dropping resistors not dropping

[cooldude666]

Hola mi amigos, I powered up my build for the first time yesterday only to discover that for some reason all of my HT voltages were sitting at B+; the dropping resistors weren't dropping.

6550 plate: 460
6550 screen: 460
12ay7 plate: 460
12ax7 plate: 455
12ax7 plate: 455

There's a 5.6k 10 watt resistor that should be dropping the screen and 12ay7 to about 310, and a 10k 2 watt that should be dropping the 12ax7 voltages. Its as if the tubes aren't drawing current at all. There's a 12au7 for a reverb driver that hasn't been put in yet so I expected them to be sitting a little high but this is clearly a bigger problem. Any hints?

I wired an ammeter between the power primaries and switch, it says its only drawing .6 amps. The 6550 heaters alone should be pulling more than that. Anyone have a helpful hint on where to start?

[loudthud]

Were the tubes plugged in? (I ask this because some builders expected the voltages to drop without tubes.) Were the tubes filaments lighting up? Do you measure about 6.3VAC between the heater pins or about 3.15VAC to ground.

[cooldude666]

Yeah tubes are in and I see 6v between the heater pins

[loudthud]

Is ground hooked up? Measure the cathode voltages on the preamp tubes.

[cooldude666]

ok so not sure what's up but i walked back down to my shop to measure the cathodes on the preamp and magically the voltages across the HT have begun dropping. I'm thinking grounding issue, cold joint or something like that. This is what I measured when I walked down-

B+: 400

6550 plates: 377
6550 screens: 180

12ay7
PI plate: 162
PI cathode: 25

12ax7
V2A plate: 162
V2A cathode: 1.7mV

12ax7
V1B plate: 148
V1B cathode: .7V

12ax7
V1A plate: 173
V1A cathode 142mV

v2b is the recovery stage for the reverb and hasnt been wired up yet. i didnt expect my B+/plate voltage to be this low with load either. hope i dont have to go back to the drawing board