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So I finally go that lovely little pedal board all together and less than two weeks later my HOF reverb pedal is dead. We were just around the corner from ground zero for a major lightening strike last night. A loud crack and the power goes off and comes back up in abut 20 seconds. My amp was off but the reverb pedal was on and it's first in line on the power daisy chain. No smoke or burn marks but if I turn it on the whole system goes silent. SOB, this sucks!
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05-27-2016 04:31 PM
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Holy crap! Wow, Jim, that is bad luck. I hope there is something simple that can be fixed.
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I have heard stories of the carnage a lightning strike can bring. My boss lost an expensive computer because of one. Another friend had a very expensive widescreen TV taken out by one.
Sorry to hear about this loss. You were pretty high on that HOF and it was not cheap, by my standards.
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How much do you want for it?
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What a crummy stroke of bad luck! I'm really sorry that happened to you Jim.
FWIW I use Tripp Lite surge protectors on my electronics. The $6.99 SPIKECUBE 1 outlet model is highly portable. The more robust and somewhat heavier $23.00 ULTRABLOK2 is almost as easy to carry and allows you to plug your board into 1 outlet and your amp or powered speaker into the other. (The ISOBARnULTRA models are great for home.) -- I have no affiliation with them, but whichever way you go, Tripp Lite is quality worth buying IMO.
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Jim, there is an excess of reverberation in my life. Shoot me a pm with your details and I can lend you one until you are squared away again.
I have various tripp lite and furman products, as well. They're OK, I guess. No problems.
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05-28-2016, 08:41 AM #7destinytot Guest
Sorry about the pedal. Glad you're OK
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Sorry about the pedal.
At home I use a Furman power conditioner/surge protector. Thankfully, haven't needed it so far...
Too bad you're a jazz musician. I'm sure a lot of rockers would be like, wow, man, the reverb on that lightning strike was awesome! Damn, I wasn't recording it. Let's put up a kite to see if we can get it to happen again...
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Jim,
What is your plan now. Are you going to bite the bullet and buy another one? Or, are you going to do without it? I somehow can't see you buying a different reverb pedal.
It's almost like it was stolen from you, but by nature, not man.
Regardless, I hope you can still enjoy playing in the meantime.
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Crack it open and take a look. You might get lucky and it will only be a burned resistor. I used to see this with the old dial-up modems.
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25yrs ago I was a poor student in my top floor apt in Illinois when the bldg got hit, loudest thing I ever heard, freaked me out. Then there was the ringing, took a moment to realize it wasn't my ears, it was the fried electronics. I had a nice keyboard rig I had assembled during a stint in the Army.
Nothing was salvageable.
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try taking it off the board and installing a fresh quality battery to see if it works that way...tc has had some problems with the hof failing in general..i'd contact them before making any moves
cheers
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Sorry to hear about the accident. By any chance did you leave your equipment's interconnecting cables plugged in?
I learned about lightning strikes the hard way, just as you did. I learned quite a bit by repairing lightning damaged gear, hopefully this information will help everyone to learn from my misfortune:
WHEN THERE IS AN ELECTRICAL STORM, UNPLUG EVERY CORD, LEAVING NOTHING IN PLACE. EVERY CORD, NOT JUST POWER CORDS.
Power conditioning is a good thing ... but you can't rely on power conditioners to protect you from lightning strikes. Why? Because power conditioners only effect surges that enter the device through the AC power lines, and the truth is that with a nearby lightning strike there are other ways for the surge to enter your equipment.
Power conditioners are only good for arresting a voltage surge that comes into the house via the AC power lines. Unfortunately for things like stereo systems and musical instruments, the AC cord isn't the only route of entry into the device. It's important to remember that while it's smart to use a power conditioner or to unplug the AC supply when there is a storm, most people leave all of the speaker cords and cables in place. That's not a good idea.
Cables that are left attached to instruments, amps, accessories are essentially act like antennae for picking up induced currents when lightning strikes in close proximity. When a high voltage high current strike like lightning hits nearby, long stretches of cable act as inductors to pick up an induced voltage spike and conduct the voltage spike to any connected equipment.
I had to repair a stereo power amplifier that was trashed due to lightning strike. The repair ended up being more complicated than I expected, because the lightning strike was very close to the equipment. The equipment suffered damage in 3 different circuits:
a. The power supply was killed by a voltage surge on the AC power line. A power conditioner might have prevented that.
b. The output stage was killed by a voltage surge that came in on the speaker wires. A power conditioner would not have prevented that. The only way to protect the amp and the speakers would have been to disconnect the speaker wire at both ends.
c. The preamp stage was killed by a voltage surge that came in on the interconnects. A power conditioner would not have prevented that either. This kind of damage indicates that the lightning strike was in VERY close proximity to the equipment. The only way to protect the components would have been to disconnect the interconnects between the devices.
Most people understand the beneficial effects of using a power conditioner. That will protect them against condition (a) but not against conditions (b) or (c), which can happen if the lighting strike is in close proximity. The only thing that will protect you from (b) or (c) is unplugging the cables, and not having proximity to the strike. I'll grant that (b) and (c) are a real pain in the butt to do with something like a stereo or a permanent studio installation, so it makes sense to plan ahead by routing permanent wires along interior walls and not exterior walls, and in grounded metallic conduit when feasible.
HTH.
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funny, i just bought one today, maybe its yours, reincarnated
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God's way of telling you it's time for a change.
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... or that you should have bought insurance.
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Hey, at least a dingo didn't eat your baby.
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Culpable pedi-cide at best. Don't think the lightning had premeditated malicious intent, mens rea, to kill your pedal.
Unplug from the wall when not in use. I don't understand American electrical standards. Why do wall sockets not have on-off switches? Equipment plugged into the wall is constantly on controlled only by the equipment's switch which comes after the power transformer. In a lightning strike, of course the transformer is shot.
And what about the yahoos who unplug the kettle lead/power cord from the IEC receptacle but leave the plug in the wall mains socket? Yeah, the free end now happens to be live.
Get an extension strip with an on-off central switch or individual on-off switches and plug your equipment into that. Turn the strip off when not in use. Play acoustically during a thunderstorm.Last edited by Jabberwocky; 05-29-2016 at 03:44 AM.
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fify
Originally Posted by zigzag
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"Equipment plugged into the wall is constantly on controlled only by the equipment's switch which comes after the power transformer. In a lightning strike, of course the transformer is shot. "
Not the case, generally the power switch is the first thing the line wiring sees.
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I run all my gear from a surge protector. Just like my computer stuff.
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Sigh ... lesson learned. I'll be doing the same starting in a few days. For the last couple days I've been playing unplugged while I work on some new things and think about what to do next. Originally Posted by DRS
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Back in the dialup internet days my modem would get fried by lightning strikes all the time.
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Not to make light of a lousy situation, but I'm reminded of a story that happened to my family, gotta be 20 years ago now...
A lightning strike blew out my uncle's TV (actually blew out whole wall socket, started small fire, etc.)
Anyway, once insurance paperwork was filed and such, my uncle ended up upgrading to a new "flat screen." It was the first time any of us had seen one. As we all stood around, amazed at the clearness of the picture and how thin the TV was, I remember him joking he was hoping lightning would hit his car next.
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