Power Cable Warning Labels and Confusion

[dbsfgyd1]

I'm for anything that improves safety. As long as the guys designing their stuff do so in a way that ensures I can't kill myself because I didn't read the instructions, then I'm happy. I have a mild but weird kind of dyslexia that affects my ability to read and understand official documents, technical instructions etc. I look at legalese and just go word blind!

I’m in that club as well. Even if I didn’t, with the AADD, from the time I started reading the first page to when I got to the bottom of the page, I would have taken a shower, played 20 seconds of bass, turned on the radio, changed the station 8 times, looked to see that the mail didn’t come, made a cup of coffee, looked at the mail box again, paid a bill, ate breakfast, thrown out a cold cup of coffee......

 

[Balog]

See, my premise is that the dumb-dumbs that cause us to write warning labels aren't going to read them anyway.

Warning labels aren't about keeping people safe, if you design a product that requires someone to read a tag to prevent hurting themselves then you designed a bad product. They're about keeping the company from getting sued. Kind of like the Miranda warning but for private corporations.

 

[Richard Martin]

Not the same thing, tube power amps use a standby switch to remove the plate supply from the output stage.

Do you agree with this assessment of the standby switch from Sweetwater? The Great Standby Switch Myth | Sweetwater

 

[basshack]

What country/region is this? I like the switches on the outlets to help eliminate power vampires - the adapters that still draw current when the device is off.

That looks like an Australian switch plate, Clipsal brand. It's 240VAC and protecting it would probably be a 16amp breaker with earth leakage/residual current protection. That's the regulation over here and the idiot doing the adaption wouldn't of done the installation so they're safer than it looks. Touch the wrong thing and it'll drop the breaker rather than fry you.

 

[agedhorse]

Warning labels aren't about keeping people safe, if you design a product that requires someone to read a tag to prevent hurting themselves then you designed a bad product. They're about keeping the company from getting sued. Kind of like the Miranda warning but for private corporations.

Some of the warnings are because some people really don't have even the smallest amount of common sense necessary to navigate life safely.

Do you agree with this assessment of the standby switch from Sweetwater? The Great Standby Switch Myth | Sweetwater

Yes and no at the same time.

It depends on the amp, but for instance amps that use a tube rectifier and have plate and screen voltages well within the tube's design limits, a standby switch is probably not going to improve things much. One benefit of the tube rectifiers is that the rectifier tube's high impedance at turn-on, which lowers as the tube warms up, naturally protects the plate supply circuit components by limiting available (voltage) current until the power tubes are ready to conduct. This is a form of soft start circuit (naturally)

For amps with solid state rectifiers, and especially with high plate and screen voltages, the plate supply is at rated voltage within a fraction of a second, which means that the supply sits at the open circuit voltage which can be much higher than the voltage once the output tubes start conducting. In this instance, there's an added margin provided by the standby switch. How much is debatable, but where the components are run clost to their limits the improvement may very well be substantial.

 

[mdlewis]

@agedhorse:

Some of the warnings are because some people really don't have even the smallest amount of common sense necessary to navigate life safely.

Yep. And the funny thing is most of those people don't read warning labels either.

Interesting problem. I had no idea this was getting so complicated with power cables, but I've dealt with the complexity of inter-country safety regulations before in a different area. I have taken some power cables apart recently and I was stunned by the how different they were from one another. I just thought it would be like the same three colored wires.

@ahc:

How long before the labeling requirements exceed the real estate of the product?

For prescription pharmaceutical products it already has a long time ago. That's why there's a package insert. I keep waiting for the same thing to happen with my toaster.

 

[JMarkD]

And to move to a point on the opposite end, I'd rather have the huge Mesa manual than the skinny Marshall/Eden manual that is half page size, printed in 7 different languages, all in one booklet. Extremely brief actual info.

Oh yes, I agree. Not criticizing Mesa manuals at all. More an observation about some users who will ignore labels and manuals. The Mesa User Manuals are among the best out there.

As I stated, most of these labels are inspired by legal teams, but they do serve a purpose IF people will take the time to read them. Most of the more absurd labels are surly inspired by unfortunate incidents caused by folks NOT reading the manuals and maybe lacking basic common sense.

 

[P_Robyn]

Not the same thing, tube power amps use a standby switch to remove the plate supply from the output stage.



I sure hope it doesn't have a standby switch...



We install the labels. Currently, all cables receive this tag.

I was joking. Functionally, for me as a player, the Mute and Stand-By are the same. Whatever switch it is that makes the amp not put out any noise, allowing me to unplug the instrument cable from the instrument without creating a racket or causing magic smoke to appear. The Stand-By switch is always the switch where everybody is standing by until it's flipped and sound can come out again.

 

[2tonic]

Sounds like the California cancer warning

Oh, that's on the box

Oh, great!
Now bass causes cancer.
This is why we can't have nice things!

 

[Thunder Lizard]

I can't see myself getting bent out of shape by a tag on a power cord. Actually I can't really see myself reading it... they all come off instantly, the velcro cable wrap gets attached (if not already) and I plug it in and say "how loud is it?"

 

[Chef]

The power cable that recently came with my Mesa TT800 looks just like every other standardized power cord I have...
Have there been changes made to standardized power cords?

 

[S-Bigbottom]

Oh, great!
Now bass causes cancer.
This is why we can't have nice things!

Do not play in California and all is well.

 

[agedhorse]

The power cable that recently came with my Mesa TT800 looks just like every other standardized power cord I have...
Have there been changes made to standardized power cords?

You may have received a power cable from our private stash

 

[Wild Rice Chris]

You may have received a power cable from our private stash

Ooh, I want one of those!

The agedhorse signature cable: costs the same, 'cause it is the same, 'cause don't waste your money on dumb BS.

 

[Chef]

Don’t even get me started down the path of “signature power cables”

;——-)

 

[Rip Van Dan]

Oh yes, I agree. Not criticizing Mesa manuals at all. More an observation about some users who will ignore labels and manuals. The Mesa User Manuals are among the best out there.

As I stated, most of these labels are inspired by legal teams, but they do serve a purpose IF people will take the time to read them. Most of the more absurd labels are surly inspired by unfortunate incidents caused by folks NOT reading the manuals and maybe lacking basic common sense.

Yeah, and I'm one of those guys who'll go through a manual with a fine tooth comb to get everything out of it that I can.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

Don’t even get me started down the path of “signature power cables”

;——-)

I have one if anyone ever has a hankering to try one. I'll just say that they are super heavy and can crack the wall outlet.