Laney VC30 near short to ground, popping fuses, odd behavior!

[OwenM]

Well I'm pretty much resigned to this definitely being the transformer! Went round again and made sure everything was disconnected/desoldered and double checked I hadn't missed anything, still lights the bulb. I don't read any shorts between coils, but I do get a falling resistance if I measure the HT coil red to red. It starts at about 36ohms and then drops and settles, every time, on 26 ohms. Might that suggest something?

[Helmholtz]

I don't read any shorts between coils, but I do get a falling resistance if I measure the HT coil red to red. It starts at about 36ohms and then drops and settles, every time, on 26 ohms. Might that suggest something?

As said earlier shorted turns of a winding typically don't show with DCR measurements.
The dropping DCR reading is probably caused by an interaction of the winding inductance and your meter.
If the PT lights a 100W limiter bulb with all secondary wires disconnected and isolated, it's probably bad.
To make sure use the transformer neon test (use forum's search function).

[OwenM]

Yup, wasn't expecting the clear answer from the DCR measurement, was just curious and was thinking it may be an interaction with the inductance etc. but didn't want to presume! I'll write this transformer off as bad and look into the transformer neon test, for my own learning more than anything else, I know it's a less-common to find the fault is actually with the transformer so I'd like to take this opportunity to explore testing it! Thanks to you and all the other that helped me through this thread, as always!