I remembered I had bought a fancy expensive 1A slo blow fuse by accident a ways back (I thought I was getting a pack of 5). I was just too afraid of using it until I made sure it wasn't going to blow. So I threw that in, and it held no problem! Major props to Deke609 for suggesting a slo blow fuse way back on page 1 of this odyssey. And many thanks to Paul Birkeland for his help as well.
I gave it a quick listen, and everything is back to normal. There's even a dead quiet background now, no hint of hum. Thanks again to everyone, I'm going to listen to some music.
