I've seen those waste ends many times although can't recall having to find
them as a result of a fault.

You're quite the detective, Nigel.

There were many boards where it was apparent that as part of the board
processing, it had been placed in some sort of fixture that would pass along
a belt sander-sort of arrangement to make all of the protruding leads a
uniform length.

The scratches of the abrasive were visible, and burrs formed on all the
leads were in the same direction.

I'd aways remove those waste tails/ends whenever I found them.. as some were
long enough to reach other solder pads, and frequently were over, but not in
good contact with adjacent pads.

--
Cheers,
WB
..............


"N_Cook" wrote in message
...
Considering all those personal names of testers/inspectors labelled
inside.
a 1962 from 2003. A history of blowing fuses then would work for months
then
blowing again. Is there a name for them , the little bits of wire of
cropped-off component leads. Anyway under the tremolo valve base ,
probably
sort of spot welded just the solder blob end , to one of the tags. A 5mm
long piece of cropped off lead from a 1W resistor or similar. It could
swing
across, as only vaguely atached, and short the tags between a cathode and
anode. I assume it was loose somewhere inside the amp and then bounced
into
just the wrong spot and current passing was just enough to just "solder"
in
place on the first shorting excursion