10 Dumb Mistakes That Could Ruin Your Gear
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 มิ.ย. 2024
- In this video, we delve into the world of gear care and maintenance, highlighting 10 common mistakes that could spell disaster for your beloved equipment. From improper storage to neglecting routine maintenance, these errors might seem small but could lead to big problems down the road. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out, learning how to avoid these pitfalls can help ensure your gear stays in top shape for years to come. Join us as we uncover these 10 dumb mistakes and learn how to keep your gear in prime condition!
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always have someone watch your equipment when you are "loading" or "unloading" at a gig !!!
I had piles of guitar magazines from 90s and 2000s and was on harmony central for part of that. I sort of checked out when I got married and had kids, came back to guitar in late 2019. Didn’t know I needed to fear for my LP until then!
To be fair, I’ve learned a lot in the last 5 years and am really frustrated to have learned so late what I should have known 20 years ago! Oh the amps I could have bought instead!
Good advice, except for the advice on 'not leaving an amp on for long periods.' What kills tubes and other components is heating and cooling expansion. Tubes (and transformers) would love it if you left them on idling at 150 degrees forever, never turning it off. One added piece of advice on that subject is if you need to move a tube amp, let it cool first. I've repaired many amps with cracked tube glass, that went quickly from 'play' to a 0-degree van, because the band had to clear the stage for the next act.
Use strap locks, but when you attach your strap to the guitar - pull on them to make sure they locked in properly. I made the mistake of not doing that one time. One time. Luckily it was one of my cheaper guitars and the local guitars Shop did a really good job repairing it. Now I always give that extra tug on the strap locks before I take my hand off the neck.
Dumb mistake #11: never use a compressed air can to blow the dust out of those hard to reach places on your guitar. It will put hairline cracks in the finish because it comes out so cold.
Whoa!! For real???!!! Will consider it. How much air though? Was it immediately?
Don’t lean your guitar’s neck on the edge of an amp - use a stand or your case.
Or buy a Fender and you can throw it to the floor and it won’t break.
Yep!
Don't use a guitar cable as a speaker cable. The conductor in a guitar cable is much lighter and can potentially be blown by the voltage/current from an amp. Then you're back to blowing your amp because the cable is knackered. I'm not sure how much of a risk it actually is but it's definitely not advised.
Speaker cables are a much thicker gauge of wire and are designed to handle _active_ loads with a lot of voltage. Instrument cables are much thinner and designed to handle _passive_ loads not active. They will create much more resistance and that changes the load, which means the amp has to work much harder. It will not be as immediately detrimental as having no load at all, but will affect the amp over time.
Is this more so with tube amps? I’ve never owned a tube amp, and I’ve always run my multi-effects pedal into my amp with guitar cables, or even cheap 3.5mm aux cables because that’s all I’ve had.
@@KevThomas06 Speaker cables are not expensive, and they will certainly sound better and be louder when used to connect *amps to speakers.* What you're referring to is using 3.5mm cables as instrument cables, plugging into the _input_ of your amp; that's completely different and totally safe. It may affect the overall tone a bit, but it is not dangerous.
What you're doing will not have an effect on the amp in the same way as using instrument cables from the speaker output on the amp to the speaker. Also solid state amps usually have overload protection built in and are generally safe from the zero load danger.
Yeah, I remember the smell of burning plastic from when a friend got his first half stack (second hand Marshall Valvestate), and the shop packed in one of those cheap plastic instrument cables in the box. Good thing we were both non-smokers, or we'd not have noticed until it was too late.
@@yargnad thanks! The more I know the better.
Used a degreasing cleaner on my fret board once and had the pleasant surprise of watching the rosewood stain come off with the gunk. Good times, good times
Colored tape works well to color code (musician proof) power supples/gear. Piece of tape on plug and matching color on gear that uses that voltage
A couple that I’ve seen and have come close to doing, or done myself, is carrying the guitar with a strap attached and stepping on the strap (which rips the guitar out of your hand and toward the ground with extreme prejudice) and the leaning a guitar against the wall thinking that, somehow, this will be the time when gravity doesn’t exist or you don’t live in Murphy’s world. “It’s just for a second while I grab…” and when you walk off, and forget that the cord is still plugged in and you drag the guitar to the bathroom…which ties into my last one…which is being in too much of a hurry…I’m guilty of this…I just need to file the nut a little, so why tape the fretboard and peg head? And that’s the time you gouge the Grand Canyon into the Brazilian Rosewood overlay and there isn’t enough super glue or ironing that will turn back stupid.
Don't spray guitar cleaner on your guitar. Spray it lightly on a soft cloth and use that to wipe your guitar. Especially on an acoustic. If you spray that cleaner directly on your guitar, like an acoustic, it can get under the finish at the bridge and cause the finish to bubble. That happened to me when I was cleaning my Martin Custom Shop D28 Authentic 1937. Fortunately, it returned to normal a few days later after it dried.
Leaving batteries in guitars, pedals, wireless packs, etc. and NOT picking up tweed Fender amps by the handle (especially the old ones). Great episode as always!
Nice Work On The Straps! A Amplifier Head Needs A Load! That is why it will Blow with no speaker cabinet. Like a Coil with 120/60 Volts running through it. With no load for the coil, it will overheat and implode! WooF!!🐶🐶
A Floyd Rose string change is super easy if you jam a rubber door stop under the bridge to keep it in the same position while you cut off the old strings. No need to go one by one.
Remember the days of AC powered pedals? Boy that was fun plugging in the AC cable to a DC powered pedal for instant smoke.
I know you maybe don’t have to and a lot of people don’t, but I ALWAYS take the wiggle stick off of my Strats before putting them in the case. Call me crazy. Call it paranoia. Call it OCD. It just doesn’t seem like a good idea to put it in the case like that.
Here is one that I was guilty of early on, if you have sharp fret ends, DO NOT over file them because it could take away precious space on each fret end and you could have your fingers easily pulling the string off of the fretboard!
Long ago I had a Rickenbacker 360 Fireglo. I left a blue cotton strap on the guitar in the case. One day I noticed that the dye from the strap transferred into the nitro finish on the back of the guitar. It was permanent. Now, I always remove the strap when I put my guitars away.
Gotta be careful w some pedals and pay attention to the polarity ie center pos or neg.
I've killed a lot of batteries by leaving an acoustic guitar with an on board preamp plugged in. Same with batteries in the one pedal I use. You gotta unplug when you're done.
I had a Randall RT 30 amp, and the owner of music store sold me a fender foot switch for OD channel, assured me that it would work. I plugged it in and hit the switch, and I saw smoke rolling out of the chassis and cabinet. I sent it to a very good repair shop 200 miles away for a going thru and repair, it cost me 275 bucks back 10 yrs or so. That same amp I loaned to friend, and the amp has a propriety input circuit board that mounts the input jacks, and the jacks were plastic. Well my friend just had to trip over his cord and jack the jack into a crackling nightmare. again I took to a local shop with a tech, wanting the inputs upgraded to metal jacks, well the guy wasn't showing up for work, and when he did, my instructions were not passed on to him, so I paid for the same crappy plastic set of jacks and a 150 dollar bill.
Not using strap locks or having a strap that doesn't hold on to the guitar well? Also, I've always looped my cable through the strap to prevent it being pulled out of the guitar at the wrong angle if someone steps on it.
Cooked my hand wired amp for 24 hours before. It has no pilot light, but it faired just fine. Now I turn off the power stripe and unplug the amps when I’m done.
I’ve been a musician for 70 years, trombone, but I’m brand new to guitars! You just scarred the hell out of me! I was going to get a looper, and cables to connect my iPad to the looper, and to my Enya Sonic Go to use its speaker, and finally my Escape Mark III Nylon also to the Enya to use its speaker! Now I’m in a quandary with all your warnings! I’m 80, and don’t know squat about the connections. SO…..Sounding an 11 bell fire alarm like that surely means you’re going to do a series of videos starting at the bottom and working your way through the steps to teach us how to do it right so we don’t accidentally burn the house down. Thanks, Joe, Old, but not dead………………YET!
Also using rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer as a cleaner for a nitro finish is NOT ok. It melted the finish on a Les Paul studio. Use naptha instead.
What the flying hell
I actually learned a few things on that video. You guys must have a lot of time your hands to be thinking about this kind of stuff. I figure, I blow an amp and I can get another thru Casino. That works for me, Casino gets a sale, everyone wins and all are happy (well, not everyone but that's a video I haven't seen yet. My equipment and my spouse, how to keep both in harmony. It's a mystery to me.). If you do that one could you send me a notification?
I married the perfect woman. She encourages my gear hoarding and obvious addiction.
She even bought me a guitar! That's when I decided to propose.
Yep… tried to steam a dent out of my Taylor. Made things so much worse. Started playing the crap out of it… not caring what it looks like and like it twice as much
Great tips, I didn't expect most of them.
As always, another very entertaining show, thanks!
Wall voltage….
Thanks guys
Been playing my whole life
And made a few of these mistake
But learned a few I did not know ..
Appreciate the heads up
Laying my Clapton Strat in front of my mesa 2x12 while playing live, demagnetized all three pickups,
Hendrix used to run a generator in his touring bus to keep his Marshalls constantly running even between gigs, he liked the sound with the tubes searing hot. I’m guessing his techs replaced a LOT of burnt tubes.
17 year-old me learned not to attach Schaller strap locks to the strap upside-down. Gibson Les Paul Custom. Lesson learned...sigh.
I’ve been playing guitar for a long time; 30+ years, and hadn’t heard of some of these things until the last 10 years or so.
Never heard of a Gibson headstock break being a major concern until a few years ago and now it’s like TH-cam is infested with stories and repair videos
Didn’t know about tube amps, having a speaker load and matching ohms, until a few years ago, and suppose I should feel lucky that I didn’t ruin an amp before
I hadn’t thought of nylon or vinyl straps burning a nitro guitar either so I guess I’m lucky again!
Les Paul neck resets and headstock repairs are the bread and butter of good repair shops. It's been a well known issue for 60+ years now.
I changed the strings on my sons ibabez az, I removed them all at once, I required a physics engineering degree to get it restrung, only three moving parts,
Every since I learned how to use feeler gauges with a capo I have had more confidence in adjusting a truss rod.
Bad strap and or lack of good strap locks. Nothing worst than having the strap come undone when your rocking and your guitar crashes to the floor!
When I was a kid I had a Gibson V that had some stickers on it. I was an idiot and used acetone. I did not know squat about nitro lacquer. I had removed stickers on poly guitars no issue. But the V of course it ate through the finish. Good thing is. I stripped hold thing and tongue oiled it and loved it even more for awhile. So to me it was a happy mistake.
I've got a pig hog stand and have always wondered if it is nitro safe. Oh, oh, latching the case, big one. I had to leave my guitar with a security guard once and i know i closed the case properly before I left. When i went to get it I'm so glad i noticed that the case wasn't latched before i grabbed it. One thing that I've done a few times, when I change strings I usually take the opportunity to wipe down and clean things up a little. I've accidentally turned the thumb screws for the bridge height adjustment while wiping the guitar with the strings off. It took me a while to get the bridge height back to its sweet spot.
#11 Neglecting humidification, especially with acoustic guitars in winter months or in low humidity areas. #12 storing acoustic out of its case (goes along with #11).
My Buddy taught me not to lean a guitar against anything with the wood of the neck. Spin it 180 so the strings are against the couch chair amp etc. More area and texture than the +/-1/4” radius of wood of a D C or V neck.
… or just put it back on a stand or case!
Leaning against the strings can eventually cause dents in the frets.
Using strap locks when gigging/jamming or just playing standing at home. Had a lucky escape with my SG many years ago, luckily only a slightly bent tuner, it could have been a lot worse.
String Swing hanger only.
He hinted at that but I guess he did not want to say the brand on the video. I have 3 of your stands.
I've been too slow with the soldering iron when installing a replacement pot and just cooking it. That's a risk
G'day Baxter & Jonathon,
I can't say that I've made all of those mistakes, but the one that sticks in my mind is this - letting my brother hold my guitar whilst he shows off his new knife. Not a typical dumb mistake, but seriously dumb nonetheless.
Keep up the good work
Andrew
I got a brand new Fender Nate Mendel bass, either first or second year of production. I wanted it set up so properly, so I went ahead and told the folks at the local GC (where I purchased it from) to take care of it. Their "tech" somehow managed to snap the truss rod. Then the store came back and told me that Fender had a 6 month. back order on a replacement neck! I had to be the one to figure out that they had better just get me another bass and they could either sit on the one the gooched for 6 mo. waiting on a neck or they could do whatever else they wanted with it. They one thing that I did give them some slack on was stories circulated that first. or maybe it was 2nd, year runs of this particular bass had been assembled with rusted truss rods. True or not I don't really know. If you get an early issue Nate Mendel bass definitely check truss rod function.
My H&K GMD40 will automatically switch to the 0 Watts power soak mode if you pull out the speakercable.
It also comes with an EU mandated AES switch which basically switches the amp off after it detects inactivity for 90 minutes I think it is. Has saved me a few times when I’ve hit the hay and forgotten about it. You can switch that off but I leave it on as it’s handy.
Cheers from NZ 😎🎸🤘
I left my 1996 5150 on for about 3 days one time. Volume was under 1 thank God. No worse for wear.
@@joeyvanostrand3655 yeah I’ve done the same with my Bugera T50 infinium. Fell asleep drunk and woke up to a nice toasty room. Luckily it was winter although in Auckland, NZ it doesn’t get too cold but yeah I always made sure to try and remember to switch it off
@@PeterMoore350 Ha! I can definitely relate. 😁 Those Bugera's are tougher than most folks give them credit for. The tube monitor is a neat idea as well.
Where I've had the worst luck was an old solid state Red Knob Fender. It got left on for a bit too long (3-4 days and nights) and ended up drying out some caps and eventually output transformer.
I learned from that amp that it's always a bad idea throwing money at an amp that's not worth saving. When you start to put more into it than what it's worth.....
@@joeyvanostrand3655 aaah bugger hey !!
Yeah the Bugera gets a lot of bad press but mine is a 2017 and still going strong. Great clean channel, decent crunch channel and a global reverb.
The only tip on it is to leave the Tone Cut on zero and you’ll be fine !! Great bang for your buck.
Except when they catch fire 🔥
I usually light clean off my guitar at the end of the day with the Gibson microfibre rag lightly moist with premium polish. That day i did the same for my new 335 but left the practically dried rag on the guitar in the case. The following morning, horror horror horror. The surface where the rag was developed a cloud of mist below the finish. Good thing it aired out after a week or so
I don't really have any horror stories that I remember. I have forgotten a guitar overnight once in the winter. It was an acoustic gig and I took a spare and a new guitar. No harm,Il I let it sit for a day or two. Jonathan was not in school yet.
My dumb mistake: all the sudden I was out of tune and the action on the treble side was really high. I retuned, but I couldn’t get over how the action seemed so much higher.
The two point trem bridge was still screwed in but lifted up on the treble side? I shoved it back down and retuned it and I think it’s fine now… 🤷🏼♀️
A) Do not forget to unlock the locking nut before attempting to raise the pitch via the tuners on your tremolo guitar. B) If you forget "A" and hear a "ping", do not attempt to (finally!) loosen the locking nut. All you'll get is one missing string and 5 (or 6 or 7 if you are one of those crazy people) randomly sharp strings for the rest of your gig. Just bend that string if you need it. You were going to pitch it up anyhow, right?
lol I borrowed an Ibanez RG from a friend one time and learned that the hard way
@@honkytonkinson9787 I guess it doesn't technically ruin your gear, but I heard from a friend that it might ruin your night.
@@exerscreen2525 I was just being dumb and trying to tune or with the regular tuner instead of the fine tuner on the Floyd bridge. Luckily I had time to learn how to string a guitar with Floyd bridge
I had a friend that got a flat tire after a gig. Pulled the guitar out of the trunk, set it on the roof of his car. Then pulled out the spare and jack and changed the tire. He put the flat tire and jack back in the trunk and drove away. When he got home, the guitar was gone. He told me that he must have left the guitar on the roof of the car as he drove away and it ended up somewhere on the highway.
Ouch!
I have similar stories with a new cell phone and a pair of glasses
Yep. Lost my first cell phone like that. Lol. Same day I got it.
I did this with my wallet once lol 😂
I was loading up from a gig once when someone came up to talk to me. I had loaded everything except.a 1x12 Mesa Boogie Studio22 amp. Which was going to go in my trunk. It was by the back of the car. I had a drawn put conversation with this person and forgot about it. I drove off and left it. I'm still kicking myself for that one
You can't use the wrong guitar hanger if you just set it against a chair.
Truth, bro.
What could go wrong?
I use belt rash stands
Lean your Firebird against your.........DOH.
Store your '59 'burst in a remote flood zone.
Lick hot power section tubes.
Provide angry spouse access to woodchipper.
Draw your own conclusions.
lol I left a Blues Junior on from like December 2019 to around Sept 2020 ha ha
Never let your mate borrow your guitar or your wife. For the same reason.
Baxter's face when he realizes he just said, "built in load"... 😂😂😂😂😂
Until very recently, I had no idea there was a difference between a instrument cable and a speaker cable. Go figure.
Phantom power is safe for most mics as long as the cables are ok. Some ribbon mics will be damaged.
I was recently talking to my wife while i was loosening my strings to install a new set. Oops, i was tightening them, not paying attention, and it broke the nut on my guitar. Now its at the shop having a luthier install a new one. A 5 string Flying V is no fun.
Stripping fender bridge height screws
What are your thoughts on the new Squier Debut Stratocaster (Amazon Exclusive) ? Would love to see an unboxing/ review on your channel.
On truss rods- seems obvious, but make sure you are using the correct wrench
Miswire an onboard chorus effect on a guitar with a graph tech ghost pickup and whatch how hot my G10 wireless can get
...went to work with my 82 Gibson Les Paul Custom (Custom Pink Metal Flake finish) resting in a very average guitar stand on the floor...no problem right? Nope, dachsund/pomeranian mix puppy was also in the apartment.... Horror upon my return the guitar is face down and neck fully popped.... my Lord, I didnt lay a finger on the dog but I wanted to very bad...quickly realized it was all my fault as the empty Les PAUL case sits empty next to the now freshly killed Custom....The Guitar Shoppe in Laguna Beach did a killer glue job, so deep breath, its all good.
Don’t be standing anywhere near your nitro finished guitar(s) when spraying yourself with mosquito repellent! Learned that one the hard way.
That's a great tee shirt "Ohms are magic"...
When you are playing a gig moving equipment to and from the vehicle and stage make sure one guy stays with the equipment especially if more than one or two bands are playing the gig.
Someone once told me not to weave a pick into the bottom three strings as a place to keep the pick. I've seen so many guitarists do this. I wonder if the advice has any merit.
always keep 1or2 fingers holding the case door as you grab the handle....always
when it comes to weaing the tubes by leaving your amp on.. That is actually less stressfull on the tubes than turning it on and off all the time. Heating and cooling cycles are harder on the tubes than leaving them on and stay warm. to an extend ofcourse. if not in use for a long period (more than a day) youd better turn it off to save power and the tubes. Turning the amp on and off every half hour is very wearing on the tubes
im with you on this one. ive left an amp on for an easy 12 hrs many many times on top of playing it every day and the tubes are original from 2018
When I was an absolute beginner I was putting a set of (probably) 11 or 12 gauge acoustic strings onto what until that point was a nylon strung cheap POS classical guitar. I started with the high e and everything was going fine until I reached either the A or low E. I heard this loud cracking/splintering noise and froze. I looked the guitar up and down but didn't see anything was broken. Hmmm, a bit weird but I continued to tune up. More awful cracking noises. I finally noticed the string was stuck solid in the nut and it had ripped the nut away from where it had been glued in so it was now sitting at a 45-degree angle back towards the high e. Ahhhh, that explains it.
Fixed it by filing the slot and some superglue but of course a nylon strung doesn't have a trussrod so it didn't take long for the neck to look like a banana. At least learning barre chords on that made me appreciate a low action.
Classical guitars don't generally have a truss rod. What you were hearing is the neck cracking from the tension of the steel strings, which is far greater than nylon strings for which it was designed to handle.
@@yargnad No, what I was hearing was the plastic nut being ripped away from the end of the neck.
I keep straps in my cases
But most cases have a separate compartment it fits in, and if they’re not nitro…
How about hanging a white guitar on upper wall about 5’ from an AC ceiling vent and the top of the headstock turned pink
Please make those red Casino Guitars shirts available for sale online.
I left my American professional strat in a room with a space heater amd ruined the guitar. I tried getting the neck replaced but it was never the same.
Carry your case with the lid toward your body- if it opens for some reason, it won’t dump your guitar.
Keep acoustic guitars properly humidified, especially in the colder weather and typically colder weather states of our country ☺️👍
Television's used tubes way back when and they were left on all the time.
Don't put your guitar in a hard case without latching the case. Way to easy for someone else, or even you, to assume its latched and pickup the case by the handle. Top flies open and guitar tumbles across all the nice sharp bits on the outside of the case before slamming into the ground.
So do you recommend any particular brands of guitar hangers?
Hercules and they will not affect nitro cellulose finished guitars, too.
Thank you!
Wrong Power To Pedal = Smoke! WooF!!🐶🐶
Guitar cords can be trip wires, and the claymore blows your guitars all over the place....ouch
Make sure you have a yellow submarine before taking that gig in the Octopuses Garden 🐙
Buy a Strat or a tele and you won’t have to worry if it falls or if you tie it to the bumper and drag it down the road. Have you ever seen a headstock broken on a Strat or tele? Yeah , if you try hard, you can break it. But you can beg a Les Paul not to fall apart and sooner or later, something will happen to it.
This k]sounds stupid but when I change strings, I leave the 6th string on and I start string from the A string. I get the tuning close with the old 5th fret method and then change the 6th. After I get the strings somewhat in the vicinity, I use the tuner. I’ve been playing guitar for a long time and my hearing isn’t as good as it used to be. I shouldn’t have to do it this way but hey, it works for me. Pretty silly.
Guilty. I cut all the strings on my Ibanez guitar’s floating bridge. What a nightmare! It’s now blocked.
I want to know why with the tube amp head in detail why not just it will blow up please expand Jonathan
Fried a KTR with 18v 😢
XTS fixed it! 😊
Told my brother how you can cut the strings instead of struggling to pull them through the body when restringing and proceeded to watch him cut a string without detuning it first lol. Luckily nothing was damaged , should’ve been more specific tho
if suddenly cutting the strings was bad for the guitar, necks would break everytime someone did a dive bomb with a whammy bar.......
@@davidtomkins4242 it’s sure bad for the human body if they hit you for one thing
#5 - My original TU-2 was fried when I plugged it in at a bandmate's house that had a regular outlet wired for 440v to run an AC unit. He was like, " Oh, yeah... I didn't think about that." Dude, who wires 440 to a regular 3-pin outlet?!
Yikes BBQ-TU-2 !
Stretching your strings when you’ve already tuned them too tight. Snap.
Accidentally drop nail polish on your guitar, carefully use a tiny drop of solvent to remove it, and realise 5 minutes later another tiny drop of solvent has fell and slowly rolled all over the guitar top, ruining the varnish.
Some of those guitar stands that say “Safe for all finishes” aren’t necessarily. That’s a really crap crapshoot. My old man learned that the hard way. I’ve been putting a guitar cloth over my hooks on my stands lately
When you are out camping be aware of your guitar's location when your friend moves the car. Good news, damage to the case, but guitar was ok.
Good people, use strap locks! Too many times I’ve seen people moving their guitar in unusual positions, for whatever reason, and the strap gets curled inside out as I bust out the popcorn waiting for it to slip off the peg.
I love my Floyd Rose! easy peasy
I hope passing your prized guitar to your drunk uncle is going to be on the list.
I bought a Ibanez RG550 second hand in 1991, and the first time I restrung it, it took me and my mate 2 1/2 hours, and even then if was wrong? I stupidly took all the strings off, then put the new ones on. I also was playing a gig, and I was using my Les Paul's pickup selector as a kill switch, by turning the neck pickups volume right down, I then went to use the guitar again at the same gig, and the guitar was dead, I had no volume, I had left the switch in neck pickup position, what a tit?
Knock on wood, I have never had any issues with dumb things that damage a guitar. But then I always treat even my inexpensive guitars like they are rare artifacts. That said I'm sure I'll do something stupid now lol
Never use your amp as a drink table.