After building and running my completely awesome ST-120 amp for almost 6 months now with no issues, and in stable configuration on combinations of 4 x Sovtek 6550s , or 4 x KT88's, various 12Au7's (all at 118 volts on variac, 0.5 V bias, no blown fuses, etc.) , I was quite surprised to receive a nasty bite when I "inadvertently" grasped the base of a newly rolled KT-120 between thumb and index finger.
Given what I believe is a correctly constructed amplifier, and correctly manufactured output tube, I'm assuming a number of things:
1) there should be no risk of electric shock from the metal base of an output tube
2) there should be no voltage or current present between the metal base of the output tube and the chassis
3) conversely, if there is voltage present, then there is an issue with the power tube?
For comparison, I measured voltage / current flow / continuity on correctly functioning KT88's and Sovtek 6550s from the base to chassis, and found none.
Apart from the obvious lesson that was learned here, am I correct in assuming that this is not the expected behavior of a brand new Tung-Sol KT-120 output tube, or from power tubes in general?
Given what I believe is a correctly constructed amplifier, and correctly manufactured output tube, I'm assuming a number of things:
1) there should be no risk of electric shock from the metal base of an output tube
2) there should be no voltage or current present between the metal base of the output tube and the chassis
3) conversely, if there is voltage present, then there is an issue with the power tube?
For comparison, I measured voltage / current flow / continuity on correctly functioning KT88's and Sovtek 6550s from the base to chassis, and found none.
Apart from the obvious lesson that was learned here, am I correct in assuming that this is not the expected behavior of a brand new Tung-Sol KT-120 output tube, or from power tubes in general?