Playing barefoot

[rjb]

So I guess I have to append my previous recommendation, and say that you need to have both of these in your test kit:

While you're appending, could you change that chain to a non-conductive lanyard or similar? I'm afraid the chain might accidentally short against something....

-rb

[The Dude]

Many years ago now, a vendor was selling power cords cheap. Might even have been Magic Parts if I recall. When I called for some, they cautioned me that the cords were cheap because they had been made with the colors on the wrong posts. The cords were perfectly useful, but not recommended where anyone might confuse their function by color code. I remember the green/yellow wire was either hot or neutral, and brown was earth. All three were wrong.

I had a similar thing happen with mic cables once. I've wondered if some of the "cheap labor" confuse mic cable wiring with AC connector wiring sometimes. I ordered some 50ft mic cables to make a cross stage snake. Crossover output to a second amp rack- Low, Mid, High. The system had a hum, but not loud enough to worry about in a club setting, so I let it go. About a year later one of the cables stopped working. When I took it apart, the ground/shield was soldered to pin 3 of the XLR connector (the middle pin- like an AC cable), instead of the correct pin 1. After further inspection, all of the cables from that vendor were built this way (wrong). I replaced the one which had a break in the middle somewhere and rewired the other two correctly. The system was dead quiet. It was the incorrectly wired cables causing hum the whole time.

[Enzo]

In fairness, the power cords in question were IEC cords. The wires inside were wired correctly, just the wrong colors. This normally wouldn't matter, but I told the salesman I wanted them to lop off the female and use them as hard wired cords. In THAT use the wire color matters.

[Jazz P Bass]

Makes you wonder why they did not simply trash them.

[eschertron]

Makes you wonder why they did not simply trash them.

C'mon. You live in today's world and don't understand that money trumps brains every time? (oops, wrong thread!)

[J M Fahey]

What, and lose sales????

Human greed knows no limits.

In 1981 Spain people started dying in droves: 700 dead, some 25 thousand very sick.

It was originally blamed on contaminated cooking oil, but later it was found that one tomato farmer , in his own words: "I found my tomato patch covered in snails devouring it, so I sprayed them with strong insecticide and killed them all. Saved about 1/3 of the crop and sold it at the local markets".
The one he used IS approved for human consumption vegetables, but a 60 day safety window is needed .... he just washed them with a garden hose and sold right away.
When asked about his responsibility he answered, very angry: "should I waste my crop and lose all my money?"
Same thing.

[darkfenriz]

Ban tomatoes!

[Steve A.]

BTW, I also make it a policy to replace those hardware store replacement plugs with a new molded plug and wire. There are good industrial replacement plugs, but I don't trust them. I bet someone could make a mint if they started making replacement power cords with red plugs like old Fender amps.

Agreed! The replacement power cords aren't that expensive. BTW if the wire gauge is big enough those IEC computer cords make good power cords but the color codes are often strange so be sure to ohm them out.

Steve A

[Axtman]

And as if things weren't confusing enough, I present Exhibit B.

https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/tex...s-infographic/

So maybe those power cords were wired "correctly" after all.

[Steve A.]

In fairness, the power cords in question were IEC cords. The wires inside were wired correctly, just the wrong colors. This normally wouldn't matter, but I told the salesman I wanted them to lop off the female and use them as hard wired cords. In THAT use the wire color matters.

If the price was right I would have bought them and put the proper US color coded heat shrink tubing on the cut leads so as to not confuse anybody later. But then again I am a real fanatic about using color coded heat shrink tubing...

I just rewired a friend's ES335 clone and sleeved the coax leads with color coded heat shrink tubing not realizing that it would be visible looking through the F hole. Darn! It turned out that the bridge volume pot had a dead spot around 1 so when you were turning it down with the selector switch in the middle position the volume would get softer and softer and then jump right back up. So I was able to redo the darned red and white heat shrink tubing looking up at me through the F hole when playing the guitar. Whew!

Steve A.

[octal]

The problem with using a mis-colored cord is that even if you re-color code the "amp side" wires, what happens if someone tries to splice a new plug on the male end? It's just not worth risking peoples lives or a lawsuit over the nominal cost of a power cord, IMHO. These whacked-out cords are a good reminder to VERIFY things with an ohmmeter rather than make assumptions based on insulation color...

[pdf64]

And as if things weren't confusing enough, I present Exhibit B.

https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/tex...s-infographic/

So maybe those power cords were wired "correctly" after all.

Enzo mentioned 'green/yellow wire was either hot or neutral, and brown was earth' - nowhere on that page uses/d such a system?

[Enzo]

The vendor waved me off when I told him my application. The average soul who just needs a power cord would have been OK. How many people put a new male end on an IEC cord? The new male plug costs more than a whole new cord.

[The Dude]

The vendor waved me off when I told him my application. The average soul who just needs a power cord would have been OK. How many people put a new male end on an IEC cord? The new male plug costs more than a whole new cord.

I'm not weighing in on whether or not a person should use those cords. I will say that lots of people put new ends on broken power cords. I see amps come into the shop all the time that way. For the user/non-tech it's a better solution than taking apart the amp. They don't want to get into the guts of the thing, so they just chop off the end of the cord and put a new plug on it.

[Enzo]

I was talking IEC power cords - "computer power cords". The ones that just plug into the rear of the amp. No amp disassembly there. people replace plugs on permanent cords, but not on detachable ones.