The soft start manual states, "Spend some time around a small town TV repairman and eventually you will see him check the HV supply of the picture tube by touching the high voltage lead from the voltage tripler to his bare finger. . . NOTE: We do not condone this practice . . . ."
I have a pacemaker. I have been shocked by 120V AC, 400V DC (hurts the worst), 480V AC and 8kV DC (like static, no current capability.
Believe Doc and the Bottlehead crew! I attribute the multiple shocks to my problems with my AV node.