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Post subject: thats true an amp need a power surge protector?
Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 5:46 pm
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and what are the most common used and cheap?


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Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 8:06 pm
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If you're a working professional and you wish to protect your equipment from voltages surges and transient spikes due to poor wiring at a venue then you need a quality piece of gear to do the job. This is what I rely on......

http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/ ... sku=500823

I have too much at stake on stage to do otherwise.

HTH

Arjay

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Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 10:36 am
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I use APC surge protectors with battery backup.

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Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 3:32 pm
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I just use a run of the mill power bar with built in surge protector used for computers and such and haven't had any problems over the years.

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Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 5:20 pm
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guitslinger wrote:
I just use a run of the mill power bar with built in surge protector used for computers and such and haven't had any problems over the years.


Same here,no problems in 20 odd years with just a plain power strip/surge protector.I won't plug directly into any wall though,I had an amp get fried that way years ago from a surge,lesson learned.


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Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 5:28 pm
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Miami Mike wrote:
I use APC surge protectors with battery backup.


APC makes some solid gear. We have our computer powered by one of their UPS systems. It's saved us a lot of potential grief during the monsoon season here.

Arjay

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Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 3:40 am
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As I'm interested, I've a couple of questions:

A kind of surges are you affraid of?

Are you affraid by overvoltage ?


(In 15y of "balloches" the only problem we encountered is a over voltage due to neutral cut and three phases not balanced causing Voltage fluctuation at 400V instead of 240V, the lighting lamps were fluctuating then we disconnected all equipments and repaired the bad connection ... under huge pressure you can imagine during a representation)

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Post subject: Re: thats true an amp need a power surge protector?
Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 8:05 am
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mokko wrote:
and what are the most common used and cheap?


There are three general levels of protection.

A "surge suppressor" keeps voltage spikes from hitting the gear, a "power conditioner" cleans up the input and might even keep the voltage between a set upper and lower limit, and a UPS contains a battery to ride over interruptions...

The "cheap" surge suppressors will let higher voltages than you'd imagine through, I've seen 380VAC as the "clamp" or upper limit voltage on many of them.

Surprisingly this will protect most gear from transients that would harm them.

Several years back I had a computer I'd built for a company survive a direct lightening strike to their power transformer...

The server I didn't sell them died, their phone system and two way radio gear was toast, but their newest computer I'd installed in their draftsman's workstation was undisturbed...

Protected by a Sam's Club, two for $20 unit with a 280V clamp... and a $50,000 guarantee that only covered the computer it had protected<G>

The owner of the place was a little surprised to say the least... especially since the expensive surge suppressors he'd been using were over $90 each...

Power Conditioners are BEST when you're gigging out and need the lightest protection possible, but even an inexpensive suppressor is better than a raw connection...

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Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 2:03 pm
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TC, That's very interesting info ! I'm pretty much ignorant, as far as these devices go. It seems the voltage clamp is the main focus. Is this usually published with each unit ? And what the heck are the joules(sp) designation all about ? Art

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Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 2:41 pm
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aclempoppi wrote:
TC, That's very interesting info ! I'm pretty much ignorant, as far as these devices go. It seems the voltage clamp is the main focus. Is this usually published with each unit ? And what the heck are the joules(sp) designation all about ? Art


The specs are usually right there on the box..

The clamping voltage is the maximum the unit will pass... and is usually a scary (to me) level way above the 110-130 VAC that most consumer devices specify...

Generally the lower the better on that...

Joules is a measurement of energy, a BIG unit of energy... and the higher the rating the more current the device can keep from hitting your gear...

A very inexpensive piece of gear to add is an "outlet checker" that looks at a wall outlet and determines if the voltage is on the right side of the plug, and if you've got a working ground attached... usually it is just a little plug with three lights on the back side... one for the right polarity, one for a working ground and a red light for a bad connection (there's a little table on the label to tell you what you're seeing)

I use a shop model protector (suppressor) that has about 8 outlets, a row of standard outlets, and three more that are spaced to get a transformer in them... with a six foot cable... rated at 330VAC

It's a discontinued Radioshack product, bright red and black... Gives me a place to plug in three amps, a small PA mixer, both self powered 65 watt speakers (a Crate Traveler System), the transformer for my wireless mic, and still have a couple spaces free<G>

BTW, a little research found it was a originally Phillips product, that it actually clamps closer to 200VAC... and protects from 3,000 amps of voltage spike... the RadioShack specs were a bit looser...

It's a LOT better than I thought it was<VBG>

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Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 3:15 pm
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tchall wrote:
A very inexpensive piece of gear to add is an "outlet checker" that looks at a wall outlet and determines if the voltage is on the right side of the plug, and if you've got a working ground attached... usually it is just a little plug with three lights on the back side... one for the right polarity, one for a working ground and a red light for a bad connection (there's a little table on the label to tell you what you're seeing)


I keep one of these in my gig back at all times......

Image

About $4.00 at any Home Depot Store.

And it may save a life.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


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Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 6:57 pm
Hey Retroverbial; I use the same Sperry device also.


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