Know Your Equipment

This may seem obvious but you really owe it to yourself to know your gear inside and out. A lot of musicians aren't into gear to the degree that some of us are. Nevertheless, not knowing some of the intracacies of the gear you use can burn you!

Recently, QN played a private party at the Crystal Ballroom. We were very excited about playing in such a great venue and in preparation I went through my gear and gig toolkit earlier in the day. A couple weeks prior we played the Ash St Saloon and the guitarist in the other band lost an amp halfway through their set. Of course, Sam came through with his and they carried on. Here's to musicians helping each other! Anyway, call me paranoid but I literally wake up at night thinking about some gig catastrophe due to equipment failure. So, as I was checking for the fuse my amp head uses, I inadvertantly reinserted the fuse holder upside down and engaged the 230v circuit. This amp is an Eden WT-400. The "WT" stands for "World Tour" which means it can be used in other countries that run 220. I get to the gig and set up. The amp powers on but no sound comes out. We checked the most likely causes (bad cables, the bass itself, the cab, etc...) with me not thinking that accidentally flipping the fuse holder changes the power supply circuit. Whoopsie! Oh well, I ran direct through the PA and everything was fine. Our set went off without any further glitches.

As I was troubleshooting the head the next day, I went to the Eden forum where someone was discussing how to prepare their head for a European tour. "Just flip the fuse holder", they said. Ding ding ding! I've had my hands inside all kinds of electronic equipment for nearly 20 years and I missed this! Grrr! But, this just goes to show how even someone with no technical knowledge could have fixed my head simply by having a good knowledge of it's features.

This was a good lesson: Know your gear! It's a mistake I won't make again and I'm glad it happened when it did.

Onward and Upward,

Guy