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Venue Power Check
Loren Miller:
Hey guys, I was at a new “venue” on Sat and asked where they wanted me to setup and was pointed to a scraggly orange extension cord by a wall. I felt uncomfortable but followed it back to a 20a outlet. I took out my receptacle tester and got 3 yellows on everything but it made me think: What is an effective way to test the power at a venue. And then what do you do about it?
My usual setup only needs 12a max, but as I start to get into bigger gigs?
David Winners:
--- Quote from: Loren Miller on April 11, 2018, 09:38:05 AM ---Hey guys, I was at a new “venue” on Sat and asked where they wanted me to setup and was pointed to a scraggly orange extension cord by a wall. I felt uncomfortable but followed it back to a 20a outlet. I took out my receptacle tester and got 3 yellows on everything but it made me think: What is an effective way to test the power at a venue. And then what do you do about it?
My usual setup only needs 12a max, but as I start to get into bigger gigs?
--- End quote ---
Here is some good reading provided by forum Moderator Mike Sokol.
Loren Miller:
David, it was a good read and confirmed some steps I already take, I guess I'll throw my multimeter in my work bag instead of my emergency bag.
Let me drill down a little further into the realm of hypotheticals. Suppose I come across an outlet near FoH that I would like to use but has some wiring issues that might be an easy fix, like out of phase, are there any circumstances where you would fix it? I know the standard answer, liability and all, but were are talking hypothetical here??
Tim McCulloch:
--- Quote from: Loren Miller on April 11, 2018, 11:45:08 AM ---David, it was a good read and confirmed some steps I already take, I guess I'll throw my multimeter in my work bag instead of my emergency bag.
Let me drill down a little further into the realm of hypotheticals. Suppose I come across an outlet near FoH that I would like to use but has some wiring issues that might be an easy fix, like out of phase, are there any circumstances where you would fix it? I know the standard answer, liability and all, but were are talking hypothetical here??
--- End quote ---
You touch it, you own it. Don't touch it. Chances are that either nobody has taken exception to the outlets before, or that they have they got the typical bar owner response of "everyone else uses it, and if you can't I'll hire a different band." RUN LIKE HELL away from this shit hole mentality.
Tape an extension cord to your snake, find the one or two good outlets back stage and have your own power to FOH. I've been doing this since 1983. It's far easier than fooling around trying to find a good outlet near FOH.
Jonathan Johnson:
--- Quote from: Loren Miller on April 11, 2018, 11:45:08 AM ---...Suppose I come across an outlet near FoH that I would like to use but has some wiring issues that might be an easy fix, like out of phase, are there any circumstances where you would fix it?...
--- End quote ---
No. Never.
Never touch someone else's wiring unless you are a licensed electrician, they've asked you to do the repair, and you are charging for that repair. YOUR wiring starts at the plug and goes downstream to your distro and your equipment. The receptacle and everything upstream is THEIR responsibility, not yours.
(Of course, you can meter their wiring, to identify a fault condition and alert them to a problem, but don't ever rewire it yourself.)
Your liability insurance will not be happy if there's a problem with the wiring you modified and someone points at you (even if it's not your fault).
If you don't have liability insurance, why not? If you don't have liability insurance, your future income, your house, your equipment, everything you own -- it all becomes your "insurance" policy. Are you willing to risk all of that?
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