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Your worst ever equipment mishaps...Real right offs !

Chuckled about the Denon cassette deck mechanism Tiggers the superglue must have been the worst material to get in there.

Yep, it was one of those you see what’s going to happen a split second before yet you still do it moments.... thing is I’m now over careful with everything to almost OCD levels probably as a direct result of that episode :D
 
Borrowed a friend’s Strat but didn’t have a guitar amp, so I plugged it into the hifi, turned everything up to 11 and played an E chord. The next morning I was on the phone to KEF enquiring about the cost of a replacement T27.
Did you have a mic input? Coz that would’ve done it.:D
 
Yep, it was one of those you see what’s going to happen a split second before yet you still do it moments.... thing is I’m now over careful with everything to almost OCD levels probably as a direct result of that episode :D
I never went quite as far as to superglue the mechanism of a tape deck but I can totally see how that happened, i superglued my hand to my leg, through my jeans in a similar way (whilst trying to repair a piece of vintage hifi that had been badly beat up). It was stuck fast... interesting trip to my local A&E, my non driving mate had to change gear for me... the staff at the hospital were in hysterics.:D
 
Not hifi related but as youngster I had a mk1 golf and the head change was notchy. So I bought some gear oil and poured it into what I thought was the filler.... only when the clutch slipped i realised it was a cover for the timing marks on the fly wheel.... learnt how to change a clutch in a golf tho!!
 
I can’t remember, it was a long time ago.
It had used to be a thing on some integrated amps and a good many music centres with tape decks. A strat would’ve way overdriven a mic input unless it was heavily attenuated, not too surprised you blew a tweeter... a friend did similar with a keyboard.
 
During a brief time working in a store the manager had serious OCD when it came to moving stock around. He would put a delivery into stockroom B, within a few days start moving it into room A, he also had a room C which would also be included in the shuffling merry go round of stock. I had previously spent some time in a storage and stock control environment so his activities used to drive me bonkers. One day he got his come uppance - he emerged from room B carrying a pile of boxes which of course reduced his eye line. He knocked over one Monitor Audio Studio 20SE which was finished in a rather tasty Karasinga piano lacquer - the lacquer was badly cracked. He couldn't blame anyone else as he had put it there. £2,500 RRP which he had to sell at a considerable discount. I did say 'I told you so' but he was the sort of person who never learned from his mistakes.
 
Not hifi related but as youngster I had a mk1 golf and the head change was notchy. So I bought some gear oil and poured it into what I thought was the filler.... only when the clutch slipped i realised it was a cover for the timing marks on the fly wheel.... learnt how to change a clutch in a golf tho!!

A friend and me changed the clutch on a mk2 Golf GTI. For the road test, he took the car on the highway at full throttle up to 120 km/hour with the motor roaring like hell.
When he came back, he noticed a vibration in the steering wheel. He was a bit shocked when I told him I installed the wheel studs by hand only 1 turn and both front wheels were completely lose !
Surprisingly, no damage done though.
 
My very first amplifier... I was about 16. It was flea power thingy from Edgware Road - Laskys probably. One day poking around inside, I cannot remember. I got a big mains jolt, there was a big bang and I was thrown on to the bed. Phew! I thought, that was close. Then my Dad came rushing in - I had caused the house fuse to go bang. He was not so understanding! The amplifier survived - I think, it must have because I do not remember buying or building another for a couple of years.
 
Ah -we've moved onto cars : Teenage (16 or 17) event. Friend was helping 'nother friend install a Judson Supercharger into/onto his VW Beetle . Positioned template -drilled holes for mounting supercharger to engine -all good-until last hole -mucho oil comes out -quarts of. They decide to stop over at the local VW dealer and seek advice. Mechanic of a certain age who speaks appropriately heavily accented English hears this story and asks the diameter of the hole -hands them a bolt ,two washers and a couple of nuts -cuts a chunk of of inner tube and tells them to run the bolt thru the hole with a washer on each end and the rubber used as another washer on the outside to seal up the hole.The owner of the VW was a bit doubtful (he was already a car collector) about this repair ? Mechanic tells him "We fix up lots of vehicles this way that the Reds shot up -we drive 'em half way across Russia to Berlin- works fine -besides with that superchager -you'll be lucky to get a couple of thousand miles on that engine before you blow it anyway." I got one ride along with a couple of other passengers in the supercharged Beetle -headed up the steepest hill in the neighborhood when the Beetles owner says "wanna feel the Judson" -but of course ! Flips the switch -Engine screams -we are glued against our seatbacks and we rocket up the hill. It was WAY kool . Sadly -I don't think he even made it to 2K miles before one of his too frequent demonstrations ended with a sudden lack of power and really bad noises coming from behind the back seat.
 
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I have never had any self inflicted disasters with kit but I have seriously scratched some favourite albums with the Linn K18 stylus. The cause of this was serious drinking while playing records. I eventually worked out that playing vinyl and drinking don’t mix, so now at a certain stage I move to CDs only.
I hope they were Serious Drinking records at least. Love on the Terraces perhaps? Or maybe Hangover given your actions at the time.
 
I hope they were Serious Drinking records at least. Love on the Terraces perhaps? Or maybe Hangover given your actions at the time.

A Serious Drinking fan?

Edited: As memory failed on band name.

Nearly got expelled from a nice little catholic school for substituting a cassette of hymns for one containing Love on the Terraces cunningly positioned 10s in to every hymn gap so the unsuspecting teacher would position said tape correctly ... the assembly that morning was much more lively as a result :D
 
I bought a lovely second hand Yamaha CT1010 tuner. The seller packed it well but used carpet remnants to pack it and forgot to protect the plug. When it arrived the plug was smashed to smithereens and the back of the tuner was caved in. It did work well and he refunded £20 so it cost £60 in the end. The fascia was untouched so I just left it. May try to repair the back panel at some stage. Very sad though. Lovely sounding thing.
 
Not hifi related but as youngster I had a mk1 golf and the head change was notchy. So I bought some gear oil and poured it into what I thought was the filler.... only when the clutch slipped i realised it was a cover for the timing marks on the fly wheel.... learnt how to change a clutch in a golf tho!!

Reminds me of when I had a Peugeot 405 STDT which had a gauge on the dash for oil level. One morning, on my way to an event, I switched on the ignition, and the gauge showed zero, with a red warning light. Blimey, where did all that oil go? No time to check, let's bung in a couple of litres and get away. Didn't cross my mind to check the dipstick.
Got about 1/2 a mile down the road, and found out what is meant by an engine 'dieseling'. Maximum revs, nothing happens when key is turned off. Engine runs on its own oil.
All I could do was walk away to a safe distance while it did its thing in an impressive cloud of smoke.
Never did get to clay pigeon shoot.
 
About 5 years ago i was cleaning and dusting around the equipment and there was a white rug in front of the gear.Taking the LP12 clear lid off and putting it on the rug I gave the LP12 a dust.
Stepping back I heard a crunch and stood on clear lid.... a 9 " crack....£150 at my dealer to replace and still haven't done it.
Linn is certainly leading the most damaged brand.....
 
when I bought my first real system I had a Thorens TD 160 with a new fangled unipivot Hadcock arm installed. Because I had spent over 750 pounds on the system I got a free Entre 1 cartridge thrown in free. I found one night that booze, good smoko and unipivots do not go together and ended up bending the cantilever against the Mitchell record clamp. It cost 60 quid to get a service exchange Entre ( a lot of money in 1977) and we were back in business. A few weeks later I was similarly relaxed and was telling my mate about the misfortune. I went to change the album and sure enough I smashed another cantilever. I learnt from my mistakes and ended up replacing the Hadcock with a much more robust Rega RB200 arm and a cheaper cartridge. It was such a wobberly combination the unipivot with a suspended chassis turntable.

A mate of mine demolished a Linn Troika when he was leveling his LP 12 with a builders spirit level!
 
Not necessarily expensive or a mishap on my part, but I'm trying to buy a second hand cassette player for an elderly neighbour, currently shielding because of C19. For one, I really can't believe the price these are going for on the auction site, but the two I've won, have both arrived and are not working! It's frustrating, win the bid, it arrives, unpack, connect up, check and doesn't work, repack, contact seller, unpack, connect up, take video (of not working) etc - not sure if this is a mishap or a rant!!!
 
Not necessarily expensive or a mishap on my part, but I'm trying to buy a second hand cassette player for an elderly neighbour, currently shielding because of C19. For one, I really can't believe the price these are going for on the auction site, but the two I've won, have both arrived and are not working! It's frustrating, win the bid, it arrives, unpack, connect up, check and doesn't work, repack, contact seller, unpack, connect up, take video (of not working) etc - not sure if this is a mishap or a rant!!!

I started buying electronic stuff from flea bay only once I knew a good repair technician. I then bought my first item, a Parasound preamp............and it was defective. The volume potentiometer had to be changed but the repair was rather cheap so no harm but lesson learned for me !
 


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