Heres a link that goes into a bit of detail about fiting standby switch,there is different ways of going about it, most importantly make sure anybody who touches the internals of the amp has a proper understanding of electrical saftey and is experianced with working on tube amps, even when unplugged power supply filter caps can hold a LETHAL charge for many weeks, remember DEATH IS PERMANANT!
I take no responibility for loss of life or property,undertake all mods at your own risk.
http://www.rru.com/~meo/Guitar/Amps/Kal ... andby.html
Oh in regards to why tube amps cost so much,it all ads up, anybody who has bult a tube amp will back me up im sure. Quality transformers are not cheap. You also must remember that you have to pay for R+D,advertising, fatcats in offices etc etc not just the building of the amp.
An amp i recently purchased that is built by a local manufacturer was in development for 4 years before the 1st one was even sold.Aside from the time taken to build the amps they are all also tested at full power for 4 days straight, and then checked for bias and componant drift.Its a lot more than just a hadfull of parts that goes into building a quality amp.
