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I have just subjected my sIII to the three foot drop test. I noticed this morning that my heaters were not coming on past the rectifier and suspected a bad connection on the first EL84 so I turned it over to inspect the heater cable inadvertantly touching the incoming live with my pinky. I yelled F^@& and the chassis flew from my grasp in the mean time the RCD on both the amp area supply and the one on the rest of the house tripped (that is why I have them) The chassis dropped to the ground and took a chunk out of the new wood floor just missing both the LP and the Custom Shop Strat. I had heart palpatations for the rest of the day and my finger is still tingling now. I came home this evening and carefully went over the amp making sure nothing obvious was damaged, I found the culprit dry joint and repaired it. Then came the test, I plugged in and turned on.....

Everything is fine and the amp survived it's journey, I make tough builds however I have developed an amazing vibrato in my fret hand!

Moral of the story I suppose is DON'T stick you hands in an amp when plugged in and DO get an RCD fitted to your house or buy an extension cable with one in it.
Nigel

You caused that much of a ruckus because your pinky touched the live incoming ac?

You're such a lightweight Nige!!!

Oh wait, is house AC downunder 220vac? If so, I have slightly more sympathy.

-F

Ouch!

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"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." —George W. Bush, Greece, N.Y., May 24, 2005

I'm still waiting for my first jolt. But I like your advice on the RCD.

RCDs are Residual Current Devices
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RCDs (sometimes called Earth Leakage Circuit Breakers) are primarily designed to protect against electrocution (i.e. *death* from electric shock) by detecting current flowing to earth.

In North America, they are called GFI (Ground Fault Interrupter)

_________________
Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

I dont know if a GFI would have shut down the circuit if you just touched the incoming mains with your pinky...I've had my fair share of serious zaps, granted none while building an amp.

When I was a kid, I stuck unshielded wire into a plug, while holding the wire....the circuit immediately tripped, but not before a minor zap.

Later in my teens, I was jamming with some guys...I was playing an old amp without a ground....the other guy, a well-grounded peavey. When I touched his strings with my right hand (my left hand fretting an E-chord) I completed the ground.....I ended up falling to my knees after someone pushed me off the other guitarist and wasn't right for the rest of the day.

Most recently, about 3 years ago, I was biasing a Carvin Legacy....I accidentally rested my right hand on the filter caps....thankfully my left hand wasn't touching anything....I got quite a jolt!!!

AC in Australia is 240V, I guess the worse part was I was holding the chassis with my other hand so that was the path of the grounding.

Stephen, I have had RCDs fitted to the main power in my house, the workshop and I also have a portable one on a fly lead, the workshop one has prevented serious accident a couple of times however it is enough to give you a wake up call.
Nigel

Ouch, 240vac is enough to straighten the hairs on your nuts...
I feel for you Nigel....

granted, if it was 120vac like here in the states, I would be cackling at ya!


Now I'm going to go back to my sIII that I have yet to finish! (although I cut the IEC plug today!)

Yeah 120V is not so bad, in fact I re-wired my sisters basement in Ottawa after turning off the wrong fuse box, only found out when I screwed a globe in.