Blown OT??

[lowell]

why's that Bruce? It shorts out and saves the OT in the unfortunate event that the speaker gets disconnected?

[lowell]

Bruce what does this do? Will present some sort of short to ground or "backup" resistance if the speaker is disconnected?

Final note: I checked out the xformer and it measured ok after disconnecting the secondary from the speaker jack. I did however find that 2 primary leads on it were a bit melted and must've shorted! I could not see what they melted from but it looked from the shape of the mark on the leads to be a wire or possibly a socket pin? Anywho I rewired things and used some lock-ties to keep those wired isolated from any potentially hot parts. The OT is fine and amp is rockin'.

[Enzo]

A very common reason for melted wire insulation is someone touching it with their soldering iron.