Morgan wrote:
If the V1 heaters aren't glowing, you won't get signal through the amp. It's good news that you were able to bias it. That means that the problem is probably with V1.
Test your heater circuit. Remove all tubes, place the amp chassis with the tube sockets & transformers up, and turn on the amp (standby off is fine). Set your meter for AC voltage and read AC volts from V1, V2, and V3, sockets 4 and 9, and then sockets 5 and 9 (not reading to ground - one meter lead in socket 9, the other lead in socket 4). You should get around 6.3+ volts AC every time. If you don't get 6.3+ volts from V1, you have a bad connection in the green heater from V2 to V1. It's important that you are testing the tube sockets where the tube plugs in and not the solder terminal inside of the chassis. You could get voltage going to the solder joint on the solder terminal, but it's a bad joint that is not conducting to the socket. I've seen that multiple times.
This was exactly what was happening! My solder joints looked solid, but there was one on V2 that wasn't conducting to the socket. I noticed that only half of V2 was heating on second look.
I've got the amp up and running. It sounds pretty good, but the bass is pretty flubby. A professional amp builder that I've become friends with has given me some suggestions that I've already implemented to tighten up the bass, and a few more with parts on the way. I'll report back after completing them all.