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Unplugging bangs

#2
There is potential to cause damage to speakers. To your amp speakers as well as the PA. And why unplug it if you know it's going to cause concern?

Let's just make the call and stick with it....

Use a tuner pedal or some other muting device and engage the mute function. before you unplug your bass from your amp, and presumably, the PA as well. Everyone within hearing range of you will thank you.

THE END....:thumbsup:
 
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#5
Geri O said:
There is potential to cause damage to speakers. To your amp speakers as well as the PA. And why unplug it if you know it's going to cause concern?

Let's just make the call and stick with it....

Use a tuner pedal or some other muting device and engage the mute function. before you unplug your bass from your amp, and presumably, the PA as well. Everyone within hearing range of you will thank you.

THE END....:thumbsup:
Click to expand...
Windreaper said:
Live lead, as in instrument cable? Loud transients can potentially damage speakers. Moreover, it's highly unprofessional to do that when you're on stage (why do you keep doing it when you know it makes sound guys freak out?). Better ask the sound guy to mute the line if you have no way to mute on your end.
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I don't, but some do. My wireless switches itself off as soon as I start to unplug, anyway. When I'm not on the wireless, I have a switched lead. I kept OP simple. There are other reasons for that kinda bang, which I chose not to go into at the time. I've heard it from a Bluetooth and a misfiring DI box.
 
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#6
I've had three different sound people tell me that they have never, in a long life of doing FOH sound, experienced any kind of equipment receive any kind of damage by the noise a cable does when being unplugged.

It sounds unprofessional and it's obviously the better practice to avoid all kind of unwanted noise when playing live, but that one guy compared that to a rim shot played on a snare drum, which in essence is a very loud bang with lots of transients that happens all the time when the drummer plays.
 
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#7
el murdoque said:
I've had three different sound people tell me that they have never, in a long life of doing FOH sound, experienced any kind of equipment receive any kind of damage by the noise a cable does when being unplugged.

It sounds unprofessional and it's obviously the better practice to avoid all kind of unwanted noise when playing live, but that one guy compared that to a rim shot played on a snare drum, which in essence is a very loud bang with lots of transients that happens all the time when the drummer plays.
Click to expand...
That's three people that have never seen a failure caused by an instrument being unplugged while left live.

Let me hand you a fourth person to your list....

ME.

With over 25 years of pro audio experience.

However, the potential for damage is still there, no matter how many sound folks you can find making the assertion.

So it sounds like you are saying to go ahead and disconnect that instrument while it's hot, it's fine, doesn't matter.

Not gonna agree, damage or not. And not changing my assertion on the matter, either
 
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#8
It just sounds amateurish to do that, mute the line in some way or another and or give the sound person a heads up first. Most likely not going to hurt anything but why chance.
I normally have all the band instrument inputs on a mute group and will hit that when I know the band is finished and before things start getting unplugged.

Now if this a case where your swapping guitars during the show, then I'm going to say it's up to the musician to take care of the muting the guitar cable.

Maybe get or make a cable with one of these........
https://www.neutrik.com/en/neutrik/products/plugs-jacks/plugs/professional-1-4-plugs/silentplug
I made up a guitar cable with one of those to have with me for the....." I forgot my guitar cable" questions!
 
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#9
A 1/4" TS plug connector will short the tip and the sleeve when removed or installed. As long as the equipment can handle an input between "infinity" (open) and "zero" (short) ohms, it should not cause any damage.

Probably not an issue at instrument levels, but when using 1/4" TS speaker cables, it could be a disaster if the amp is powered on.
 
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#10
WRM said:
A 1/4" TS plug connector will short the tip and the sleeve when removed or installed. As long as the equipment can handle an input between "infinity" (open) and "zero" (short) ohms, it should not cause any damage.

Probably not an issue at instrument levels, but when using 1/4" TS speaker cables, it could be a disaster if the amp is powered on.
Click to expand...

The Neutrik plug I linked to shorts the tip to ground to silence/mute the line, there's contact ring around the edge and as soon as the plug is started to be pulled out there is magnetic reed switch in the plug body that closes.
 
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#11
Mike Caldwell said:
The Neutrik plug I linked to shorts the tip to ground to silence/mute the line, there's contact ring around the edge and as soon as the plug is started to be pulled out there is magnetic reed switch in the plug body that closes.
Click to expand...
Correct - it shorts the connection before the tip normally shorts with the sleeve towrds the "end" of the connection.

Definitely for instrument cables only - not suitable/useful for a speaker cable. ;)

Cheers.
 
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#13
Geri O said:
That's three people that have never seen a failure caused by an instrument being unplugged while left live.

Let me hand you a fourth person to your list....

ME.

With over 25 years of pro audio experience.

However, the potential for damage is still there, no matter how many sound folks you can find making the assertion.

So it sounds like you are saying to go ahead and disconnect that instrument while it's hot, it's fine, doesn't matter.

Not gonna agree, damage or not. And not changing my assertion on the matter, either
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‘Totally agree.

One thing that bugs me however is when our sound engineers don’t immediately kill the board when the show is over and then I power down. I mean, I know what a mute button is for and how to use it, but turning off your amp (muted or not) is going to pop.

Of course I feel like an idiot when this happens because the last thing I want to do is ruin somebody’s gear.
 
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#18
el murdoque said:
I've had three different sound people tell me that they have never, in a long life of doing FOH sound, experienced any kind of equipment receive any kind of damage by the noise a cable does when being unplugged.

It sounds unprofessional and it's obviously the better practice to avoid all kind of unwanted noise when playing live, but that one guy compared that to a rim shot played on a snare drum, which in essence is a very loud bang with lots of transients that happens all the time when the drummer plays.
Click to expand...
But the snare drum channel probably has significantly less gain on it than the bass channel, or say an acoustic guitar channel. It also most probably has compression and limiting on it. It being a snare drum, the closest thing to a gunshot on stage.

This is not a very insightful comparison in my opinion.
 
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