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[James A. Griffin]

It is the whole "tieing in" thing that is the biggest problem-NOT the distro itself.

+ 1.  There are a lot of distro & feeder cable options out there, but it doesn't sound like your band has a guy who carries around a toolbox full of extra breakers and knows how to use them.  Maybe you really just need a few 50-100' runs of 12/3 with quad boxes on the ends.   That way you can likely find outlets away from the stage when you need extra 20amp circuits.

[Brent Gillespie]

The reason for using a 240v to 120v distro is not to ensure that you have enough power! Sure, every crap hole bar that I have ever been in has enough power for the band, sound and lights. You can spend time wandering around looking for outlets and then run some extension cords to the stage and you might be reasonably sure that you wont blow any breakers.
But that really is not the problem. There are actually several other problems with that approach.

• How are those 120 volt circuits wired back to the main panel?
• Do they all actually go back to the main panel or do some of them come off of a sub panel somewhere?
• Are they all wired and grounded properly?
• What else is connected to those circuits?

The 1st 3 are the most serious. If they aren't wired properly there could be a voltage difference between legs and electricity does not like differences! This is what is happening when the guitar player tells you that his microphone is shocking him. That difference between where the PA is plugged in and where his guitar amp is plugged in is "fixing itself" by jumping between his guitar strings and his lips. Sometimes that's just a little annoying, sometimes it can actually hurt a lot and other times it can be much more serious. The 4th issue is really more annoying than anything else but still no fun. I remember a time that I was mixing and got halfway through the 1st set with no noise issues. All of a sudden a buzz like a busted chainsaw comes through the PA but only for a minute and then it goes away. A little while later it happened again and then went away, and so on... After a little while I was able to notice that it happened every time the bartender made a daiquiri - the blender was on the same circuit as one of the plugs the band plugged into.

Using a properly wired and hooked up distro solves all of those problems.
Of-course you do have to have a 240v circuit to plug into and sometimes that's not readily available. In that case I try to talk the club owner into having 1 installed but I always try to go 240 before resorting to using multiple 120v circuits. I have read posts here on PSW from folks saying that they just simply wont do a gig if a 240v plug is not available.

This reminded me  of when my band started playing a local hotspot  a few years ago.  Our first soundcheck there during the  daytime was perfect.  When we fired everything up at night  we had tremendous  hum problems from get-go.  Turns out band circuits were apparently tied into  exterior  Neon  lights.  Not good.   Fortunately, we were able to locate some decent outllets in a timely manner.  They have since resolved the lighting issue by putting them on their own circuits.  Btw,  that was a  first !!     A bar owner that actually listened to some useful advice from the  band.  Lol !

[Scott Holtzman]

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[Ray Aberle]

We really don't like douche bag link spam whores.

Come on, Scott, don't hold back. Tell us how you REALLY feel!

I do like how they describe their customers:

we met in guangzhou fair(GET SHOW),he is a very nice man, and like smoking.

... and silly me, just spent all of this money on a nice brand new Motion Labs power distro...

-Ray

[Derek Neu]

I have a 50' and a 100' heavy gauge cord with one end that plugs into my distribution box, the other end is open wiring.  I carry various 220 cord ends as there are a few different types so that if they do have a 220 receptacle I can put the correct cord end on.  If they don't,  I specify that the VENUE hire an electrician to wire the pigtail (loose wire) end into the panel.  No telling what you are walking into as far as venue wiring, and I require them to be responsible with power as I don't want to take on responsibility for providing venue power.  Careful of homemade distribution boxes as many of them don't have approved protection, nullifying your insurance protection.  The more liability you can put on the VENUE the better, but be right there when they wire it to make sure it is done correctly and not rigged in, especially in older venues.

[Ivan Beaver]

I have a 50' and a 100' heavy gauge cord with one end that plugs into my distribution box, the other end is open wiring.  I carry various 220 cord ends as there are a few different types so that if they do have a 220 receptacle I can put the correct cord end on.  If they don't,  I specify that the VENUE hire an electrician to wire the pigtail (loose wire) end into the panel.  No telling what you are walking into as far as venue wiring, and I require them to be responsible with power as I don't want to take on responsibility for providing venue power.  Careful of homemade distribution boxes as many of them don't have approved protection, nullifying your insurance protection.  The more liability you can put on the VENUE the better, but be right there when they wire it to make sure it is done correctly and not rigged in, especially in older venues.

I used to have my "red box" that I kept a wide variety of breakers, various high amp plugs etc.

I would either tie my tails into a disconnect or put them on a breaker or a plug.

In a few cases I would actually tie in "hot".

YES, this was not exactly safe, but most of my gigs back them required me to "get 'er done".

I didn't have the option of insisting on waiting on doing it right.

In most cases the show was in a couple of hours.

[Rick Powell]

80s, hot tie ins with clamps on the lugs more times than I care to remember. I agree that with the new power amps and LED lighting, we are loud as we used to be and as well-lit, and need only 1/4 the power of the old days. We haven't needed a distro for any of the gigs we've done over the last 5 years unless it was provided for us.

[Dave Pluke]

I used to have my "red box" that I kept a wide variety of breakers, various high amp plugs etc.

I would either tie my tails into a disconnect or put them on a breaker or a plug.

In a few cases I would actually tie in "hot".

YES, this was not exactly safe...

Same here.  Probably the most dangerous situation was at a club in International Falls, MN - which ran exotic dancers during the day and bands at night.  The electrical box was in their "dressing room".  Their were no empty breaker slots, so I had to tie in "hot" there.  The added distraction definitely raised the level of difficulty...

Dave

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