Clubs! Argh!

[olddawg]

So ...... I played a club last night. New place. New band. And... It was my birthday so I was distracted by a lot of friends. We were contracted to play 4 sets. There was an afternoon band that took their sweet time leaving the stage and we had half an hour to set up everything..... Including the PA. I plugged in my big old class A/B powered mixer. It lit up but the meters pegged and it wouldn't come out of protection. I thought great, the old beat finally bit the dust at the worst possible time! So... We jury rigged our monitor power amp and a 3 channel Behringer mixer to start, got halfway through a song and the mains started distorting like crap. Shut it off - turn it on, same thing after about 2 minutes. So.... I told a friend of mine to run a big ass 50 ft extension cord (that I had thrown in my van on a lark) from the other side of the room. Problem fixed! I plugged my big board into the extension cord on the first break.... It worked fine! But... Who has time to rewire the whole mess on a 15 minute break? Instead of having 500 watts in the mains and 12 channels with 100 watt monitors in this club for the night, we ended up using 100 watt mains and no monitors! The only thing I can think of is that one outlet strip had less than 90vac on it. I hope the place doesn't burn down, lol. We used that outlet because the house mains, (which was off) were on it and the location was convenient. Moral of the story: 1) Always bring a big ass extension cord to a gig. And 2) Power everything from the same outlet if you can and test it first. It was kind of embarrassing!

[km6xz]

Extension cords and jerry-rigged outlets seem to be the norm in just about all small clubs. I advice musicians to stuff a cheapie DMM in their cable pocket of their instrument case and check ground currents and mains voltage. If anyplace needs a GFI it is a club since a lot of musicians and singers have been electrocuted by badly wired makeshift extension cables or miss-wired panels.

[olddawg]

Extension cords and jerry-rigged outlets seem to be the norm in just about all small clubs. I advice musicians to stuff a cheapie DMM in their cable pocket of their instrument case and check ground currents and mains voltage. If anyplace needs a GFI it is a club since a lot of musicians and singers have been electrocuted by badly wired makeshift extension cables or miss-wired panels.

I usually have a DVM and a plug in wiring fault indicator but not last night, lol. I've run into my fair share of ground reverses and hot chassis in my years, but never have seen an outlet that would let a free standing unit power up but not work. I really think that one breaker circuit had extremely low voltage. I am still amiss at how this could happen. The outlet on the other side of the room was fine.

[jbltwin1]

I routinely carry a "tub" with enough spare cords and power cords to light a house. 50 ft and 25 ft. There are NEVER enough places to plug in. And THEN, you have to run lights! Played a really NICE place last year that had ONE EXTENSION CORD dangling from the ceiling and they said the obligatory, " there's your power"! I carry a fault detector, DMM, and tools to fix stuff. Last year, we played a place outside that had faults in the system and NO GROUND. Thank gawd there was a 50 foot flagpole. I ground a spot clean and clamped a piece of romex to it and ran that to a break out bow and connected the ground separately. Geez, the crap we have to do. Mike.

[g1]

Well, that ended up better than I expected. I thought it would turn out to be shorted speaker cables that blew the A/B and the Behringer. So that's good if no permanent damage was done.

P.S. You're not supposed to have to play (or be in any shape to) on your own Birthday!

[olddawg]

Well, that ended up better than I expected. I thought it would turn out to be shorted speaker cables that blew the A/B and the Behringer. So that's good if no permanent damage was done.

P.S. You're not supposed to have to play (or be in any shape to) on your own Birthday!

That was my feeling exactly. This was a weird situation. This was an old Fostex MP 1200 powered mixer. (I use a lot old gear. (I'm old. I get it for nothing. I fix it. I use it) The lamps behind the meters lit up but the meters pegged and it wouldn't come out of protection on that outlet strip. The old Peavey power amp would work for 2 minutes and then start distorting like a kazoo! I was half lit myself and rushed. If and when I play there again, I know to run everything off the one good outlet. The place also has a HUGE neon sign over the stage. My Stratocaster loved it! Not! Buzzzzzzzzzzzz. Couldn't use my bridge pickup.

[eschertron]

That was my feeling exactly. This was a weird situation. This was an old Fostex MP 1200 powered mixer. (I use a lot old gear. (I'm old. I get it for nothing. I fix it. I use it) The lamps behind the meters lit up but the meters pegged and it wouldn't come out of protection on that outlet strip. The old Peavey power amp would work for 2 minutes and then start distorting like a kazoo! I was half lit myself and rushed. If and when I play there again, I know to run everything off the one good outlet. The place also has a HUGE neon sign over the stage. My Stratocaster loved it! Not! Buzzzzzzzzzzzz. Couldn't use my bridge pickup.

Sounds like the only thing missing was the chicken wire!

[olddawg]

Sounds like the only thing missing was the chicken wire!

Oh, I've done my fair share of those places too. And biker runs. Then it's generators blowing up equipment, lol.