A somewhat but not entirely rhetorical question:


At what point have you gals and guys divested yourselves of vintage tube gear for whatever reasons?  When have you decided "enough is enough" with maintenance involving costly repairs?

ps
Congratulations @ps  in teaching yourself a valuable lesson before it was too late....
@tsushima1 
Thank you.  The key to this very happy ending was finding the local tech.  It was his extraordinary skills that kept me from making a very big mistake.  That I found him at all, was quite a stroke of good fortune.