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A cautionary tale


Deep Thought
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Gather round, boys, and harken unto my tale of woe. There once was a prize prat who owned two combos, a Trace 1 x 15, his favourite, which he bought to replace his Ashdown Mag 4 x 10 with which he was not terribly happy. Pain that it is to sell amps, he kept the Ashdown, planning at some stage to trade it in for something else, possibly a 4 x 10 cab to get the full whack out of the Trace. It came to pass that the prize prat had a gig, and it occurred to him on the day before said gig that it might be an idea to run the two combos together for some extra wallop (why I have no idea, as the place the prize prat was playing was pretty small and the Trace on its own would have been fine). Anyhow the prize prat started fiddling around with things he did not fully understand, (and if the daft sod had read his manual properly it would have told him how to do it), and although he did not really know himself what he had done, he stuck the wrong jackplug in the wrong hole, and there came a funny noise and a spark, and suddenly neither amp would emit a sound. So now on the eve of a gig the prize prat had managed to bugger both his amps in one fell swoop. In a state of great desperation (envisaging having to buy a new amp which he could ill afford) he threw himself on the mercy of his local shop (Music Technology in St.Austell) who, fine bunch of men that they are, hired him a brand new Behringer and 2 x 10 cab for the night. The Behringer performed extremely well (the prize prat had to turn down 'cos he was too loud) and the gig went well.
The prize prat has just had a text from his local amp repairer who reports that both amps have been saved by the fuses and are OK, and he is going to pick them up this afternoon, thankfully getting away with a bill for only £20. So harken ye, men, unto my tale, and do not do what the prize prat was foolish enough to do, and muck about with something if you do not really know what you're doing, but if you must, at least read the manual properly first. The prize prat got away with it this time, but it could have been a whole lot worse.
How do I know all this? I was that prize prat.

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[quote name='Jack' post='83195' date='Nov 3 2007, 01:23 PM']Speaker signals shall not go anywhere except unto speakers!

Glad to hear things arent totally FUBAR, it would suck to lose two amps like that. :)[/quote]
And the Lord looked down upon the World and Saw the folly of using the Quarter Inch Jack for both the Input and the Output, and he was filled with sorrow. And so he spake unto Neutrik and sayeth he: "Fix it!"
And Lo was created the Speakon.

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[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='83204' date='Nov 3 2007, 05:52 PM']And the Lord looked down upon the World and Saw the folly of using the Quarter Inch Jack for both the Input and the Output, and he was filled with sorrow. And so he spake unto Neutrik and sayeth he: "Fix it!"
And Lo was created the Speakon.[/quote]

And with the Speakon came unto the world the abilty to actually handle high currents. And so it was written that Adam no longer shocked himself upon the open contacts of the 1/4".

And the Lord saw this, and it was good.


EDIT- Actually why do we still use 1/4"? Are they that much cheaper? Even 'big' bass companies have 1/4" speaker jacks on some amps. I cant think of any speakons on guitar amps (low current maybe?) wheras pro audio amps ALWAYS use them (or banana plugs, which I guess are just as good at not being 1/4" as Speakons)

Edited by Jack
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[quote name='Jack' post='83236' date='Nov 3 2007, 02:56 PM']Are they that much cheaper?[/quote]Less than a quarter as much. At manufacturer's cost the difference is perhaps a pound. Multiplied by a few thousand units used in a year's production that pays for a week or two on the Cote D'Azur for the CEO. :huh: Which is of no great consulation if it's your amp toasted for the lack of Speakons. :)

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£20 is not too bad. and you will naver make that mistake agian.

my new amp has speakons. they are nice. very very easy to wire. no soldering anymore! also arnt speak ons only made by Neutrik so i guess they can demand higher prices than some no-name 1/4 jack sockets

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[quote name='Deep Thought' post='83103' date='Nov 3 2007, 12:52 PM']Gather round, boys, and harken unto my tale of woe. There once was a prize prat who owned two combos, a Trace 1 x 15, his favourite, which he bought to replace his Ashdown Mag 4 x 10 with which he was not terribly happy. Pain that it is to sell amps, he kept the Ashdown, planning at some stage to trade it in for something else, possibly a 4 x 10 cab to get the full whack out of the Trace. It came to pass that the prize prat had a gig, and it occurred to him on the day before said gig that it might be an idea to run the two combos together for some extra wallop (why I have no idea, as the place the prize prat was playing was pretty small and the Trace on its own would have been fine). Anyhow the prize prat started fiddling around with things he did not fully understand, (and if the daft sod had read his manual properly it would have told him how to do it), and although he did not really know himself what he had done, he stuck the wrong jackplug in the wrong hole, and there came a funny noise and a spark, and suddenly neither amp would emit a sound. So now on the eve of a gig the prize prat had managed to bugger both his amps in one fell swoop. In a state of great desperation (envisaging having to buy a new amp which he could ill afford) he threw himself on the mercy of his local shop (Music Technology in St.Austell) who, fine bunch of men that they are, hired him a brand new Behringer and 2 x 10 cab for the night. The Behringer performed extremely well (the prize prat had to turn down 'cos he was too loud) and the gig went well.
The prize prat has just had a text from his local amp repairer who reports that both amps have been saved by the fuses and are OK, and he is going to pick them up this afternoon, thankfully getting away with a bill for only £20. So harken ye, men, unto my tale, and do not do what the prize prat was foolish enough to do, and muck about with something if you do not really know what you're doing, but if you must, at least read the manual properly first. The prize prat got away with it this time, but it could have been a whole lot worse.
How do I know all this? I was that prize prat.[/quote]

Ummmmmmm.................. time to request a site admin to change your forum name from "Deep Thought" to "Not Quite As Deep As You Thought Thought" :)

Hamster

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[quote name='fusionbassist1' post='83988' date='Nov 5 2007, 02:45 PM']lucky you....very lucky you....or should I say 'ye'.

losing the ashdown wouldn't have been that bad though, the unforseen spark would have been it's only chance to shine.[/quote]

Did someone wake up cranky this morning? :)

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[quote name='Jack' post='84218' date='Nov 5 2007, 09:21 PM']Did someone wake up cranky this morning? :)[/quote]

of course not :huh: i've been using a ashdown evo3 (i think), ashdown 4x10 and 1x12 as a lent rig with a band i've been playign with recently as my setup's out of action and i must say we don't get along very well.

i'll admit that if you want that bassy round, phat sound that lies underneath everything (what i now call 'the ashdown sound') then they do that ok but nothing special. but that's ALL they do. after jamming every button and vomiting on the silly slidey things and the not so responsive turny things i got nothing but a sh*tty trebly sound that sounded like all the speakers had been replaced by tweeters, and poor ones at that.

nothing against mr ashdown, it's just not my thing.

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[quote name='gypsymoth' post='84008' date='Nov 5 2007, 03:18 PM']twenty british ponds to replace two fuses :) ?[/quote]


GLAD SOMEONE finally pointed this out!!!!! Ye gad!!!! 5 pounds more like it! while you wait too!
Glad U got it sorted for little $$$$ AND that the fuses saved the amps & yr ass!! :huh:
But I always keep a few spare fuses with me, just in case a "knowledgeable" roadie turns, plugs or prods something he/she doesn't understand!

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