PAT Testing

[BassDad]

I've read the thread regarding the PAT testing of equipment . My son has a Hartke HA3500 amp, his band will soon be playing at a council run gig and they state that all equipment being used needs to be PAT tested which they will do prior to the gig. Straight forward enough no worries there.

My question is this must the cab be connected to the amp when testing is being carried out? From my limited knowledge I understand that becaause the amp has a valve pre-amp it needs to be under load i.e connected to a cab when switched on. Is this the case or not?

Any advice please guys, will be greatfully received.

Frank

[chris_b]

That's my understanding.

[jakenewmanbass]

I think its safer to have it hooked up although I don't think any harm would come to it if no signal were put into it. But I suppose better safe than sorry.

[thedontcarebear]

Valve poweramps need a load, not preamps, if that was the question.

[clauster]

It's got a solid state power amp, so doesn't need to have a load attached. Solid state amps just need a load that is larger than the minimum (no speaker = infinite load). Valve amps MUST have a load that is matched to the output.

[jakenewmanbass]

[quote name='thedontcarebear' post='155190' date='Mar 11 2008, 11:27 AM']Valve poweramps need a load, not preamps, if that was the question.[/quote]
even if it wasn't the question, thats good to know. Ta

[tauzero]

If anyone does know of any PAT testers that they'd recommend for doing band gear, I've just started a topic in Gear/Repairs and technical issues for it. Any entries welcomed (especially if they're somewhere near Brum ).

[MythSte]

Any Quilified Electrician should do it for about a quid per item or something. Tbh, if youve got an old uncle who used to be an electrician but still has the meter give him a call kinda thing

[BassBunny]

[quote name='ste_m3' post='155666' date='Mar 11 2008, 11:57 PM']Any Quilified Electrician should do it for about a quid per item or something. Tbh, if youve got an old uncle who used to be an electrician but still has the meter give him a call kinda thing [/quote]
Probem is Unc probably won't be certified, (well he may be but not a certified electrician anymore ). I still have my testers from when i was an engineer and quite happily test all our bands gear, but I can't "officially" issue PAT testing certs. As a matter of interest you can buy rolls of PAT certificates off e-Bay and I can always provide a copy of what the PAT Test Sheet should look like. As well as having all equipment and leads tested, you need a Test Sheet itemising all your kit.
We have been coming up against this more and more. All the agencies the function band work for are asking more and more for PAT Test Sheets.

[megahertz]

[quote name='BassBunny' post='156313' date='Mar 12 2008, 09:21 PM']Probem is Unc probably won't be certified, (well he may be but not a certified electrician anymore ). I still have my testers from when i was an engineer and quite happily test all our bands gear, but I can't "officially" issue PAT testing certs. As a matter of interest you can buy rolls of PAT certificates off e-Bay and I can always provide a copy of what the PAT Test Sheet should look like. As well as having all equipment and leads tested, you need a Test Sheet itemising all your kit.
We have been coming up against this more and more. All the agencies the function band work for are asking more and more for PAT Test Sheets.[/quote]

Hi - I know this is an old thread, but I thought i'd say hello!

I am a part-time muso, having gigged professionally through my 20's and 30's. Now I run a PAT testing business! We mainly work for large corporate clients across the UK but we have lots of bands, musicians and DJ's who are regular clients as well.

The question above, about having a speaker connected to a power amp for testing is quite straightforward, (it doesn't need to be connected) but this might not be quite so obvious to a pat testing engineer who spends all his time testing drills, kettles and printers. We often hear of companies failing music equipment unnecessarily because they don't understand how to test it properly (valve amps can be difficult to test if you don't know what you're doing)

We have a lot of specialist kit (and the experience to go with it) to test music equipment - I tested a Yamaha digital desk the other day worth over £50k and we also have lots of experience testing unusual kit such as Socapex lighting cables etc.

We usually have engineers across the country so we will be happy to visit any members for a reasonable fee. As a rough guide, we'd be looking at about £60 for a home visit to test up to about 20 items. This includes a full bound report of items tested, and a certificate which you can fax off to your agents / venues etc.

Just another tip, once you have a certificate, scan it and put it on your website (or on ours, if you want.) Then when you get asked to provide it, all you have to do is give them the link to the site. This saves you having to carry it around with you. You can also point to the stickers on your equipment, providing they are 'in-date' of course!

Tim James
t2technical
PAT Testing

www.t2technical.co.uk [url="http://www.t2technical.co.uk"]PAT Testing Bands and Musicians[/url]