That Was Fun, Let's Not Do It Again

Eboy87

Well-Known Member
Just had my second amp blow up in my face. Amp was just tagged "bad." So I go and plug it in to test it, and immediately hear "BANG!" followed by a bit of smoke. Turns out this one survived... well, survived probably isn't the best word for it... went through a lightning strike. It's a crappy little Soundtech, and if I remember correctly, it was outputting an interesting tone at full volume on channel two, probably somewhere around 200 Hz with a few harmonics.

Guess it was bad. On the plus side, I now have a new doorstop!
 
I've had a soundtech powered monitor emit smoke and die (just after the warranty expried). That brand is total junk and I will never buy it again, regardless if it's "made in the USA"
 
"I am the (smoke) genie of the (L)amp! You have freed me. I grant you NO wishes. Goodbye!"
 
Just had my second amp blow up in my face. Amp was just tagged "bad." So I go and plug it in to test it, and immediately hear "BANG!" followed by a bit of smoke. ............Guess it was bad. ........

Ummmm.. Ring ring, Captain Obvious? It's the Clue phone, it's for you.....:rolleyes:
:doh:

:twisted:
 
Well, you know, bad encompasses many things from "not passing audio" to "catastrophic failure." In hindsight, I guess it should've been tagged "Will blow up when plugged in."

What Rigger? I'm going to have to borrow that quote from you.
 
Yeah it is nice when people are specific in their labeling. The last venue I walked into as interim lighting director had units tagged "sick", "very sick", "does not work", etc. Turns out one of them blew out an outlet because the guy before me grabbed a unit that said "does not work" and plugged it in, ceremoniously ending the life of that plug. That is why I always metered any light labeled bad before doing anything to it.

Mike
 
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Yeah it is nice when people are specific in their labeling. The last venue I walked into as interim lighting director had units tagged "sick", "very sick", "does not work", etc. Turns out one of them blew out an outlet because the guy before me grabbed a unit that said "does not work" and plugged it in, ceremoniously ending the life of that plug. That is why I always metered any light labeled bad before doing anything to it.

Mike
Oh I love that (the labeling, not the plug blowing up)! Our problem is that we never know who labeled stuff unless we recognize the handrighting. Often it is incorrect (it could be anyone from one of the professionals to a band student who couldn't figure out how to use it)! Therefore we have to test everything anyway. I tried to start getting everyone to date and initial when the mark stuff, but it didn't really work. I did love it though when the teacher found some stuff I'd labeled and brought each one to me asking if it was really bad since he knew I'd marked it! If I didn't think it was bad, why would I have marked it as bad?
 
Oh I love that (the labeling, not the plug blowing up)! Our problem is that we never know who labeled stuff unless we recognize the handrighting. Often it is incorrect (it could be anyone from one of the professionals to a band student who couldn't figure out how to use it)! Therefore we have to test everything anyway. I tried to start getting everyone to date and initial when the mark stuff, but it didn't really work. I did love it though when the teacher found some stuff I'd labeled and brought each one to me asking if it was really bad since he knew I'd marked it! If I didn't think it was bad, why would I have marked it as bad?

Nice. Whenever we do maintenance we put the unit number and date on it, then if it is bad it gets a tag with the symptoms and possible cause on it.

Mike
 
Does anyone else use "NFG" ?

That's industry-standard terminology.

I got a kick out of "sick" and the variations on that. It sure is helpful, though, when some sort of description of the problem accompanies whatever notation is used to indicate that the device no longer performs as it should. "Blows fuse" or "Smoke let out" is a different type of NFG than simply out of bench-focus or otherwise functioning in a sub-par manner.

I used to be a fan of keeping track of what's wrong with this or that: green tag means no lamp, red tag means out of bench, and so on. Later on I became much more a fan of fixing things as necessary, or at least putting a plain-text note on there as to the nature of the problem so that it could be fixed next week.
 
That's industry-standard terminology.

I got a kick out of "sick" and the variations on that. It sure is helpful, though, when some sort of description of the problem accompanies whatever notation is used to indicate that the device no longer performs as it should. "Blows fuse" or "Smoke let out" is a different type of NFG than simply out of bench-focus or otherwise functioning in a sub-par manner.

I used to be a fan of keeping track of what's wrong with this or that: green tag means no lamp, red tag means out of bench, and so on. Later on I became much more a fan of fixing things as necessary, or at least putting a plain-text note on there as to the nature of the problem so that it could be fixed next week.

I am a bigger fan of the note myself Wayne. I like to keep a database to figure out if a unit is having the same problems over and over again.

Mike
 
That's industry-standard terminology.

I got a kick out of "sick" and the variations on that. It sure is helpful, though, when some sort of description of the problem accompanies whatever notation is used to indicate that the device no longer performs as it should. "Blows fuse" or "Smoke let out" is a different type of NFG than simply out of bench-focus or otherwise functioning in a sub-par manner.
.

MY favorite broken gear humor was one day I walked up to some people around a 1ton motor on the bench and asked what was wrong with it, my boss turned to me and told me that "all the smoke leaked out of it"
 
MY favorite broken gear humor was one day I walked up to some people around a 1ton motor on the bench and asked what was wrong with it, my boss turned to me and told me that "all the smoke leaked out of it"

Once you let out the blue smoke you can never put it back in!
 
People think that electricity is what makes things work. No, it's the magic smoke. Once you let the magic smoke out, it stops working!

I'm pretty sure that's an old engineering or ET joke; I heard it from my dad who's a EE.
 
everything is made with smoke deep inside, it takes a genius to get it out.
 
everything is made with smoke deep inside, it takes a genius to get it out.

And lamps don't emit light, they suck darkness. Which is why I never buy new ones. When mine fill up, I drain them. :mrgreen:
 
I have a light in the shop labeled "bad, dancer kicked it off stage during LA show"....
Well it is well labeled, i am just not to happy about it......
 
I have a light in the shop labeled "bad, dancer kicked it off stage during LA show"....
Well it is well labeled, i am just not to happy about it......

That seems like the stupidest label. no offense to who wrote it.

What's bad on that light? Does it work? the plug? does it turn on? the lens?
I wish we could have a standard for our business, besides the generic NFG. NFG is good, but it tells you nothing about the problem. If you don't know the problem, hell, just write NFG IDKY (I don't know why). Stupid, yes. More specific in a very small sense, yes.
 

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