I'd not expect a performer to plug in anything direct to studio mains. Far too dangerous. Studio equipment is always earthed, but older electric musical instruments could be anything - and indeed even faulty.
Normal way was to supply isolating transformers for all and any such instruments.
They were obviuosly a bit more laid back in Radio in the mid sixties, then ...
Never was offered, nor saw, an isolating transformer ...
Certainly not. That's the electricians' jobs.
Owain
That was the detail I had forgotten, that was bothering me - a pull switch for the light, rather than the red plastic push-through type.
Could be - no experience of radio. Although I'd have expected the studio manager to have supervised all of the setting up.
Very odd, given BBC regard for safety. Unless the equipment was checked out for safety by a BBC engineer.
Are you sure the outlets you were authorised to use didn't have a built in safety transformer? Hence the 5 amp outlets?
In a TV studio, certainly. You really wouldn't want musos to have their own mains leads trailing all over the studio floor, waiting to trip people up. Or being dangerous in other ways. Not sure what happened in radio.
All the studio managers were ever interested in was microphone and acoustic screen placement.
The only comment I can ever recall about the band's equipment was when the lead guitarist was playing about with a fuzz box and the SM popped in saying "We seem to have a bit of distortion!"
When he waas told what it was and "everybody's using them these days" he replied "can we be different and do without one?"
Possible, I suppose but never saw any other type of outlet and nobody ever directed us to use a specific outlet.
The outlet I was using for my soldering iron at the Playhouse was on the stage at the extreme end of the apron and I can't imagine any performer wanting to plug an instrument in there.
This was the mid 60s, remember, so could that have any bearing on working practices?
I started at BBC TV in 1962, and isolation transformers were the norm then. Remember there was some incredibly dangerous amps around then - live chassis types etc, where it doesn't take much of a fault to make a guitar pickup live. And mic bodies are earthed. Lots of musos injured or even killed at gigs in those days.
These days, you'd use RCDs, etc.
FWIW, at one time, any hired in etc electrical equipment had the equivalent of a PAT before being allowed in the studio.
The worst I encountered was when someone hamered on my front door one night asking for help as they had a problem trying to set up for a gig in a local Working Men's Club.
They'd lent their Klempt (German) Echolette echo chamber to someone - who obviously disn't have 13A sockets - for a few days.
It was returned without the 13A plug being fitted to the IEC mains lead so they used common sense (or so they thought) when refitting the plug.
Unfortunately, before flexible cord colours were harmonised, the bright red wire in a German lead was earth ...
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.