Lee Jackson Metaltronix Amplifiers

[gwr]

Hi, please bear with me here :

Last week, I went to try some heads. Ended up buying an Ibanez Thermion. Tried to put my GP1000 at home to the effects loop return, but it functioned so that when I pushed the return gain slightly, all of a sudden a terribly loud volume leve (so it worked, couldn't play loud at home though). Went to band practise, tried it loud thru my Rocktron Velocity for the first time, worked. Tried thru friend's Mesa rectifier as external preamp, worked. Tried with Thermion, effects loop was dead. It made already a weird hum at home, now it hummed but no sound.

Yesterday, took it back to the store, they offered me to get the one they had at the store so I wouldn't have to wait. But, they didn't know that particular item had a broken preamp valve which the clerk told me last week (and it made weird noises) - so this guy who knew about amps wasn't working yesterday. ANYWAYS, went to the testing booth, hooked in my GP1000 with EMG81 on the guitar, and it worked but there was terrible noise and feedback. Also, somehow the signal would "fade" with softer picks of the notes. Then all of a sudden "pfff" and the power went off from the Thermion. The clerk suspected it was the fuse, he couldn't replace it, so they took the head I bought last week and sent it to the repair-guy.

2 questions:
1. I bought my GP1000 used. Is it in any way possible for this thing to break in such a manner, that it sounds normal but is somehow giving such a high output that it can blow the receiving end?
2. The effects loop in the Thermion is "entirely tube-driven". When you put it on, it actually engages another tube-stage. Does this have anything to do with anything? I should be able to plug the GP1000 to the return and that's it? When I tested it at the store, it worked so, that no other potentiometers on the Thermion worked, except the return level seemed to work so, that between 0-2 it was dead silent, then on 3 it suddenly gives out full volume.

I would GREATLY appreciate your wisdom guys!!!

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[gwr]

Anyways, I ended up returning the Thermion and got Mesa/Boogie F-100 instead.