Gear breakdown misery thread

teamdresch

Hi folks.
In this thread, you can join me in sadness at the fact that **** happens.

Noticed a small hole in the tweeters of one of my Focal monitors yesterday after taking them to a remote recording.
I see a pricey repair/replacement in my future.
And the postponement of a mix I was going to do this week.

Sigh.

Any stories of showstopper gear breakdowns of the past may cheer me up slightly, so fire away.

studiorat

Finger through a Meyer HD-1 monitor cost me at least €1,500 to send off and get cones replaced. Brand new when they came back though.

teamdresch

Lordy.
How'd that happen?

I'm dreading the repair bill at the minute.
Waiting to hear back from the dealer.

Did I mention that I just threw out the shipping boxes for the monitors the other week?

studiorat

They were on the way out anyway, I left them in another studio when I went to pick them up they were like that! They needed to be sent back to the factory and re-calibrated. Otherwise I would have just fixed or replaced the cone myself.

Can you not just order a new driver?

teamdresch

Having the tweeter replaced myself would void the warranty.
Anyone got a monitor-shaped box they can lend me?

studiorat

teamdresch wrote: »

Having the tweeter replaced myself would void the warranty.

If it's under warranty then surely you shouldn't have to pay?
Anyway, is the hole in the tweeter affecting the sound, I mean audiably...

Don't have a box btw, sorry.

teamdresch

It's out of warranty, unfortunately.

The tweeters are made from Beryllium, so if there's any damage to the tweeters you've got to tape them up so that you're not breathing the stuff in.
It's unlikely, but I'd still rather just get it replaced.
And never bring them out on the road again!

if6was9

I've an original marshall jcm 800 head from '82. It went down at a practise and finally 6 months later came back from the repair guy. It was taking so long to get repaired that I bought a used pre/power amp from a guy on adverts as my temp backup, that arrived with one of the channels gone on the pre, it was the dstortion channel that I wanted out of it and thats the one thats dead.
Finally got my amp back and the cost was pretty high, 2 uses later it died on me again, a few days afterwards one of the channels on the power amp i got went down. So in the space of about 2 weeks, all of my guitar rigs are broken in some way! only just after getting the money together now to maybe get them up and running,
Things is in 4-5 years these are my onlyproblems I've really had with my amps, so for them all to happen at once was pretty crap.

Neurojazz

Blue screen on laptop 2mins before an auditorium with 15,000 people in.

Broke a Guitar string on first note of a song

In an airport and luggage trolly swung around corner and bag with a VS-1600 digi mixer/recorder flew off trolly 6ft onto concrete... 2 channels died.

dav nagle

sorted! I am getting it repaired! Thats what I call show business!!

PaulBrewer

teamdresch wrote: »

Having the tweeter replaced myself would void the warranty.
Anyone got a monitor-shaped box they can lend me?

That won't be a warranty repair anyway I'm afraid.

PaulBrewer

teamdresch wrote: »

It's out of warranty, unfortunately.

The tweeters are made from Beryllium, so if there's any damage to the tweeters you've got to tape them up so that you're not breathing the stuff in.
It's unlikely, but I'd still rather just get it replaced.
And never bring them out on the road again!

Depending on their age it may be prudent to replace both tweeters as the sound does change with age.

I have boxes if you need them.

PaulBrewer

studiorat wrote: »

Finger through a Meyer HD-1 monitor cost me at least €1,500 to send off and get cones replaced. Brand new when they came back though.

You may recall that was a cost price job too, it could have been twice that!

studiorat

PaulBrewer wrote: »

You may recall that was a cost price job too, it could have been twice that!

I do indeed! Sweated bullets over that one...

teamdresch

They're not much more than a year old, so no need to replace the pair I think.

Any tips for the best way to pack them?