Staying in the industry years after it was financially viable to do so may qualify as a brain fart?
Okay, here’s a story:
Back in "the day" I talked the Algiers Lounge into installing a disco system. We put a big boy system together powered by the new Pioneer Spec1 and Spec2. The day came, and lauching Disco Night at the Algieirs Lounge was a pretty big deal for the owners, and we were "almost" done with the system. Problem was we are a (very) small business and had a very busy retail floor that day.
Suddenly, a call came in from the owner to the effect of: "If you’re not here in 20 minutes, you can just forget the whole thing." So, I rudely abandoned the customers I had on the sales floor, stacked the appliance dolley full of (big boy) audio gear, and rushed it out to the parking lot where my delivery vehicle at the time, a ’67 vinyl-topped Camaro, set. Getting everything into the Camaro was the equivilant of putting 3 pounds of manure in the 2-pound bag, so it took some arranging and rearranging to get all the stuff in. Equipment on the ground, on top the car, in the car, etc. FINALLY got everything in, snapped the Camaro into reverse, and off we go.
There’s a little bit of a curvey road enroute to the Algiers Lounge, which is fun in the ’67 Camaro -- even on a workday. Then, it happened. I heard, and felt, a loud "thump.’ glanced up at the rear view mirror, and noticed a blue and white box tumbling end over end behind me. I guess I must have placed the Spec 2 on TOP of the car as a staging area for insertion in the Camaro, and forgot about it..
Panic was an understatement. What do I tell the owners? It then occured to me that "It was damaged in shipping" -- was a true statement. So, the first box to come out of the Camaro was the last one to go in -- the Spec 2. The box didn’t look like it had been used as a hockey puck. So, it wouldn’t be obvious to the owner’s that I neglectfully delivered a piece of damaged gear -- on purpose. The packing tape was split with a handy tool I had on hand -- a pocket knife, and out of the carton it came. Surprisingly, no shockingly, the amp looked okay. Then cam the real test. Does it work? The unit was plugged into an AC outlet, and the power switch activated. There’s a little amber light on the front panel of the Spec 2 that indicates that power is on, but is still in the protect mode. This was the longest 8 seconds of my life. Then, I heard the relay(s) close, and Bee Gees never sounded so good. The amp worked for years with no issues.
Years later, I did have a new model power amp on loan at home from a vendor . It decided to switch from being a high powered AC voltage generator to a high current DC generator on it’s own durring the warm up period while I was out of the room. Let’s just say I didn't love the smell of burning voice coils and plastic cones in the morning. It wouldn’t have been quite so impactful if I didn’t have 12 (yes, TWELVE!!) mid/woofers in my hand-built speakers.
But, my most recent, and costly brain fart was improperly placing a jack under the front end of one of my vintage cars. I had an optical illusion (delusion?) where I thought the jack was in the proper spot. While reaching skyward, the jack slipped, and did some rapid sheet metal modification to the front end of the car. Lucky for me, this happened moments before I was to insert jackstands under the chassis. This could have modified fingers, toes, and perhaps a thick skull. Bodywork is not my specialty, but I was motivated to conduct some on-the-job training that day. Looks pretty good, from 30’ away.
