Equipment Failures

[bigMCben 0]

Just pulling together a few threads, I was wondering how many times you've had equipment fail and how many times it's actually ended your night? I haven't asked about lighting because it shouldn't cause the end of your night where the audio side might.

 

I have a few occasion of the stylus going or a belt breaking on a turntable and having to hold the mic with one hand and talking whilst changing the record over with the other and a couple of times I've had to run both speakers of one side of the amp. I've only had one fatal failure.

 

It only happened to me once at a party night in Linlithgow Rugby Club which was full and about half an hour before I was due to finish the amp overheated and went pop.

 

Now before you all start on about talking back-up, etc, not all of us work for ourselves and some of us work for companies who don't supply back-up equipment but a back-up service should it fail.

 

So one total failure and 6-8 manageable failures in 25 years is pretty low as far as I'm concerned.

Edited April 13, 2009 by bigMCben

[TonyB 0]

Hmmm, difficult to say in a way. Have had problems quite a few times where one speaker wouldn't work/was quieter than it should be. Usually sorted by wriggling/replacing a cable somewhere. Worst was when I just couldn't get one bass bin to work (although there was nothing wrong with the speaker as it worked fine when I swapped the speaker cables from one to other) so just used one bass bin instead of two. Later found out it was a dodgy switch on the active crossover.

 

Have had a new amplifier overheat at the end of a long day (all day wedding) and had to swap it for a back up amp. Which is probably my worst failure. The amp was a Tapco Juice quote:

 

Pure Premium Power

We stacked our Juice Series 2-channel power amplifiers up against countless, often grossly more expensive amplifiers from the competition. Through rigorous quality and performance tests, these other amps crapped out one by one until only the Juice Series remained. So you won't have to worry—they deliver gobs of power and maintain their high quality sound for volumes ranging from quiet to cranked. With three models delivering 800, 1400 and 2500 watts of premium power amplification you're sure to find a Juice Series amp.

 

So don't believe all the advertising hype you read but then Mackie do seem to have a problem making sure their products have adequate cooling

 

Cooling fans on another amp (Numark Dimension) have failed but discovered before the gig.

 

Laptop fan failure but it carried on working.

 

Have several mic cables that have either failed totally or give intermittent connection but usually find out when setting up.

 

Now I am thinking - more things are coming up! Have had two ground loop isolators fail, one totally and the other on one channel. Don't know what can go wrong with them and as they are encased in a steel tube, its difficult to get inside to take a look.

 

Touch wood, I've never blown a speaker or tweeter (oldest cabs I've got are coming up for 9 years old).

[Dream Catchers 0]

When I first started out in the 70's I had one total failure, my amp went and took out both speakers (it was a mono set up). Luckily for me it was right at the end of the night and all the lights in the hall had been switched on, I think they just thought I had finished LOL

 

I had another close shave in the late 70's whilst doing an Elvis night in Bolton.

I was using hire equipment, half way through the night one of the decks died, I don't know how I managed because there is only so much you can say between records when everybody knows the next one is going to be Elvis. The light unit gave up ghost too with a couple of the channels sticking on. It must have been OK though because I still got a few booking from it.

 

The only other catastrophe that I have had was last year when part of the stage that I was on collapsed. My deck stand went over, it killed one of the PCs, smashed an LCD monitor and damaged one of the CD decks.

Lucky for me I had everything backed up on my laptop so managed to complete the night using that.

 

I would have been up the creek if I didn't have back up though.

 

Jim

[UKHero 0]

Interesting thread... Other than the speaker fire mentioned in another thread and an amp many years ago packing up on me. Oh and a hotels dodgy electrics taking out both powered speakers and two sets of lights. Thats about it for me.

 

Mackie do seem to have a problem making sure their products have adequate cooling

 

I have heard this alot but I have two SRM450's and never had a problem with them. I have never even seen the clip light come on yet. So people must be really pushing them or something as I did a hall with 200 people in it the other week with them no problem.

 

Nik

 

 

[dh140770 0]

I have heard this alot but I have two SRM450's and never had a problem with them. I have never even seen the clip light come on yet. So people must be really pushing them or something as I did a hall with 200 people in it the other week with them no problem.

 

Nik

 

Depends how much Dance and Rnb you play. I had one of mine trip once and it wasn't clipping, it just got too hot. I now use a sub, and them on their own at kids gigs 2.5 hours. As long as they have decent ventilation with cool air and you don't hammer the bass heavy tracks they are just fine.

 

Incidently i've had an amp, part of a mixer and a laptop power supply fail on me. Nothing that has ended a night though.

 

[Kingy 0]

Once.

 

Diode failed open circuit on a Citronic SM450 and I had no spare. This was about 1988 ish and the night (a Police office party) finished with just drinking!!

 

Once in 30 years ain't too bad!!

[UKHero 0]

Depends how much Dance and Rnb you play. I had one of mine trip once and it wasn't clipping, it just got too hot. I now use a sub, and them on their own at kids gigs 2.5 hours. As long as they have decent ventilation with cool air and you don't hammer the bass heavy tracks they are just fine.

 

Incidently i've had an amp, part of a mixer and a laptop power supply fail on me. Nothing that has ended a night though.

 

No I dont hammer them I use them within there designed limits and people are happy. I am not a Dance or RnB DJ but I do play sections of this material through the night. I agree if you want sub bass then get the bins out. I just go for quality over quantity lol.

 

Nik

[David M 0]

I have had a mixer fail and go into a feedback loop on 1 channel creating a very loud buzz, i just pulled the channel and went directly to the powered speaker that i use using a phono coupler and carried on

also had a powered speaker amp fail i left it playing while i got the spare out and it didnt even get noticed,

just lucky i guess so far!

[stevie 0]

I must just be lucky the only thing that has ever failed in over 25 years is lights,even then its just the bulb.

Or maybe its because I look after my gear all of it. Im not saying you all dont but I never over drive anything,dont need to.

My gear is important it earns money.

I no an elvis impersonator hes had the same gear for nearly 30 years(apart from cd players there 8 years old) He uses H+H speakers amp, A,n,H mixer and wouldnt swap it for anything and belive me it sounds great.

I think hes as bad as me tho his gear is well looked after,gigged every week and hardly a mark on it.

I will do my gig Friday and it will all blow up now :bouncy:

[superstardeejay 0]

Later found out it was a dodgy switch on the active crossover.

 

You should have stuck with the passive crossovers in the cabinets!

[Bouncy Dancefloor 0]

ive had a couple of failures, none ended the night though, but could have!

 

I had a mixer keep switching off every few mins(nuamrk cm200) , i changed the power cable and still no joy. Luckily i had a £25 2 channel citronic CDM1 Mixer in the boot to get me out of the situation!

 

One New years eve, i was working for a company who provide all the gear, no spares, but call out service. I switched the amp on to be greeted by a ve ry loud buzzing on both speakers, turned out the mosfet had gone on the amp. I was 40 mins away from base and i started 30 mins late, luckily it was at the start of the night

 

one summer (again for the above company) the equipment was setup on the Friday for a kids party at a house, then the kit would stay overnight, so they could play background music during the saturday daytime, then i would DJ the saturday night. about 9pm, w hen i started to crank things up, the amp switched off, i walked over to it and it was redhot. The fan had failed. I was 45 mins away from any backups. It turns out the owner of the house had turned the disco back on after i left on the Friday ngiht and they had a party, then left it all on overnight, all day and then i arrived at night. It was a band style amp with a wooden surround, i dismantled it across a table, and got a big fan out of the car, i blew this across the chips and power supply for the rest of the gig and put big barriers up aruond the table to stop anyone going near the mains electricity!! Bit of a bodge, but the owner of the house thought i was a legend hehe

[deejaymitch 0]

Were you ever in the scouts Bouncy Dancefloor?

 

Very resourceful and practical, I probably would have panicked and ran away!!!

[Dukesy 0]

Dib Dib! smile icon

[deejaymitch 0]

I hope you aren't wiggling your woggle Dan

[Bouncy Dancefloor 0]

haha not in the scouts, but at the time i was the Repairs guy for a local DJ Shop, so i was experienced in taking these things apart!

 

just thought id give a timescale, these events are over my 12 year career. The amp failure was the same one, twice! After new years eve it was put in the bin and i switched over to a PV900, then a PV 1500 with zero problems.

 

The Mixer was last summer

 

still not bad, considering ive probably averaged 3-4 nights a week work in all that time, approx 2,500 gigs, less than 1% failure rate!

[Norfolk DJ 0]

 

Responses here seem to prove that modern kit is reliable, apart from the odd problem