honkytonkwillie
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Rachael is my 24x7 amp until Christmas break each year, where she gets pushed aside for a 2-3 week rest to make room for the tree and stuff.
My college age daughter is home for the holidays, and she noticed the pretty tubes and started asking questions. I told her the tubes looked even more beautiful when the amp is powered up, so I hit the power switch and got a BZZZZZZT! sound with a big white flash from the rectifier.
Uh-oh.
Immediately I realized there were no speakers attached, resulting in the amp seeing zero load. I seem to remember reading about not doing that...
So I unplugged her, hooked up some speakers, and got nothing. Then I swapped in a working-when-I-took-it-out rectifier tube, and tried it again, and got nothing.
Time to read the manual (which many consider cheating). Ah! It has a fuse! Two actually, one is just a backup. Sure enough, her fuse was blown. Replaced it and she powered up just fine. Yay!
Next, I powered her down and swapped in the original rectifier to see if it was toast. BZZZZZT!
Yup. That tube's a-goner. Along with my second fuse.
Live and learn.
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