The Steel Guitar Forum

The other night while performing a soundcheck my trusty old Session 500 suddenly died. I thought somebody accidently turned it off and reached for the back off the amp. The heatsink was warm - and I mean really HOT. Well, I managed to find a spare fuse and it worked again. Since I was´nt sure what caused the problem I used another steeler´s amp for the gig. Do you have any ideas what might have caused the blown fuse and the tremendous heat? The amp seem to be in working condition now but should I have it checked by a repairman?

Regards!
Stefan

Stefan, If you can locate an inline AC ammeter or wattmeter you can plug your amp into it and see how much current it draws or the watts it uses. The watt rating is listed on the back of the amp.
Some appliance repair people have these meters.
If the measurements are as listed for your amp, you can probably say that there was a line voltage problem when your amp blew the fuse. If the current is above the normal value, it should be checked. One of the output transistors could be leaky or shorted.
Improper grounding when connecting several pieces of equipment together can pop a fuse but I don't think your heatsink would get hot. ..... JD