Blew a fuse, put the wrong one back in...

[Random Hero]

Blew a fuse in my Tweaker head which was caused, I'm pretty sure, by a blown Tung Sol 6V6. This happened on power-up after which I couldn't get any decent volume from the amp - the Tung Sols were just overdriving like crazy and seriously lighting up. All other tubes produced nothing in terms of volume.

Anyways, after replacing the fuse I put the stock 6V6s in, all was good. Put some EL34s in and the amp was back to how it should be. Put the Tung Sol 6V6s that caused the issue in the first place back in and all I got was a loud hum so I turned the amp off and put the EL34s back in. Now, when I switched it back on, the sound faded in after about 2 seconds but it sounded fine. This is when I checked the fuse and realised what I'd done. I thought I had 250mA fuses but they were in fact, on later inspection, 500mA.

I did another quick check and the amp seems to sound just fine but is it possible I did any damage in those brief moments with the dead tube/hum? I can't believe I didn't actually check the fuse but I now have the correct ones on the way in the post.

Would I notice immediately if there was any damage done?

 

[Ian Egnater]

Honestly you are probably ok. Play the amp loud and clean to make sure you still have all the headroom the amp had before, which will tell you that it's not running at reduced power or anything like that. If it still sounds ok when played loud and clean, and it doesn't smell like smoke or anything, then you are probably ok. Haha, just be more careful next time!

 

[Random Hero]

Hey Ian,

It's hard to tell exactly as I only have memory to go on but I can't be sure whether it isn't a bit quieter than it was? For some reason I remember the master on 1 being louder than this but that could be because I'm looking for a problem. Anything I can look at inside the amp to see any obvious burn marks or whatever?