Oh that smell!

[rockinlocken]

Nope, not the song some of us old timers know. But that sickly eerie smell which immediately gives you the feeling that something's has gone dreadfully wrong. No smoke mind you, just a faint rubber melting kinda of thing. After shutting down, I found the PT was hot. Further investigation reveals the green heater lead & green/yellow coming off the tranny have somewhat melded together. I followed the 18 watt tmb (richie) layout. Haven't a clue of where I went wrong other than strictly following various startup procedures. Here are pictures for your feedback. Thanks for all your help.

[rjgtr]

It's hard to tell from the picture for sure but it looks like you're grounding one side of your fillaments on the terminal strip near the fuse holders. You need to use a terminal that is not screwed to the chassis.

You also need to separate the green and green/yellow wires and make sure they aren't touching.

If you build any more amps make your self a current limiter. It is simply a light bulb in series with the hot side of the power cable. Do a search, there's a diagram of how to build one. When you power up plugged in to one, it will glow brightly if you have too much current being drawn and can save your amp's life.

[krugans]

Green wire to ground. I second rjgtr comments.

[rockinlocken]

What a bonehead mistake......... I can see it clear as day now. What a bozo, I feel like a real idiot. I'll change out the terminal strip, redo that whole section. That wasn't meant to be a ground that was just me not paying attention when grabbing parts. Hopefully I didn't fry too much and I can save it. I'll get going on the current limiter before the fire up. Thanks again folks. I'll update ya'll later.

[rjgtr]

Don't feel too bad. On one build I did I left a pair of snips in the amp when I fired it up and that took out an OT (fortunately an inexpensive one). I was in a hurry and didn't take a breath and look in the amp first.

[snoof]

while working on an amp, I left the cap drain wire connected to grnd, and turned on the amp... POOF! So don't feel bad man...

[LooseChange]

Have you ever seen one of the alligator clip jumper wires fry. Just melted end to end! Grounded mains in error!

[oldguitars]

"while working on an amp, I left the cap drain wire connected to grnd, and turned on the amp... POOF! So don't feel bad man..."

i did that... twice!! on my 77 deluxe reverb. i couldn't believe that nothing fried....

i guess my SUPER fast reflexes caught it before it fried something... I am like NINJA!

[snoof]

Have you ever seen one of the alligator clip jumper wires fry. Just melted end to end! Grounded mains in error!

yep, that's what happened! Big spark....flame....burned from middle out like a fireworks fuse! Nothing lost but a alligator jumper and a fuse... that and my pride i guess

[rockinlocken]

Thanks for the feedback folks. I looked around for a current limiter GW has a very nice one for a c note. I went to home depot and built one for less than twenty bucks. I figured I'd get this done before I touched the amp again.

[rjgtr]

That's a lot nicer than mine! Mine is just some heavy duty power cable, a duplex box with two plugs and a plug in light socket. I figured this would let me have several different light bulbs I could swap (for wattage).

[BBQLS1]

Thanks for the feedback folks. I looked around for a current limiter GW has a very nice one for a c note. I went to home depot and built one for less than twenty bucks. I figured I'd get this done before I touched the amp again.

Yours looks nice. I think I'll need to build one.

[LooseChange]

The Limiter is Number One in my book.
I built one before I built an amp. I've seen the light go full bright more than once. I can only image how many things I could have burnt up.

Nice looking limiter! Mine is made up of really old boxes and bailed to a 2 x 4.

[snoof]

mine is rather ghetto as well. double junction box w/ two outlets . i really should make a nice one like your's...