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Sound Reinforcement - Forums for Live Sound Professionals - Your Displayed Name Must Be Your Real Full Name To Post In The Live Sound Forums => LAB Lounge => Topic started by: Marsellus Fariss on May 14, 2011, 12:59:05 AM
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Please clean your amps out or this could happen to you!
(http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/5802/img0875zj.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/155/img0875zj.jpg/)
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The other one was worse. It blew a cap. Wasn't even working hard. In it's defense the airflow was crap. A wide open intake up front with no filter at all and a fan in back pulling. Still. No excuse for not popping the top off sometime in the last FIFTEEN YEARS and hitting it with a can of air.
See what us club guys have to deal with?
>:(
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Please clean your amps out or this could happen to you!
(http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/5802/img0875zj.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/155/img0875zj.jpg/)
Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)
The other one was worse. It blew a cap. Wasn't even working hard. In it's defense the airflow was crap. A wide open intake up front with no filter at all and a fan in back pulling. Still. No excuse for not popping the top off sometime in the last FIFTEEN YEARS and hitting it with a can of air.
See what us club guys have to deal with?
>:(
Us club guys have to deal with this type of issue 'cause the owners don't want to dump money into their systems for maintenance and upgrades.
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Once upon a time, when I was in charge of a night club installation, I would clean the power amp filter media monthly and blow out the amps yearly.
I'll take a wild guess here, but I bet a lot of installations don't have a regular house tech, and if they do, he's probably looking for a better gig.
In a lot of places, the in-house "tech crew" is a bar back who knows how to turn everything on.
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This is nothing. I cleaned up some older QSC's a while back that had so much grunge on the fans it looked like someone had glued a piece of grey indoor/outdoor carpet over them, and the inside was so coated over that I actually peeled the bulk of it off like a flexible mold,
Gulf coast humidity and no maintenance....
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Once upon a time, when I was in charge of a night club installation, I would clean the power amp filter media monthly and blow out the amps yearly.
I'll take a wild guess here, but I bet a lot of installations don't have a regular house tech, and if they do, he's probably looking for a better gig.
In a lot of places, the in-house "tech crew" is a bar back who knows how to turn everything on.
There was nobody who really had any system tech experience around before I got the gig. They bought some PA from the only sound co. in town who set it up for them and there it sat for 10 years mostly untouched. There was no subsnakes, everything was "home runned" cables where too few and with crappy ends, all the typical problems. These amps are pretty much the only thing I hadn't gone through and I knew it was gonna be bad.
It really is the way with most small clubs that there's no one around with any system tech and maintenance skills.
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.... Still. No excuse for not popping the top off sometime in the last FIFTEEN YEARS and hitting it with a can of air.
See what us club guys have to deal with?
>:(
Ya, brutal.
years ago I was touring the "local" club sceen with a fairly popular pop cover/indie band. At a particular chain of clubs (5 locations if I remember) we played at 2 of them Thurs/Fri/Sat at least once every couple of months. The biggest one held around 1500, and we played there once or twice a year. Why once or twice you ask ?
Strike 1: Well, the house PA wasn't so great, and they wouldn't let us bring in my rig.
Strike 2: The punters were mainly college pukes, and wern't so interested in the band, as they were the cheap beer, and cheap grub. (guess that's the reason for the substandard PA)
Strike 3: The amp rack was kind of squirled away in a corner. Seems when the place got "cleaned", all the stage wash was pushed into the amp corner.
And.....
Yer.... OUT !
First gig there, sound check went as well as expected. The band normally uses 28 inputs for that size room, they had a 16 strip Peavey, with 3 dead strips. 3 songs in, we loose high end. Since the mixer was wall mounted, at the back of the stage it was fairly easy to take a quick look at the rack of Crowns and see one showing overheat. We take a 10 minute break to cool the amps, I turn down a bit, pull the inlet filters, and we complete the first set.
I pull the amps. and lift the covers, and I see about the same as your pictures. I ask the manager for a vacuum cleaner. 15 minutes later, we're back on stage with the system at full-tilt-boogie, and finish the night with no further excitement.
Seems we got the gig once a year, because I was the only tech that gave a shit. For the next 4 years, before sound check I yanked and cleaned the amps. The band got free beer, and I had a reliable - if somewhat underpowered for the room - "house" PA
Club life - haven't been there since 91 or 92. Don't miss it one bit.