My Big Red Paperweight

[MathOfInsects]

This was a first.

 

A couple of months ago, someone asked me to put together a trio for a company Christmas party. She left it up to me what the configuration was. I locked in a bass player and sort of finger-hovered over a drummer's contact before deciding it would be more fun to have another melody instrument on the gig with me. I went back back forth between horn and guitar and ultimately decided on guitar. It was laziness mostly, since with guitar on the gig I don't have to do everything on every song.

Fast forward to last weekend when the gig happened.

We are setting up and someone who works at the resort says not to use a particular outlet because it will surge, and to use one inside the room we are next to instead. So we do that. We finish set-up, all sounds good, easy peasy. We go inside for our vendor meal.

 

We get the hi-sign from the party planner and go outside to play. My Nord is off, which I don't remember doing. I go to turn it on, but the power is already on. I turn it off and turn it on--nothing. Black screen, no pulse. My amp is on, and the other guys' amps are too (though the bass player's briefly acts funny before working fine).

I switch IEC cables--nothing. Dead. Brick. Paperweight. 

 

I switch which outlet inside we are all plugged into--nothing. Flatline. This is bad. 

It's time to play. I ask the other guys to start playing anything, and I text the tech guy who works for the event company. He comes over and says there was a power surge that killed his lights, which had to all be reset. I say that it also seems to have killed my Nord, which costs about the same as my car and is also the primary way I would need to make the money to fix or replace it. Isn't it Alanis. This hasn't been the best holiday season $- and gig-wise, and this was an unsurvivable insult to injury.

We're two songs in now. The client has paid for a trio. I switch to trying to make sure we pull the gig off.  I figure most people won't know if they are hearing a duo or trio, particularly with guitar in the mix, so I start to pantomime the songs as we play.

The tech guy does all the obvious trouble-shooting and then says, "IEC's have a fuse. Maybe the surge blew that." Sure enough, there's a fuse right there next to the socket. Did you know that? You probably did. I didn't. But I'm still not hopeful; the last gig I was on with a power surge, the sax player's Nord Stage 2, which he also played as a second keyboard in that group, fried and stayed fried.

The tech guy goes to get a screw driver, and we play more songs. I've now mentally put aside the Nord issue until the ride home and am now just trying to get through the cocktail hour without anyone noticing that I am pantomiming.

Tech guy comes back and removes the fuse, and takes it off to have "his guys" test it. We play more songs. The night before, at a similar gig, a couple had parked right in front of me and spent some time dissecting and discussing my set-up, and I am just waiting for the same thing to happen here.
 

We get closer to the end of the cocktail hour. The tech guy comes back and says, "Do you want the good news or the bad news?" I say, "The good news is the fuse is dead, the bad news is you don't have another?" He says, "That's right. Hopefully that will ease your mind a bit on the drive home. It's slo-blo by the way, for when you have to replace it." He puts the fuse back in, and we get to the last song. Last song! We made it! We are just finishing that song when the party planner marches over to me.

 

Uh-oh. We're caught, I figure.

 

"Can you give me five more minutes of music?" she asks.

 

I run through a lot of responses in my head, since I did have a very specific overtime clause in my contract, but decide the right answer in that circumstance is "yes," which is what I said. So now there's one more chance to get caught. 

 

But we didn't. We made it through. Those guys saved my ass for sure.

 

Can you imagine if I'd gone with the drummer, or even a horn player? I'd have had to return the deposit. The gig would have been a wash. So laziness for the win there!

Anyway. I spend the next day going to every electronics place in town and confidently dropping the term "slo-blo" and giving the rest of the specs, but of course it's a weird-ass fuse that no one carries in-stock. So I go online and order a pack of 5 for arrival this past Tuesday. I run doomsday scenarios for that Tuesday, since I have a much-needed recording session on the books for that day, so if the fuses don't come or don't work...more Alanis. 

But guess what? The new fuse worked. It had done its job and protected the board.

Now I have four extra in my gig bag, which pretty much guarantees I'll never need them again. But at least I'm down one paperweight.

 

Funny enough, I often (though not always anymore) throw a second board behind the front seat of my car "just in case," but actively thought about it and decided against it this time; I had a rehearsal right before this gig and didn't want to leave a board in the car in what can be a sketchy parking lot, but also didn't want to deal with hauling it in and out of a rehearsal where I only needed one board. So that laziness cost me the very same issue the earlier laziness saved me from.

 

Isn't it Alanis?
 

[nursers]

This is a brilliant story - glad it all worked out for you Mr Vanilli. 

[nadroj]

Scary. Glad it worked out, and it’s good you had a guy to help! I’d have blamed the venue if they started asking questions though. Do you mean it was a fuse inside the Nord’s power supply itself? 
 

My Electro was bricked for a gig a few months ago, I posted about that then too - this was because of water damage (again, the venue’s fault). Got it sorted the next day, but it meant someone from the crowd had to get me his son’s PSR to get me through the gig that night. Ever since then similar thoughts about bringing a spare have always lingered in the back of my head. Have still never done it, though. 
 

i mean…what are the chances of our lovely red keyboards being bricked TWICE? 🙄😬

[Kawai James]

Cool story!

 

Just curious, did you split the payment equally three ways, despite not playing (or should I say, producing) a note?

 

Cheers,

James

x

[Garubi]

I started using a power strip with surge protection (little more than 20€ on Amazon) precisely to avoid these specific problems...

https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B08GWHDTBD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

But now, reading your story, I'm wondering if it's enough...

 

what do you think?

[PianoMan51]

“The new fuse worked “. 
 

But more importantly, the original fuse worked and saved your board.

[Mr -G-]

4 hours ago, MathOfInsects said:

Anyway. I spend the next day going to every electronics place in town and confidently dropping the term "slo-blo" and giving the rest of the specs, but of course it's a weird-ass fuse that no one carries in-stock.

About the "Slo-Blo" spec of the fuse... in theory if you use a "fast-blo" (standard fuse) it will be more likely to blow when the instrument is first switched on, but I have no idea if that would be the case in the Nords. Slo-blo fuses are typically used for situations where there is a temporary surge (like an electrical motor).

As you found out, it is a good idea to *always* carry fuses for all things (instruments, amped speakers, mixers, extension leads).

[Lou_NC]

I admire your quick thinking.......I have to admit in a million years I would NEVER have thought about "pantomiming" and "playing along"!  The type-A in me would have dismissed it as never having the slightest chance of fooling anyone.  I think you've just proven yet again that most folks in the audience are oblivious to live musicians.  Glad it worked out for you, you are truly a professional for keeping your cool.  I would have melted down for sure.....

[nadroj]

5 minutes ago, Lou_NC said:

I admire your quick thinking.......I have to admit in a million years I would NEVER have thought about "pantomiming" and "playing along"!  The type-A in me would have dismissed it as never having the slightest chance of fooling anyone.  I think you've just proven yet again that most folks in the audience are oblivious to live musicians.  Glad it worked out for you, you are truly a professional for keeping your cool.  I would have melted down for sure.....

I think MOI has unlocked a whole new business venture for himself. Solo piano set, where he just mimes and makes people think he’s playing. Incidentally I did that once at a wedding. Mimed the whole of Claire de Lune. Worst 6 minutes of my life. 

[cphollis]

The only time I "bricked" a Nord was when I plugged my damper pedal into a volume control socket and refused to make a sound.  Easy fix, but not in the dark.  I had a NS2EX fall from the top tier after a drunk plowed into my rig, breaking keys and dinging the case in the process.  After that last incident, I started bringing a backup board.  Funny how there's never been a problem since then!

 

I've never been in a situation where I've had to mime for a gig

[re Pete]

Reminds me of recent big band gig using my Kronos with a UPS. Twice just before going on I lost sound. After 2 reboots it came back both times.

Turned out the cuff on the sweater I wore caught the master volume slider to off. A little dark for me to see, but a relief.    

[Moonglow]

Glad to hear things worked out. I hope you had your charts.

[Stokely]

I've had power issues at a couple venues that caused odd behavior from several keyboards.

I bought a UPS with voltage regulation (AVR) in it, nothing too fancy but I figured if nothing else I'll use it at home with computers.  I know there are much more expensive and likely effective power distro solutions out there, and I also have read enough to know that "power issues" can be a bunch of different things.  One thing to be wary of are the surge protectors that only work once, I forget the term for that.

Way, way back in the day the frat circuit band I was in had a big PA and we brought a distro box with us that hooked directly into the house mains.  That was an adventure due to some of the iffy wiring that these places sometimes had.  I'm kind of surprised none of us were killed, looking back....

[eric]

Crazy story - thank you for sharing!

 

I've been using Nords for over two decades and have never had a fuse issue. Now that I put that into writing, I'm sure my luck will change. Do you mind sharing the fuse type you bought and source? I'd love to proactively have some on hand.

 

Thanks,

Eric

 

P.S. I can relate to that "tucking the spare keyboard behind the seats" approach - I do It only about 20% of the gigs, usually when it's a really high profile thing or far away from home. 

[drawback]

The reason god made the VR-09 🤐

[ElmerJFudd]

Nightmare situation. 
 

worse than traffic making you late for the gig.  because you’re actually there and can’t play.  This summer I brought a fanless EV ELX200 to a patio gig.  I was sweating in formal wear. The EV was so hot, it turned itself off.  I ran cable long enough to keep the speaker in the shade.  Not using that model on summer gigs anymore. 😂
 

redundancy.  cheap light keyboard you keep in the car always.  

[PianoMan51]

And still nobody’s talking about finding good guitarists to gig with…

[Docbop]

Guess I'm too old and spent most my life playing guitar so blown fuse no replacement a piece of foil wrapped around the bad fuse and play on.   Once in a pinch no foil so use the shiny silver paper inside a pack of cigarettes.   Hey it gets you through the gig and worse case you blow the amp which is a tube amp so easy to fix.    

 

One of my roadie gigs the guitar playing insisted on used this OLD Gibson amp that was having trouble now and then even in rehearsals.  The artist said she pay for a rental amp for the tour and he still insisted on using that old Gibson amp.  So I told artist I'm not taking any responsibility for that amp if it dies it dies and we rent something she agreed.    First night of the tour the amp dies during sound check so we have it open and looking at it and we see a big capacitor that looks loose.  We push it with a stick and amp comes on, okay nowhere to get a replacement at this time.   Guitar player get a book of matches rips the cover off, folds it up in a wedge and slides it under the capacitor to hold it tight.   That worked and we didn't have any more trouble with  that amp for the rest of the tour.   Roadie life a funky repair is still a repair let the show go on. 

[MathOfInsects]

Regarding the "quick thinking" aspect of pantomiming...it comes from something that happened at a gig a few years ago and I have shared here before. 

 

I played a duo gig one night for a fundraiser. It was me and a guitarist--so, keys and guitar.

 

No singing, just instrumental music. I played Wurly and piano patches all night, and the guitarist played his guitar in a way that made it sound like a guitar.

The night ends and we are loading out. A woman from a table that had been near us chases me down. She looks like a hot mafia wife. "Oh my god, that was amazing. We were transfixed. We love music, and that was spectacular. We couldn't stop listening!! Oh my god you guys were so good." I say thank you and check for a wedding ring or a horse head. "We are throwing a party in a couple of weeks and we would love you to come play for us. Do you have a card?" I think magically I did have cards that night. I hand it to her.

 

"Oh, this is so exciting. Josh? OK, I'm Karen." Of COURSE it was Karen. Not that kind of Karen, the Martin Scorcese, "That was all the money we had, Karen!" kind of Karen. She goes on: "We'll be giving you a call. This is so exciting, we've been waiting to find the perfect music for the party." I feel good, na na na na na na na, the way that I should y'all. Then she continues, devastatingly: "Remind me real fast, which one of you was the sax player? Were you the sax player?"

I've always kept that 100% true and practically verbatim story in mind and I share it as a parable whenever people are like, "Oh, crud, I played a sharp 11 on that one run, sorry I ruined the whole night like that." Uh, yeah, no. No one knows shit. Or rather, the couple of people who know shit know shit, and everyone else knows dick. Just play your sharp 11 and also always say yes when hot mafia wives ask you if you were the sax player. And if your first-ever fuse blows and your broke ass thinks your $4k keyboard just shit the flower bed, press keys down in time and work the rest out later. 

[MathOfInsects]

2 hours ago, eric said:

I've been using Nords for over two decades and have never had a fuse issue. Now that I put that into writing, I'm sure my luck will change. Do you mind sharing the fuse type you bought and source? I'd love to proactively have some on hand.

 

https://www.grainger.com/product/BUSSMANN-Fuse-3-10-A-6F024

 

7 hours ago, Garubi said:

I started using a power strip with surge protection (little more than 20€ on Amazon) precisely to avoid these specific problems...

https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B08GWHDTBD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

But now, reading your story, I'm wondering if it's enough...

 

what do you think?

 

I was using an actual surge protector at the time, so I guess I would have to say there are times where that's not sufficient. Though I don't know the mechanics of this well enough to say more.

 

 

[Dave Bryce]

1 hour ago, ElmerJFudd said:

redundancy.  cheap light keyboard you keep in the car always.  

 

     

 

dB

[KuruPrionz]

1 minute ago, MathOfInsects said:

Regarding the "quick thinking" aspect of pantomiming...it comes from something that happened at a gig a few years ago and have shared here before. 

 

I played a duo gig one night for a fundraiser. It was me and a guitarist--so, keys and guitar.

 

No singing, just instrumental music. I played Wurly and piano patches all night, and the guitarist played his guitar in a way that made it sound like a guitar.

The night ends and we are loading out. A woman from a table that had been near us chases me down. She looks like a hot mafia wife. "Oh my god, that was amazing. We were transfixed. We love music, and that was spectacular. We couldn't stop listening!! Oh my god you guys were so good." I say thank you and check for a wedding ring or a horse head. "We are throwing a party in a couple of weeks and we would love you to come play for us just. Do you have a card?" I think magically I did have cards that night. I hand it to her.

 

"Oh, this is so exciting. Josh? OK, I'm Karen." Of COURSE it was Karen. Not that kind of Karen, the Martin Scorcese, "That was all the money we had, Karen!" kind of Karen. She goes on: "We'll be giving you a call. This is so exciting, we've been waiting to find the perfect music for the party." I feel good, na na na na na na na, the way that I should y'all. Then she continues, devastatingly: "Remind me real fast, which one of you was the sax player? Were you the sax player?"

I've always kept that 100% true and practically verbatim story in mind and I share it as a parable whenever people are like, "Oh, crud, I played a sharp 11 on that one run, sorry I ruined the whole night like that." Uh, yeah, no. No one knows shit. Or rather, the couple of people who know shit know shit, and everyone else knows dick. Just play your sharp 11 and also always say yes when hot mafia wives ask you if you were the sax player. And if your first-ever fuse blows and your broke ass thinks your $4k keyboard just shit the flower bed, press keys down in time and work the rest out later. 

This reminds me of a time long ago and far away, before I stopped drinking at gigs. Bandleader starts a tune in G, I play in C. I follow the chords perfectly, a 4th up. 

It somehow sounded "airy" and sort of cool, at least to my somewhat intoxicated "mind". Nobody seemed to notice, not even the singer or bassist. Certainly not the audience, they didn't give crap one, just wanted a beat to shrug dance and bump rumps. I think musicians may be projecting when they suspect that others hear or care anything about what they are doing. Sing more or less the correct words in the chorus in more or less the correct melody and you are a superstar. 

[allan_evett]

My Stage 3 was 'semi-bricked' on a late 2019 gig. The band was set up on the crowded, restaurant side of an area bar. Upon power-up my NS3 worked properly. But during the remaining time prior to downbeat the bandleader plugged a high-powered speaker into my power strip, also pulling the keyboard's plug out of the strip in the process... When reconnected, the Stage 3 would begin its power-up cycle then shut down - wash, rinse, repeat... We were about to start the set, and when I told the band what had happened the leader's response was: 'Your keyboard obviously failed, so go get your back-up one from your car'. My response was to call the manager over and have a quick conference with the leader. The manager agreed with me that the room was experiencing a low-power situation, so I supplied a very long extension cable and she plugged my rig into power on the bar side of the venue. Problem solved and I could use all of my NS3 Programs for the gig. While the manager and I were resolving the issue, the leader still insisted we were wasting time and I should just go get my back-up board...

[Reezekeys]

1 hour ago, KuruPrionz said:

Certainly not the audience, they didn't give crap one, just wanted a beat to shrug dance and bump rumps. I think musicians may be projecting when they suspect that others hear or care anything about what they are doing.

Sorry for the quick divert, but it seems as good a time as any to repost Frank Zappa's quote. This is a capture from the book and preserves the formatting, which imo adds a lot to the words!

 

MOI, glad you made it through the gig! Anyone do a poll here asking how many of us carry a spare keyboard around? I suspect that number would be very low.

 

[Docbop]

1 hour ago, KuruPrionz said:

Nobody seemed to notice, not even the singer or bassist. Certainly not the audience, they didn't give crap one, just wanted a beat to shrug dance and bump rumps. I think musicians may be projecting when they suspect that others hear or care anything about what they are doing. Sing more or less the correct words in the chorus in more or less the correct melody and you are a superstar. 

 

The audience in the ones who think they are paying attention aren't and that includes other musicians in the audience.   Audience only want to hear/feel a beat and enough lyric to help them remember the original recording that is now playing in there head.    Musician listen for a few minutes make a quick decision to what they will say later then it on to important things like where do I get another drink and and dam checkout the<fill in the blank> over there. 

 

Back when BeatleMania was new and the hot musical a guy I knew (asshole never returned my directbox) who later was in a huge hit band, got the gig as George in BeatleMania.     Back then guitarists would talk about "special Beatle" chord grips and such.  So I talking to the guy on one of his off night and asked about the charts and if there was any "special" Beatle chords they used.    He laughed and said they gave us a list of songs and a stack of CD's and say learn them anyway your can.   The big tribute to the Beatles and it's learn the song anyway you can.   People just want enough of a song to trigger the memory of the original or has a good groove to dance to.   Look at big concerts today it's more about the Show  than the music. 

[KuruPrionz]

That's funny, Reezekeys. No apology needed, we're all just hanging out and since MOI shared a near miss of a disaster I thought I'd toss one of mine in there. 

I'm sure we all have our stories, stuff happens. 😇

[MathOfInsects]

47 minutes ago, Reezekeys said:

Sorry for the quick divert, but it seems as good a time as any to repost Frank Zappa's quote. This is a capture from the book and preserves the formatting, which imo adds a lot to the words!

 

MOI, glad you made it through the gig! Anyone do a poll here asking how many of us carry a spare keyboard around? I suspect that number would be very low.

I can't help but wonder what kind of cars, families, weather, or neighborhoods people have where they would just leave a keyboard in a car all the time. I'd be better off taking $500 out of my bank and handing it to the first stranger I saw. At least it would get used by someone then.

 

Also, who am I kidding, I do not have $500 in the bank.

I do sometimes throw my smaller board behind my front seat, just to know I have it if needed, but only if it's going to be a situation where I don't have to worry about someone busting into the car or the board getting fried in the magnifying glass of my car interior, and truly only sometimes. I'm obsessed with rig economy (not that non-working rig is very economical).

[Delaware Dave]

15 years ago this happened to my guitar players amp.  I typically do my setup, get everything working then shut down everything including my Tripplite just in case something crazy like this were to happen.  When we're ready to start I power everything up.  Glad I did that night; they were having heat issues in the place and while trying to get everything working and about 5 minutes before we were supposed to start I heard this loud "bam" come through the PA.  We went back up to start and his amp was down and wouldn't turn on, he didn't have a spare fuse; so instead of asking if anyone had a spare fuse (I did) he runs to his car, grabs some tin foil (don't ask me where he got the tin foil from) stuffed tin foil in the fuse holder and turned it on; it worked! During the break he told me about the tin foil (I thought he went out to his car to get a fuse), I told him that if there was another surge that it would fry his guitar amp since he has no circuit protection, so I gave him a fuse to use.  End of the night the fuse I gave him was still sitting on the top of his amp .....     🙄

[KuruPrionz]

Just now, MathOfInsects said:

I can't help but wonder what kind of cars, families, weather, or neighborhoods people have where they would just leave a keyboard in a car all the time. I'd be better off taking $500 out of my bank and handing it to the first stranger I saw. At least it would get used by someone then.

 

Also, who am I kidding, I do not have $500 in the bank.

I do sometimes throw my smaller board behind my front seat, just to know I have it if needed, but only if it's going to be a situation where I don't have to worry about someone busting into the car or the board getting fried in the magnifying glass of my car interior, and truly only sometimes. I'm obsessed with rig economy (not that non-working rig is very economical).

I only bring one "spare" to gigs, a Tech 21 Para Driver DI. If my guitar amp goes down, I can plug into the PA. Never needed it but it's small and light and fits in the guitar gig bag. I used to bring a spare guitar the the only thing that's ever broken is a string. I've got my bridges locked down and use locking tuners so swapping a string in is fast. 

Maybe someday I'll be up shit creek without a paddle but I can look back at all the times I got away with not lugging around a bunch of stuffs! 😃

[Floyd Tatum]

What's an IEC?