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The caps should be replaced, but if you're not going to, well yes, they can and will cause damage. The most likely things to get destroyed are the output tubes, and the power transformer. Both of those things are *way* more expensive than capacitors.
There are two kinds of caps you should be concerned about, electrolytic and paper. You should take the amp out and see if there are paper caps in there. If they are original from 1954, thats what they will be. They have to go.
Electrolytics that old can sometimes still work, but it is a little risky. If your going to try to save them, after all the paper ones are changed, hang a DVM across the first filter cap, and bring the voltage up slowly with a variac. Pay attention to the voltage across the capacitor. It needs to come up slowly, and it will start coming up fast when you get around 70 volts line voltage.
The idea is to not "shock" a good capacitor that has been sitting for years with full voltage, causing it to fail during startup. If the capacitor is already bad, this wont help.
After they have been brought up slowly, If you have hum, they are probably bad. Also the capacitors should not be running hot. If they are, they need to be replaced, immediately.
The only reason I can imagine you might want to do this, is if there is no clean way to replace them (no room). The new ones are not that expensive. I should also mention that if one fails by shorting, it can ruin the power transformer.
John
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