[Listens2tubes]

With the 4th of July being a holiday of fireworks, have any stories of tube amp fireworks? 

[machine]

Was rolling tubes in my Dodd Battery Pre one night in my master bed room and left the cover off whan I went to bed. 

Didn't bother to put it on before I left for work the next day...

Get a frantic call from my wife at work about my how my 5 yo daughter said that my 4 yo son was trying to fix my pre with a screw driver and HUGE flash and sparks came out of it.

Glad everyone was Ok and was pissed/anxious the rest of the day at work.

Turns out he shorted the battery rail to the case.  Soldiered some wire around burned trace and all was good!

Had pre back at Dodd audio for battery mod to make it run on all 4 batteries and my fix passed Mr. Dodds scrutiny.

Now I make sure all my stuff is secure!

[Ericus Rex]

6550s go bright blue for a second when the vacuum fails.  Very exciting!

[Listens2tubes]

I watched a Mullard 1959 f31 wide base 5AR4/GZ34 short with a nice bright light show. It took a slow-blow fuse with it, and nothing else. Just it's time to give up. It had been blowing the standard fuse a few seconds after start up and tested good. I guess the slow-blow gave it the time to heat up more.

[Pez]

I had a single Svetlana EL34 give me an interesting show about 3-4 years back. I was listening to my system when I noticed one of my tubes in an octet set get really bright really really quickly, my bias meter built into my amp happened to be set to that one tube. The bias meter went from 400 to 999 the highest reading in a matter of seconds, then smoke.  I jumped over my coffee table to kill the amp. I probably prevented a complete blow out, luckily the only damage other than the tube was a resistor that was charred to a crisp.

WayneW was kind enough to replace the resistor for me and the amp hasn't given me any trouble since. (knock on wood) 

[richidoo]

"E34Ls" (Groove Tubes by JJ Tesla) blew up just as my ear was on the tweeter listening for hiss. Sad, these were really great tubes until the last batch was doggy doo.

I used to enjoy the lightning show inside my RubyTubes 5U4G rectifiers when I turned on my Cary SLI-80 when they were still warm. I wasn't about to wait for the damn tube to cool down just to turn it back on again.

[mgalusha]

My OTL would arc one of the 6AS7's if pushing it hard, after a few of those I determined the rail voltage was too high. A little power supply surgery brought it down to a safer level and no trouble since. Thankfully the fuses and protection circuits did their job and didn't send 170V through the speakers. 

I had an EH KT-88 do a purple flash dance a few weeks back when powering up. It was toast after that.

"E34Ls" (Groove Tubes by JJ Tesla) blew up just as my ear was on the tweeter listening for hiss.

Lucky you didn't lose your hearing, that must have been brutal.

[earplay]

A few weeks back, I happened to be sitting next to my amp when one of my old stock EL84's went up in a puff and flash. It was a Mullard... I don't like to talk about it.   

[Listens2tubes]

A few weeks back, I happened to be sitting next to my amp when one of my old stock EL84's went up in a puff and flash. It was a Mullard... I don't like to talk about it.   

I know exactly how you feel My 5AR4 light show was a couple years ago and I still rarely talk about but it is easier with the stash I've accrued since it's demise. aa