I was satisfied with the packaging of my Cortese. Mick ships it with the tubes in the sockets and one tube was tilted by the styrofoam packaging insert but the pins straightened right out when I reinserted it. Mick thought it might have been opened by customs and the tipped tube the result of their looking in the box.
The tube sockets are very solid and are somewhat grippy when swapping tubes. However, Mick says in the owners manual that constant tube rolling can gradually cause tube sockets to wear. I use socket savers in my preamp.
The tube sockets are very solid and are somewhat grippy when swapping tubes. However, Mick says in the owners manual that constant tube rolling can gradually cause tube sockets to wear. I use socket savers in my preamp.