That really happens? Man. Well I got a new bulb, same problem. But I was taking a look at the socket you mentioned, looking for some signs of it rotating, and I noticed the spring behind it was actually touching the .5 mm of exposed wire before the solder point on the socket base, grounding it out when the bulb was pushed into the socket. Insane. I put some shrink wrap on that puppy and voila, bada bing bada boom, cha cha cha, now we're cooking with gas, etc etc. (Aka it works now) Thanks again guys.