volume drops while playing louder than usual - need dampers?

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MusicManJP6

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Ok, so, I play mostly in my apartment and have never had any problems. However, I took my amp to my friend's HOUSE where I could turn up a little more. I've taken it over once before and had no problems. I just had my head and one of the Recto cabs - head was on the cab of course. I turned it up loud enough to get some bass response going and the highs sizzling - barely more than at the apartment really... but this is a loud amp. Anyway, I noticed when the bass response was the strongest - say I hit a big E chord and let it ring - the reverberations would gain strength a second or two later and i'd hear the volume fade a little then come back as soon as I stop the chord and play something else. It never faded all the way out. It was definitely directly related to the vibrations from the cab. I've heard of EL84s not lasting very long in a combo, but I thought the head/cab setup would not be subject to vibration problems. So, my question is - do I just need some tube dampers for the EL84s? Or could it be a tube is trying to fail on me? It's got all JJs in it and they are what came in it when I got the amp. I have a spare quad of EL84s I could use. The problem is I rarely have a chance to turn the amp up to a decent volume. The volume where the problem occurred was just loud enough to fill the room, but was not obnoxious or anything. Since I live in an apartment I suppose testing it will be sort of hard to do. Then again at the volume I play at when at home it is not an issue. Any thoughts?
 
did you try running the head a bit away from the cab and get the same results? I suspect that if it is the cab rattling the hell out of our head, the tube dampers might not be enough of a trick. What sort of feet do you have on your head? are they the stock big rubber bumper kind?
 
I didn't even think to try moving the head off the cab and repeat while the problem was happening. I just 'assumed' the problem was from vibration. The feet are just the factory rubber bumpers...

I was playing last night at my usual apartment level and no problems as usual... It's only happened that once when I was able to turn her up a little.
 

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