Yesterday afternoon I threw together a last minute p.a. using a combination of my stuff and a friend's p.a. for an outdoor C&W gig at my daughter's high school.
My friend's p.a. is nice equipment with newer QSC amps and PAS cabs.
He had recently sold his Allen and Heath GL2400 console, so because this was small and relatively short gig I volunteered the use of my Yamaha 01V.
The promoter was the dad of one of the baseball and football team players.
(The baseball team is UN-DEFEATED for the season at 37 and 0!)
They arranged the obligatory C&W stage/trailer which was another player's dad's concrete company's equipment hauling trailer.
It was 27' long and just the right height.
HE ALSO PROVIDED GENERATORS....
When I asked he told me that he was bringing two 7.5Kw generators.
I'd use one for lighting and another for p.a. and the band's backline.
7.5 Kw is PLENTY for this p.a.
Truthfully, I have not done a generator gig without a blimped and trailer mounted generator in twenty years.
Still, I wasn't in charge of EVERYTHING.
When he arrived with the stage and gennies I was a bit concerned that they were construction site (concrete company) general purpose models.
They were also LOUD!
We set them way, way back behind the stage and procured lot's of what appeared to be #10 ga. feeder cable.
We cranked up the gennies and the voltage was right at 110V at the stage.
I did sound check and everything was fine UNTIL THE BAND CRANKED INTO THE FIRST SONG...
With the full 8K of amplifier power being drawn the voltage sagged absurdly low.
The console would distort horribly whenever anyone sang.
WHOOOPS!!!!




My two helpers quickly picked up the gennie devoted to audio and drug it down the hill closer to the stage and I shortened the feeder cable by 100'.
That helped... some.
I was able to crank the system to an acceptable level, but if the vocalist dug into his part the console folded over with BAD, digital distortion.
So, the moral of this story is...
Yamaha 01Vs WILL NOT run on low voltage!
The voltage was sagging below 98V on peaks and that was when the console said, "Nope!"
Surprisingly, the QSC amps ran cooler than I would have expected in this situation.
See?
Sometimes even I don't follow my rule of making sure the AC power is 100%.
Actually, I really had no choice here because this was all donated services.
Still, it is my neighbors and I am Mr. Local Sound Expert...

Not so much last night though...