Members timmerz Posted October 24, 2005 Members Share Posted October 24, 2005 Played a gig at an Industrial Park in Hayward, Ca. this afternoon that paid really well, it was a private party held by a large 4-wheel parts company for all of its stores and affiliates... Anyway, they wanted us to play in the far corner of the parking lot, so that we would be the half-way point for the people that were moving around the parking lot going from booth to booth (lots of vendor info booths there in the parking lot).... We were fine with that, but had to ask for a source of power, as there was none anywhere out there in the lot....they ran us out an extension cord, 4 sections 60 feet long in all....we all looked at each other and shrugged, just decided to try it out. We ran my rig, the P.A and the guitar rig on that one extension cord, and right in the first notes of the first song I knew I had a problem. The power amp was cutting out in my rig whenever I asked it for any volume, like going down to the "E" string and pulling harder. I've never had one single problem with my rig since I replaced that Nady (shudder) power amp with the DCM1000 Carvin power amp. The Carvin has been very happy residing there, and I've always run it bridged at 4 ohms and never had to turn it up more than half-way. This was an obvious situation that developed whenever I played a little bit harder or deeper, where more power was being used. Anybody ever had this happen before? I'm hoping it was due to the voltage drop from using 240 feet of regular orange extension cord, but I guess I'm going to have to have the Carvin tested, or something....luckily I brought my Basic Black and the Basic Extension also, or I would have been a dead duck. It filled the need, but I was under-powered for the gig.... I'm hoping that the Carvin has an automatic shut-down when the voltage drops too low, or something.... Any info or similar experiences, please speak up.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bassplayinguy Posted October 24, 2005 Members Share Posted October 24, 2005 you were just under powering the stuff, suprised you didnt blow any breakers, they should of had at least 3 separate outlets for you to use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bonscottvocals Posted October 24, 2005 Members Share Posted October 24, 2005 Lesson learned: when doing an outdoor gig, ask about the power situation. If there's going to be a single source like that, look into renting a generator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bassthumpintwin Posted October 24, 2005 Members Share Posted October 24, 2005 your power cord was too long.... you were pulling too many amps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bassman1956 Posted October 24, 2005 Members Share Posted October 24, 2005 Right. Maybe if you had a monster outdoor cord made for megadraw at 100' or whatever, it wouldn't have done it. But, sounds like you were was undersupplied to begin with, and a monster cord might not have been enough. Add all your equipment's max wattage together, add 25%, and next time tell them you need that much supplied to the stage site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members timmerz Posted October 24, 2005 Author Members Share Posted October 24, 2005 Yup, I plan on doing that, or getting a generator like Bon suggested...it would have been so easy to rent one for the entire day from one of the local equipment yards for $45 or whatever...the gig paid each of us $300, so it wouldn't have hurt any of us to split $45 dollars, for cripe's sake....And then the rig would have run, I would have been happy....jubilant, even...As it was, I had to turn up the combo and extension louder than I wanted to, and back off the bottom end a little bit to keep the sound even...it sounded good, but just lacked a little balls on the bottom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Detox Posted October 24, 2005 Members Share Posted October 24, 2005 Well, you now know what to do the next time. When I roadied for my sister's band in the '70s, they used to play a party every year for a subdivision that had a small lake on the property. The party was held on an island in the middle of the lake. Power was supplied by a cord that was plugged in on shore, and run out to the island across the bottom of the lake. Good times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 82Daion Posted October 24, 2005 Members Share Posted October 24, 2005 Originally posted by Detox Well, you now know what to do the next time. When I roadied for my sister's band in the '70s, they used to play a party every year for a subdivision that had a small lake on the property. The party was held on an island in the middle of the lake. Power was supplied by a cord that was plugged in on shore, and run out to the island across the bottom of the lake. Good times. :eek: :eek: :eek: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members timmerz Posted October 24, 2005 Author Members Share Posted October 24, 2005 Originally posted by 82Daion :eek: :eek: :eek: No {censored}.... You're really lucky nobody wound up as crispy-critters with that kind of a set-up.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Billy-B Posted October 24, 2005 Members Share Posted October 24, 2005 We just did a big outdoor gig this weekend with a generator. Huge diesel generator! Could not get any power on stage. It turned out the rental company that brought out the generator, power cord, and junction box did not bother to test anything. After dorking around with it for an hour, someone (who knew what he was doing) found that the 50' power cord from the generator to the junction box was no good! Fortunately, we located another (smaller) generator and backed it up to the stage. Lesson learned--make sure everything is tested before they bring it out to the gig!! Billy-B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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