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So, I'm walking to my car last night...


arashi

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...through my alley. I look over at something near a trach can that catches my eye.

It's an old Crate G120c amp. 2x60 wts with 2x12 speakers. etc... Well used and dusty but I figured hell, if its broken it may be easy to fix.

Turns out that it works just fine except for the headphone jack. Just that the speakers were turned off by the switch in the back. I figure someone pulled it up from the basement. tried it out, didn't get any sound and dumped it in the alley.

Not a bad night:D

 

Anyone use one of these? I'm not familiar and crate doesn;t even have the manuals anymore.

 

woohoo!

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Ahhhh. You're right MrKnobs. It IS cursed. It made me kill last night.

On the other hand I figured out that the headphone jack works if you turn the speakers off. So it's a good trade off:D

If there WAS heroin in it it's not there now. Althouhg it is kinda dusty back there. hmmm...

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Originally posted by arashi

Ahhhh. You're right MrKnobs. It IS cursed. It made me kill last night.

On the other hand I figured out that the headphone jack works if you turn the speakers off. So it's a good trade off:D

If there WAS heroin in it it's not there now. Althouhg it is kinda dusty back there. hmmm...

 

When I was putting myself through undergrad, I worked as an amp repairman. One day a dude brought in a really nasty looking old Traynor Bass head for repair.

 

A couple days later when I got around to tackling it, I brought it out in the center of the sales floor (I worked in a music store) to take it apart. The moment I pulled the chassis out of the case, the whole thing totally exploded roaches in every direction. They ran up my arms, they ran across my face, they spread in every direction of the compass like a massive insectoid oil slick from the wreck of the Exxon Valdez! There were literally thousands of roaches of all sizes. :eek:

 

I was so startled all I could do was grip the amp harder as the gross bug avalanche ran all over me.

 

The owner of the store came out from behind the counter wielding a huge can of Raid as if it were a fire extinguisher, and hosed me, the amp, and the circle of expanding roaches down until all were dead or dying. He didn't say a word, and his expression never changed.

 

When the can was empty, he walked right over to the service log and added "$40 extermination fee" to the ticket on the amp. He never said a word to me about it, just went back to what he was doing.

 

I fixed the amp later that afternoon, but the dude that brought it in never came to pick it up. We eventually had to sell it to get our parts and labor back. I hope I got all the roach egg sacks out of it.

 

:(

 

Terry D.

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So, one night not too long ago I was walking through an alley after a gig. I had my guitar and crate amp when I got jumped by a couple thugs.

 

They started running off with my guitar and amp. The guitar got away but I think I remember hearing my amp fall near someone's garbage right before I lost consciousness.

 

No .... just kidding but did I scare you for second?

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Originally posted by MrKnobs



When I was putting myself through undergrad, I worked as an amp repairman. One day a dude brought in a really nasty looking old Traynor Bass head for repair.


A couple days later when I got around to tackling it, I brought it out in the center of the sales floor (I worked in a music store) to take it apart. The moment I pulled the chassis out of the case, the whole thing totally exploded roaches in every direction. They ran up my arms, they ran across my face, they spread in every direction of the compass like a massive insectoid oil slick from the wreck of the Exxon Valdez! There were literally thousands of roaches of all sizes.
:eek:

I was so startled all I could do was grip the amp harder as the gross bug avalanche ran all over me.


The owner of the store came out from behind the counter wielding a huge can of Raid as if it were a fire extinguisher, and hosed me, the amp, and the circle of expanding roaches down until all were dead or dying. He didn't say a word, and his expression never changed.


When the can was empty, he walked right over to the service log and added "$40 extermination fee" to the ticket on the amp. He never said a word to me about it, just went back to what he was doing.


I fixed the amp later that afternoon, but the dude that brought it in never came to pick it up. We eventually had to sell it to get our parts and labor back. I hope I got all the roach egg sacks out of it.


:(

Terry D.

 

 

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Scheming Demon -So, one night not too long ago I was walking through an alley after a gig. I had my guitar and crate amp when I got jumped by a couple thugs.

 

 

I do recall a lot of blood near the mouth of the alley. but I didn't really think anything of it. Hmm. Weird coincidence.:p

 

Nope. not really fooled Demon hehe

 

But I was kinda expecting to see a "Hey you got my amp!" post. lol

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Originally posted by MrKnobs


The moment I pulled the chassis out of the case, the whole thing totally exploded roaches in every direction. They ran up my arms, they ran across my face, they spread in every direction of the compass like a massive insectoid oil slick from the wreck of the Exxon Valdez! There were literally thousands of roaches of all sizes.
:eek:

 

Oh. THOSE kind of roaches. ;)

 

EWWW! :eek:

 

I used to work out of this studio in L.A. that had a wonderful old API console. One day I booked a session there after not having been there for a year or two... and it had changed ownership since then. Apparently, the new owners didn't maintain the gear very well, because when I fired up the console, roaches started crawling out of the fader slots! :eek:

 

I always wondered if I missed a big opportunity - maybe I could've turned it into an "automated" console by training the roaches to move the faders at appropriate times. :D

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Originally posted by arashi

...through my alley. I look over at something near a trach can that catches my eye.

It's an old Crate G120c amp. 2x60 wts with 2x12 speakers. etc

Anyone use one of these? I'm not familiar and crate doesn;t even have the manuals anymore.


woohoo!

 

 

That amp was right where it belonged.

 

Still, great find.

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Many years ago, I had an electronics store in a not-too-great part of town. We had a Laotian guy named Phat who used to hang around occasionally. Phat was a strange little guy with long, stringy hair and two-inch brown finger nails who wore old fatigues all the time. One ay he brought in a VCR that had a tape jammed in it. I thought, what the hell, I can get this out for him so I removed the cover and the same thing... it was jammed solid with roaches. I could just make out the "Playboy Allstars" video tape stuck in there. Fortunately, I didn't disturb too many roaches and quickly put the cover back on, sealed the VCR in plastic and sent it to our central repair facility. I'm sure they were pleased with me. :)

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Originally posted by one4rich

Now THAT'S funny! I wonder if any of the roaches survived being deprived of oxygen. Is it true that they can survive *anything*?

 

 

They'd stay alive in that plastic bag for a very long time. Death would probably be due to dehydration when it eventually occurred.

 

Roaches aren't invulnerable, but they're mighty tough.

 

Terry D.

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Once I found a roach in my laundry room and I tried to kill it with an ice-scraper from my car - it just happend to be the first thing i grabbed. Instead of squashing it, I accidentally cut it in two right under the head, so that the head had 2 legs and the body had 4. Both pieces were still trying to crawl away. This just amazed me, and I prodded each piece a little bit with the scraper to see how they'd respond...the head was more responsive, but even the headless body clearly reacted and moved itself away from what was disturbing it!!!

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Originally posted by Raskolnikovs axe

Once I found a roach in my laundry room and I tried to kill it with an ice-scraper from my car - it just happend to be the first thing i grabbed. Instead of squashing it, I accidentally cut it in two right under the head, so that the head had 2 legs and the body had 4. Both pieces were still trying to crawl away. This just amazed me, and I prodded each piece a little bit with the scraper to see how they'd respond...the head was more responsive, but even the headless body clearly reacted and moved itself away from what was disturbing it!!!

 

 

Roaches have fibers on the back end that connect directly to their nervous system. This is so if something attempts to attack them from the back, they immediately run without the signal ever going through their brain.

 

Can you imagine what it would be like if you legs suddenly started running on their own when something touched you from behind?

 

Terry D.

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Originally posted by one4rich

Now THAT'S funny! I wonder if any of the roaches survived being deprived of oxygen. Is it true that they can survive *anything*?

 

There are a couple of things besides the boot (they can withstand being compressed to about 1/4 of their size without harm, by the way) that will kill them.

 

My favorite growing up was oven cleaner or typewriter platen cleaner. Both solvents dissolve chitin, which roaches are made of. Just one little drop on their back will widen to a hole the size of a dime or larger as they run away. :eek:

 

However, my nomination for most effective and dangerous chemical goes to Dimilin (diflubenzuron), an enzymatic organophosphate chitin synthesis inhibitor. Insects can't grow without molting since they have a rigid chitin exoskeleton. If there's even a few molecules of Dimilin around, the insects will shed the old exoskeleton but be unable to grow a new one. Result: horribly mutated and dead insect.

 

Dimilin is so deadly because only a very tiny amount is needed to kill, and because the Dimilin itself is not used up in the process, it just stays in the environment and keeps on killing and killing - everything and I mean EVERYTHING that needs chitin to live.

 

I put just one quarter of a gram in my 300 gallon koi pond a few summers ago to kill out the anchor worms that were infesting my koi, and within a month my entire backyard and part of the surrounding neighborhood had been transformed to the scenario in Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring." No insect alive for a hundred meters around my pond. No crickets singing at night, no fire ant nests, no roaches, no dragonflies, no mosquitos, no butterflies feeding on my flowers, no pillbugs gnawing at their roots, no caterpillars munching down on the leaves, no house flies, no water striders gliding under the waterfall of my pond, no nothing. All dead.

 

That was pretty bad, but it didn't change after a month or even six months. I finally completely changed out the pond water before the insects gradually came back. Changing out 1/2 the water four times didn't reduce the concentration enough.

 

One quarter of a gram. That's just 0.0022 lbs, or 0.035 oz. A small paperclip weighs four times that much.

 

Scary!

 

Terry D.

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Originally posted by MrKnobs



The owner of the store came out from behind the counter wielding a huge can of Raid as if it were a fire extinguisher, and hosed me, the amp, and the circle of expanding roaches down until all were dead or dying. He didn't say a word, and his expression never changed.

 

 

Sounds to me like either this had happened before, or he was expecting it!!

 

That must have been disturbing.... i hate roaches.

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Originally posted by MrKnobs

However, my nomination for most effective and dangerous chemical goes to Dimilin (diflubenzuron), an enzymatic organophosphate chitin synthesis inhibitor. Insects can't grow without molting since they have a rigid chitin exoskeleton. If there's even a few molecules of Dimilin around, the insects will shed the old exoskeleton but be unable to grow a new one. Result: horribly mutated and dead insect.

 

 

Well, that would have made Starship Troopers a much shorter movie...!

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