thanks for the quick responses so far

hugo:
empeg's fuse is ok when i had the unit wired incorrectly (both yellow and orange tied together, then into the fuse, which led to the battery) it worked perfect. other than never going into standby thus draining my battery after a while.

zeke:
i meant to ask you if u ever tried the diode fix. im glad it worked for you! i dont have much more space back in there to stuff a relay in as well but looks like i'll have to try it. puzzling that my unit still bangs hard even after the diode fix. however like i mentioned, i used a 1A 400v diode instead of a 1A 200v diode, i dont know if the difference in the voltage ratings is still the problem? does anyone know? i dont think its the empeg's fault, i think its just how the ACC drops from 12v to 0, as u and many others experienced - the empeg i guess misinterprets a powerfail and bangs off?

tony:
agreed - pulling the unit while playing is probably a rare event anyway so i can understand if the pops then cant be avoided - so thats ok i can ignore that one and the engine start thump, id probably be fine with that too. at this point i just want to solve the 'hard shutdown' when going from ACC to off which isnt normal behaviour like u say... fuses are ok - what else might i check?

andy:
after reading thru more of the posts archived on the 'merlins.org' that had embedded links i noticed that they referred to empeg.comms.net, i only clicked later that the archives i was reading actually were from this board... hehe. whooops!