Sounds like a short somewhere to the signal ground for sure. When you say the fuse pops, I assume you mean the one in the plug, or the one on the supply circuit of your house fusebox? There are various other fuses within the amplifier that might be able to tell you more about where the fault is located, but if it’s the one in the plug (or the external house one) then it’s likely to be somewhere in power supply.
At this point though, for your safety I would recommend taking it to a repair shop instead of trying to trace the fault yourself – if you don’t have the technical knowledge to check for a short in the PSU circuit, then you don’t have the expertise to be opening the amp case in the first place…
The power supplies in particular in audio power amps not only produce electrical current easily high enough to kill you, but they hold that current in their capacitor banks for a surprisingly long time. I really cannot stress this fact enough – any other piece of equipment I would offer advice on fault tracing, but with a power amp you are dicing with death opening it when you have no idea what the internals are or how they work….
In answer to the original question, I’m not terribly good on the geography of England, but after a quick perusal of google maps, the nearest place I know is in Blackpool – a place called Stagebox. They may be able to ship it if necessary, and if you give them a call, the chap who runs it is very helpful and will be able to at least give you some good advice on wether it is worth doing (and how much it is likely to cost). Last time i dealt with them, they did servicing. If not, another good place to try is Stage electrics who have branches up and down the country (the nearest to you being Birmingham). They will arrange shipping though, and again would be a good place to at least get advice (which is free… :wink:)
