Power Conditioner for Live Gigs

[palinilap]

My band played a show this week and my 5150 head blew a fuse for the first time since I've owned it (about 8 months). I recently had it retubed and serviced by a highly regarded tech, so I'm questioning the possibility of a power surge, especially since the venue we played is rumored to have some poor wiring. A guitar player in another band told me he's seen other people blow a fuse there before as well.

I have an extra Furman 15 amp power conditioner. My question is, would this unit really do me any good in the event of a power surge? Or should I really spring for a better unit?

[Gregg Juke]

The basic Furman unit would definitely be better than nothing. But if you can stand the expense, we always used the Furman AR-1215 voltage regulator. Worked perfectly under stressful conditions for nearly a decade. I'm looking to get another for my live sound rig (the other unit belonged to someone else in my old band). Could be considered overkill for one amplifier, but you could certainly share with your other guys without any detriment (plenty of outlets; at one time we ran all sound and everybody's gear in a six-piece off of the Furman 1215-- goodbye brownouts)...

GJ

[The Scum]

The less expensive Furman units are electrically no different than your average hardware store power strip. They're standard wall outlet fixtures with a 15A breaker...plus maybe some LEDs or fancy lights to illuminate the rack.

The one Greg mentions (at ~10 times the price of the cheap ones) are much more sophisticated, and try to hold the output voltage stable, regardless of the input voltage.

All of these rely on the outlets they're plugged into being good to begin with - if the outles are mis-wired, they may just duplicate the problem a bunch of times over.

A 3-light outlet test might help diagnose basic outlet wiring problems, but even if they're screwed up, there's not much you can do about it on someone else's stage in the few minutes you get to set up...at best, it might help you track down an outlet that isn't wrong.

An outlet tester, extension cord and pack of spare fuses are all sensible items for your ditty bag.