Power Surges?

[slickathenyou]

I've just begun bying all the equipment I need for my band's practice room (PA, Amps, Mics) and I know to lock my garage when were done. But I leave the stuff plugged in after were done and I don't know if power outages or power surges could bust fuses or blow stuff. Does anyone know about this?

Also, I don't have speaker cords yet, but I heard I can use my guitar cords to connect the PA to the speaker. Will this damage anything?

[jmlb13]

ok First i wouldnt leave my stuff plugged in. Normal ac voltages can fluctuate a lot and you can save alot of expensive equipment just by unplugging it. second do not use an instrument cable to hook up speakers. they simply arent designed to handle that kind of heat. Instrument cables are coaxial meaning the ground wire is surroundint the signal wire and the signal wire is electrically shielded from the ground to reduce hum. in speaker wire you simply have 2 wires. the voltages are high enough there isnt any induced hum from ground. also note, within reason, the larger the speaker wire with the more strands the better. sound travels on the surface area of wire so the more surface area the cleaner the sound. I use standard 12ga copper wire available at Lowes for about 30 cent a foot and heavy duty 1/4 in plugs avail at radio shack for a bout 3 dollars a pair

[slickathenyou]

Yea, I was looking at making my own cords, but I don't own a soldering iron and I don't know how to solder. The price of a soldering iron at Home Depot is the cost of two 18' speaker cords, which is what I need :).

[Atomic Rain]

You can get surge protected 4-way plugs (I use them), but simply turning off all the wall sockets when you're done is ample protection.

[Aes820]

Yep. I agree. Unplug your gear when not in use.


I'll say that it is okay to use an instrument cable for a speaker cable in an emergency only.

It's not liekly to cause damage due to overheating just given the relatively low power applications that I'm assuming you're using. Like maybe 200-300 watts.
But if we're talking 1000 watts+ then you're definately going to want thick speaker cable and nothing else.
Using instrument cables as speaker cable in these cases is just more likely to make the amp sound a little weird as apposed to being a direct risk of damage. The impedence difference between the inner core and the wound shield may cause an affect known as damping.