When your gear fails you...

[rcdemoral]

Let's hear some gear-breakdown stories.

 

I don't have any funny ones... I just had the limiter on my power amp STOP working. The next band on had a DJ. He plugged in and was doing some crazy bass mixes... Needless to say, BOOM. two blown woofers... the paper was literally missing from 3/4's of the woofer... they blew real well.

 

But I finished the show with it. I replaced the bulb for the horn and kept it up... 2 hours later, show was done, and everyone was happy except for me.

 

Everyone was complimenting me on how my speakers were lighting up when the kick drum hit.

 

Good times.

[e-b-e]

This reply could also go in the "stupid stories" thread.......

 

This band I practiced with for about two months the beginning of last summer finally was to have our first little show, just a small outdoor party that a friend of the singer was having. Our practices had been at a rented room equipped with a cheesy Yamaha powered mixer. I asked about PA gear for the show, and was told by the singer he has a small P.A. at home and that it would be just fine for the show.

 

The singers "PA" was one of those ancient Tapco "The Entertainer" powered mixers with two 12'' speakers. I told him that about the only thing that it would be good for was to put vocals thru, and that was being optimistic, being that we were going to be playing outside. (If I remember correctly, the unit only puts out 100Watts) I tried to convince this band that we needed to invest in some real gear for P.A. if they wanted to sound at all decent, and as it normally(and unfortunately) goes, no one wanted to spend anything, since they "spent so much on their instruments already".

 

Luckily I knew of this two days before the show and already decided that I should bring what I already had for gear just in case we needed any/all of it. Nothing fancy, just an older Peavey 4-c amp, (250W X 2), Yamaha 15'' speakers, stands and a small mixer with me -- figuring that this is at least roughly equivalent to what we had been using at practices.

 

So singer hooks up his P.A., (he wants no help, he knows "what he's doing with his gear"). He can't get one of the speakers to work. He's turning every knob on the board, (not even looking at what they are for), and can't get it to work. I go to help, and swap the speakers with eachother. The fuse on the mixer is blown. I ask him for another fuse, and of course he has none. Why he did the next thing, I'll never know, but he switches one of the fuses with the other one, and turns it on, now we have TWO blown fuses and still no spares. Oh, and two of the channels don't work either, but anyway....

 

So I tell him to go grab a beer and mingle with his friends a bit. Me and the others take my ghetto P.A. out of my vehicle and I set it up. Again, I know it still wasn't much of a system, but it was something to put the vocals thru, and it was functional.

 

I actually got a few compliments on the sound, (not that I had to do much).

 

MORAL: Make sure your gear at least WORKS, even if it isn't the ideal gear to have.