Epiphone Valve Junior help

[fatfro]

I have an Epiphone Valve Junior combo that needs about 10 minutes to warm up. If I try to play before this time the sound cuts in and out. I don't remember it being this way when I first bought it. Is this normal for this amp? Is it the tubes? I don't play the amp that much. I searched the forums for something like this but couldn't find anything, so I hope someone out there can shed some light on this. Thanks.

[R Whittington]

I have an Epiphone Valve Junior combo that needs about 10 minutes to warm up. If I try to play before this time the sound cuts in and out. I don't remember it being this way when I first bought it. Is this normal for this amp? Is it the tubes? I don't play the amp that much. I searched the forums for something like this but couldn't find anything, so I hope someone out there can shed some light on this. Thanks.

It does sound like a tube failing. I'd recommend getting a 12ax7 tube and swap it out with each pre-amp tube to see if one of those are the culprit. Otherwise it might be a power tube and you'd really want to replace all of those at the same time. If it's not the preamp tube...you might first want to consider taking it to a tech for diagnosis as any tube purchase won't be returnable (if it turns out there something non tube related is wrong with the amp). RE tube amp problems...9 times out of 10 it's a tube.