dash/tail/brake circuit short

[webfoot]

Here's some background info: pickup is a 71 k-20. It had an old junky stereo and aftermarket speaker in the center, neither of which ever worked. I thought it was the stereo that finally gave up the ghost, but when I got under the dash, I noticed that the speaker had fallen down and of course landed on the red wire for the cigar. (yes it looked sweet!)

So of course I pulled that junk out of there. But, I still have a problem.

Whenever I turn my headlights on, the dash, tail & brake lights go out and the fuse almost instantly burns. If I don't have the headlights on the dome light will even work and presumably the brake lights.

Does this sound like it could be a defective headlamp switch or do I need to dig for a big fat short somewhere? I tried removing the dash pad but had to post a new topic on how to do that.