Power question

[pneil]

Hey all,

A buddy of mine played at a new place this weekend. He noticed that his amp had noticibly less mids and lows at this gig than usual. When he got home, the amp sounded fine. He mentioned that they had 2 outlets and LOT of power strips. Sounded like it might be a voltage sag issue to me, although I've never seen it personally. Has anyone here encountered this phenomena before?

Thanks,

[tom]

i don't know about power sag, but i've experienced lots of bad sounding rooms that made the EQ sound way different than i am used to.
i think we all have to be prepared to have "bad sound days" sometimes, especially when the room is unknown.

[pneil]

He seemed to think it was the sound coming from the amp that was the issue (and he tends to run his stage volume pretty hot :-). I wasn't there so I can't say for sure.

[bruce]

There can be voltage sag, but also important with guitar amps is current sag. Furman has a Power Factor that deals with this. They also offer a few different voltage regulators that regulate voltage.

[Pietro]

Could be the way he was pointing, the structure of the floor, loads of things. I have to set my amps differently in different places.

[pneil]

Thanks for the feedback guys. He's playing there again this week
and is going to try a couple things in an attempt to isolate the
issue. We'll see what the result is...

[Ray K.]

Where does he place the amp when at home versus on stage?

What I'm referring to, is if he puts the amp on the floor at home, it will tend to have more bottom end due to 'coupling.'

If he had the amp off the stage floor or even tilted back (assuming combo here) that could have an effect on the EQ as well.

I wouldn't count out voltage or current sag, but may best guess is it would be on the bottom of the list of possibilities.

Ray K.

[pneil]

Just traded emails with my friend. They solved the mystery last night.
He took a variety of things with him last night in an attempt to identify
the issue. The culprit turned out to be (really) cheap power strips.
He was having the same tonal issues with reduced mids and lows. He
was looking at the power strips that were provided in the room and
decided to replace the one he was using with a high quality strip he
brought with him. The problem went away and his amp sounded
normal again... Go figure.