A suspect EL34

[alexmoose]

Hey, I have a question for someone who has more knowladge in tubes than myself. I have an EL34 amplifier, that is Single-ended, and one of the tubes is suspect. the heater looks a little dimmer than the other when the tubes are on, and when I shake it (gently) I hear something moving around

The tube behaves normally when in use, it is just as loud as the other channel, and heats up in the same amount of time, and runs no hotter than the other channel, The amp is running in Triode-strapped mode, and if i bump it up to pentode, is it possible that this problem will cause the tube to arc and serve up "hot electric death" even if the tube is running normally in Triode mode? any help would be wonderful

-Alex

[ethermion]

I just shook a brand new in the box Svetlana EL34. I hear something faintly moving around. I would say stop shaking your tubes, stop staring at the filaments, and stop worrying. Chances are much higher of *you* serving up hot electric death with your pentode upgrade than the tube itself.

Let us know how it goes!

[alexmoose]

I was already to make the change to pentode mode, but then my (instert cloud of expletives here) soldering Iron died, its the last time I but anything from Radio Shack... I'll get a new one later this week, but untill then it'll have to wait...