• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

Ground loops, interconnects, safety grounds, etc.

My line transformer was later found to have an open neutral.
You're lucky to have gotten this resolved without major pain. My girlfriend's house had an intermittent neutral at the pole pig, randomly blowing up lightning protection devices, light bulbs, GFCI outlets etc. Two different electricians proved to not understand electricity, and the power company would not believe her enough to climb the pole to look ("company policy"); seemed willing to let the house catch fire.

She finally charmed a power company guy to climb the pole and fix it. Gotta wonder if she hadn't been 80 and fragile looking if they'd just let her burn up. Yeah, I'm still PO'd. A bad neutral (probably) burned down a theater building where I spent a lot of time years ago. Hidden but dangerous issue.

All good fortune,
Chris
 
Electricity can be a beast! Our tube amps with their high voltages can either let you know you’re alive or kill you! In the US the neutral is often bonded with the ground incorrectly and makes the ground be above ground potential. We also suffer from DC on our AC a lot. If you can find a good isolation transformer it can do wonders.