The Jam Room Blog Thread.

[Mr. Foxen]

Mains tester plugs are pretty readily available. Tell you if the pins are connected how they should be.

[everdrone]

I want to check out a good mains tester plug, which do you recommend?

With all Danny G's amp problems I would like to hear him chime in, he prolly played at Emos a bunch.  Austin clubs are notorious for bad electrical design.  I bet he would say he does not crank his amps past the point of no return and takes good care of them. 

[jibberish]

fwiw, dogfood is a srs pro electrician IRL,   
so no problem here for me to defer to his wisdom and knowledge in that arena.

[jibberish]

this is a good place for a public service reminder:

vintage 2 prong AC cord gear is deadly if the plug is reversed and the hot is tied to the transformer chassis/ground plane instead of the white common being connected to the chassis.
The first connection between anyone and anything grounded = mambo ground fault and generally much energetic and lively electrocution ensues as the full wall I+V goes thru that person to ground. lose the green manalishi with the 2 pronged plug and get a 3 pronger in there instead.

your occasional mic electrocution death in bare feet is a good example of this

[jibberish]

 Clubs are wired for shit.

Just did a show the other night. All power was non-grounded 2 prong outlets. that put me 30 minutes behind schedule running around looking for a hardware store to purchase some ground lifts. I carry one in my bag for emergencies, not 10+ to cover everything. 

I wonder if you could have run like a car jumper cable thick, cable from the circuit breaker box ground buss out to where the stuff was plugged in and made your own central positive ground point.  it seems at some point, this would be easier than rewiring the entire venue heh. just thinking out loud.

[Danny G]

I want to check out a good mains tester plug, which do you recommend?

With all Danny G's amp problems I would like to hear him chime in, he prolly played at Emos a bunch.  Austin clubs are notorious for bad electrical design.  I bet he would say he does not crank his amps past the point of no return and takes good care of them.

Never had any problems at the old Emo's, but was also playing there when I didn't know much about amps.

Then, as now, I don't push my amps any harder than I need to because They Are Very Expensive To Fix. I also use a power conditioner when I can get away with. It's one of the entry level ones, doesn't exactly regulate voltage, just acts as a glorified power strip that tells me what the wall voltage is

[everdrone]

cool man I was curious to see what you would say thanks

[Danny G]

\m/,


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[jibberish]

ok, next iteration of refining my oldster shit-kicker band bandname:

Nitro Methusela and the Fuel Fossils

edit: I really hate the eagles. hotel CA  came on the radio and I "auto-changed" the station like instinctively. haha. fuck that noise.
I do like playing the outro to hotel CA tho, because it is a wicked chord progression. I like good chord progressions. hangar 17, stairway to heaven, time in a bottle, all for example have amazing chord progressions in them


editz: hey liquid!! I think I heard that this Sat. on "vinyl record day", metallica is supposed to be in some small record store in wissCANsin. 

PLEASE, for me, take a Diamondhead album thru the signing line. give that to them to sign haha.

[jibberish]

ahh. beatles worship. just noticed the Offspring doing some serious beatles worship

this song is great too. not complaining:  get a job

ok now the beatles tune: obla-di obla-da

[liquidsmoke]

editz: hey liquid!! I think I heard that this Sat. on "vinyl record day", metallica is supposed to be in some small record store in wissCANsin. 

PLEASE, for me, take a Diamondhead album thru the signing line. give that to them to sign haha.

They would either throw a fit or excitedly sign it. I'd have to first buy a Diamond Head album on vinyl. Hours in line for their lame signatures?

[dogfood]

I need to learn that resizing trick.

This is the easiest form of receptacle tester.  If the receptacle is wired 240v it will cook.  





I have a receptacle tester, a hot stick, and a digital tester in my "pouch" at work.  The digi will tell you the critical shit if you know where to stick the leads!

[liquidsmoke]

Okay so if you are just using something like that Klein tester and it reads something other than 'correct wiring' you don't use the outlet and refuse to play if you can't find a better one or are some of the other lights okay? I assume venue managers/sound people would just laugh and tell you 'everyone uses that outlet, it's fine'.

[everdrone]

thats cool!  I see it is $20.  can you plug it into a multi-plug power strip and it does what it is supposed to? 

usually the tiny stage that I have played on has me plug into power strips cause front of stage sound and lighting has monopolized everything.

here is what I shopped for that is about $20:

klein Cat. No. RT500

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=klein+Cat.+No.+RT500&newwindow=1&tbm=shop

[everdrone]

Okay so if you are just using something like that Klein tester and it reads something other than 'correct wiring' you don't use the outlet and refuse to play if you can't find a better one or are some of the other lights okay? I assume venue managers/sound people would just laugh and tell you 'everyone uses that outlet, it's fine'.

ya I wonder if some that are not correct wiring are still useable and if my furman would correct the problem for my purposes

for $20 seems pretty cool though if you use the same plug all the time at the practice room or your apartment

[Danny G]

New band name:

Receptacle Tester


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[Danny G]

Might be playing bass with a pick this weekend.

Have been having some shoulder trouble (where all the finger-picking/forearm muscles connect) in addition to my intermittent elbow pain (also where everything connects). Haven't been playing as much bass lately and somehow over-exerted myself playing a three songs with 2 bands at a showcase where Ric Furley (Ocean of Stars drummer) played 2 songs with as many of his bands could fit into an hour and a half. Did two tunes with Rick Hornyak and closed the evening with a Deann Rene song. Somehow that did it and my shit was hurting immediately afterwards.

Figured it would subside by Thursday morning but no dice. Had to call Deann Rene that day (before rehearsal with a fill-in drummer) that I'd be questionable for the gig that Sunday. Limped through rehearsal sitting down and using a pick. Her bf is an accomplished bassist who could sub if need be. Cool. Had two gigs with Bleu Edmondson on guitar (doesn't seem to aggravate it), but I was still feeling achy and didn't want to push it as I still had 2 rehearsal, two gigs on bass, then leaving for Arizona for a 4 date run with Adrian for the upcoming week...!

Been icing it and taking ibuprofen, seems to be helping. Tonight did a rehearsal using mainly a pick and felt good but didn't want to push it.

So might be using a pick tomorrow with Eric Tessmer and Saturday with Deann Rene.

Will be weird, but it'll work.

//end blog


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[spookstrickland]

Okay so if you are just using something like that Klein tester and it reads something other than 'correct wiring' you don't use the outlet and refuse to play if you can't find a better one or are some of the other lights okay? I assume venue managers/sound people would just laugh and tell you 'everyone uses that outlet, it's fine'.

Im wondering the same thing, are there any work arounds?

[mortlock]

so my bandmate has this piece of shit sears bass [right handed, he is a lefty and a guitar player, not a bassist] that he got for like $5 years and years ago. he never plays it and really cant because he is a lefty. it just sits in the corner of the jam room. it only sees action if I end up using it. for some stupid reason ive grown fond of the bass and I want to buy it off him. he needs money and id be willing to give him a very fair price, more than what its really worth. I wouldn't mind doing that, one because I want it and two because it would help him out financially speaking.
heres the problem, the second I ask him to sell it to me, he will suddenly have a need for the bass. he is just that guy. we all know people like that. so the question is, how do I get him to sell me the bass?? I need to psychologically trick him somehow. 

[jibberish]

just puke on it  = yours.

[mortlock]

theres always that.

[dogfood]

ask the owner to plug his laptop in first.

[jibberish]

heh, someone is playing my colour haze mountain ripoff jam. it is up to 139 plays, and I don't remember any double digits before.

well colour haze inspired it, so it probably has to be good ..mweep mwow

[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/doktordeath/colourhazemtripoffjam104[/soundcloud]

just wish it started a bit more strongly, but oh well

[jibberish]

I wish the price of solar panels would drop more.  this is the future of stealth outlaw pirate generator jams: silent generator

the only rub is when the sun goes down

now that the music room is finished (2+ year adventure inspired by jake's awesome basement)
the next step is a trailer, like one of those landscape/dirtbike sized trailers. this will be the portable mobile music setup

btw, the Stanley generator is still too loud. plus it really could use some power conditioning too. it is too hard core really
i'm going to have to bite the bullet and get the Honda like I should have at the start.

[mortlock]

looks like he is willing to part with the bass for a half ounce of some green. pics soon.