Powered up amp without a speaker cable WTF!!!!

[Mud_Shovel]

I was at a gig last week and with all of the commotion of setting up I forgot to insert my speaker cable from amp to cab. The amp was on stand-by as I was letting it warm up. After putting out the fires ragging before the gig, I plugged in and took the amp off of stand-by and turned up the volume, By the time I saw the cable sitting on my rack and lunged back for the stand-by switch the amp went dead....the fuse blew in the amp. I know this is a big no no, so does anyone one know what damage that I inflicted on my 8 month old single rec? Are the tubes gone? should I take it apart and look at the guts or is it as simple as replacing the fuse?

I have a jcm 900 as a back up but it wasn't the same.

Thanks in advance for any responders as this is my first post.

 

[mrd]

If you had the volume up and you were playing, I would venture a guess that your output transformer could be damaged. Try replacing the fuse and see if it works.

Most amps can handle no load if either the output is set to zero, or if your guitar is turned off. As soon as you send a voltage to your preamp, your power amp jacks it way up...then there's nowhere for it to go.. we're talking hundreds of volts. So since the output transformer is basically the last place the signal resides in before hitting the speaker cable, that will usually get fried.


I'd say take it to a tech.

How long did you play before you noticed it wasn't hooked up properly?

 

[Charlie]

Try replacing the fuse and see if the amp is working. Try it at a very low volume first. It is possible you damaged your OT but the fuse is there for a reason. The amp is probably ok.

 

[clutch71]

Your tubes may have suffered too. Replace the fuse but don't be surprised if your PT tubes pop. Happened to me. Replaced the fuse and the power tubes and all was well.

 

[BigMesa]

I did it once and had to replace a power tube and the fuse. Took it to a shop and had it inspected and everything else came out fine.

Trust me, you will only do it once

 

[tobytheplatypus]

fuse popped in my Triple Rec also (i wasnt there;i found it with a black fuse laying behind it), and it turned out to be just the fuse.
if you're not sure of which fuses to buy, ask someone here (4amp sloblo in my Trip.)

 

[djw]

Not that this is helpful or anything, but one fine day recently I powered up my Marshall and strummed for a good minute and a half or more of "WTF?" before realizing my speaker cab wasn't connected. As all the blood rushed to my face, I frantically switched/plugged/switched/and found... that everything was just hunky dory. No problem.

Granted, I was playing at pretty low volume for the most part, but I did kinda crank the master for a second before I realized what was up.

Still, no problem. Probably didn't do it any favors, but so far it still hums along like nothing happened.

 

[Mud_Shovel]

Guys,

Thanks for all of your input, I'm away on bussiness this week and I couldn't sleep the past couple of nights thinking about the damage that I may have caused and mentally kicking myself for my stupidity. I have some tung sol EL34's that I bought for JCM900, Is there any issues with throwing in NON-Mesa tubes? I'm planning on replacing the fuse and tubes, however how will I know if the output Xfer is bad? I guess I wouldn't have any sound from the amp.... If so.. I can't imaging that it is that hard to replace a transformer, Wire for wire, unless the X'fer is hard to find?

Again thanks,

 

[Charlie]

You can use non mesa tubes but you need to make sure they are rated properly for use in a Mesa Boogie amp. If you aren't sure... I'd go buy as set of Mesa tubes somewhere (GC usually has them).