Variac or not?

[Chimes]

I guess I don't see your concern. You say you have already recapped the set, so the next step would be to bring it slowly on the variac and watch for anything unusual. If it comes up and no smoke or fireworks, then time to trouble shoot any problems there may be.

I have never bothered to reform any new electrolytic capacitors and never had a problem and I have replaced hundreds. I hear the audio folks talk about that as they seem to think capacitors need to be "broken in", but with modern electrolytics that is simply not necessary.