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Does my amp need pat testing?


Twincam
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[quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1457084907' post='2995079']
no, it's yet another cost and layer of bureaucracy to bands that just play at the pub a couple of times a month, it's a hobby not a profession for most people
[/quote]

And if your PA crushes someone's head when it falls over you'll be sued for several million. Even if you don't have a house to take (they will if you do) your earnings will be subject to a garnishee order for the rest of your natural life.

Or you could have a PL policy for under £100 per year.

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[quote name='elephantgrey' timestamp='1457079683' post='2995022']
Talked to my step dad about this (he's an electrician), he told me you should only PAT test whatever power leads your using.
[/quote]

That's what I was about to say. My cousin's husband is an electrician. I approached him a couple of years ago about getting my gear done. He said it would only be the removable cable that he would test anyway, he reckoned tests on the amp could damage circuitry.

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[quote name='EmmettC' timestamp='1457048737' post='2994930']
I assume everyone who is out gigging had public liability insurance, you get it free with MU membership, the insurance won't cover you if you're equipment isn't PAT tested. It's a big risk going out without insurance, there's such a large risk of someone getting injured because of your gear, particularly during get-outs.
[/quote]

Can I just point out that the comment about the MU insurance is unlikely to be right. ICOBS (the rules that govern how an insurer deals with its customers) require that for an insurer to decline a claim for a breach of a policy condition it has to be connected with the loss.

So perhaps if your gear electrocuted someone, you'd never maintained it and could not show you'd ever thought about the risk then you might be in trouble, but just because you haven't PAT tested your amp (which as I said above is NOT a legal requirement) the MU's insurers could not decline cover where, for example, someone tripped over a cable.

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[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1457100070' post='2995348']
And if your PA crushes someone's head when it falls over you'll be sued for several million. Even if you don't have a house to take (they will if you do) your earnings will be subject to a garnishee order for the rest of your natural life.

Or you could have a PL policy for under £100 per year.
[/quote]with the size of our PA I more likely to win the lottery than that to happen and I don't even buy a ticket, doesn't the venue have to have liability insurance? the only way something like that would happen is if it got knocked over by an over enthusiastic crowd then that would be the venues fault for not controlling them properly.
Can anyone give an example of when a band has had to use public liability insurance? or how many musicians were killed last year by faulty equipment?
You can spend your whole life worrying about a chance in a billion happening

Edited by PaulWarning
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[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1457100747' post='2995356']


That's what I was about to say. My cousin's husband is an electrician. I approached him a couple of years ago about getting my gear done. He said it would only be the removable cable that he would test anyway, he reckoned tests on the amp could damage circuitry.
[/quote]
Again it might be what they are saying, its still wrong.

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[quote name='sunburstjazz1967' timestamp='1457106719' post='2995445']
Again it might be what they are saying, its still wrong.
[/quote]

Well seeing how I personally have no idea at all, I'll bow to your superior knowledge.

However I personally wouldn't want someone passing a high voltage through the sensitive circuitry of something like a modern class D amp.

:)

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[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1457107437' post='2995456']


Well seeing how I personally have no idea at all, I'll bow to your superior knowledge.

However I personally wouldn't want someone passing a high voltage through the sensitive circuitry of something like a modern class D amp.

:)
[/quote]

They don't.

There are 3 buttons on the machine. You only press the relevant ones. :)

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[quote name='sunburstjazz1967' timestamp='1457107210' post='2995452']
Google brings up plenty of electrocuted musicians, un earthed mic being a favourite, that floating earth that a PROPERLY done PAT test would find those faults, I've come across plenty of PA systems that make your lips tingle when you go near the mic.
[/quote]that's happened to me too, but only when using someone else's PA, that's probably a bigger danger, you know your own gear, you do a visual inspection every time you set it up without even realising it, but when using a provided PA which always includes mics who knows what state it's in, I think I'll ask for PAT certificate next time we have to use one :)

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[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1457107437' post='2995456']


Well seeing how I personally have no idea at all, I'll bow to your superior knowledge.

However I personally wouldn't want someone passing a high voltage through the sensitive circuitry of something like a modern class D amp.

:)
[/quote]
If the person doing the inspection knows what they are doing they won't pass anything anywhere they shouldn't, the continuity test I mention above just shows a circuit between the earth connection and the metal parts of the amp, if any of the delicate circuits are touching there the amp is faulty and the test would flag it up, despite what some people think there is some actual science behind it, lol

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