardfisher]

Well, thanks again for the advice.  I really appreciate you guys taking the time to give some input.
And yes, I definitely mis-spoke on the percentage of silver in my solder.  I've not done much
soldering in my life, so I'm not good with the terminology. 

I wanted to check back in and give a status.  I think I may have located the problem. 
I re-wet the solder on one of the snap-in power supply caps that
are difficult to reach and therefore I probably didn't solder them sufficiently the first time.

I'll keep ya posted if the issue comes back (like it did once before), but I think I got it this time.