I ran my 5e3 clone with only 1 6v6 tube, is the tranny shot?

[guilds100]

I fired up my deluxe clone and started playing and within 30 seconds the sound fizzled to nothing. I looked in the back and realized i pulled one of the power tubes to put in my champ. I powered down and inserted the missing tube and all it does is make an incredibly distored sound with almost no volume. The tubes test good in my champ and the board looks fine. Is the output tranny shot?

[billyz]

unfortunately it is possible the current thru the OT on one side fried it.

Measure both legs of the primary, they should be close . If one side is open or shorted or way off , then probably fried one leg. Test your tubes too. Might have one bad tube. The OT on the originals were rated pretty low. If your clone used a vintage accurate OT it might underrated too and would be prone to damage from the extra current. I prefer to use the OT from a Blackface Deluxe, even in the 5e3 circuit. Sounds better and no more fried OT's.

Of course , before you assume it is the OT, Measure /check all the other components. Did you use Screen Resistors? the speaker too.

[Bob-I]

I hear these stories al the time, but I've never blown an PT doing all kinds of stupid things. just toady I hooked up my Princeton to a dummy load and cranked it. When I got a measurement of 120 watts, I checked the dummy load, OPEN with a broken wire, and I'd run it like that for about 5 minutes.

Fixed the dummy load and all's good with the world. I'm getting a nicely balanced 14 watts.

I'd look elsewhere first, tubes, bad contact, bad speaker connection, etc.

Or maybe I'm just lucky.

[paddy]

Hi there,

are you able to supply some voltage readings for us to work with?

B+,Screen and plate/cathode including preamp tubes.

cheers,
paddy

[JamesHealey]

I hear these stories al the time, but I've never blown an PT doing all kinds of stupid things. just toady I hooked up my Princeton to a dummy load and cranked it. When I got a measurement of 120 watts, I checked the dummy load, OPEN with a broken wire, and I'd run it like that for about 5 minutes.

Fixed the dummy load and all's good with the world. I'm getting a nicely balanced 14 watts.

I'd look elsewhere first, tubes, bad contact, bad speaker connection, etc.

Or maybe I'm just lucky.

I've done similar things in the past and it's never cost me an OT either I know they can blow! but i've been lucky.

[tweedydum]

I've actually run mine for an entire 3 hour gig like that. I noticed it was dirtier than usual when I turned it on, but didnt' realize until the next day that a tube was missing!

Seems to be no ill effects...
The amp also handled the beer that was spilled into it as well.

Hopefully you will have similar luck.

Dave

[tubeswell]

Yep I've done that trick too, but the amps I build mostly have really solid chunky OTs, and they can take all sorts of funny loads no problemo.

What we need is your idle voltages (like one of the OPs already said)