A Shocking Tale!

I got inspired by some of the great stories on this site, and have a couple of interesting session & gig experiences that have come to mind. I haven't been sure where to post these yet, but one could definitely go here...under MAINTENANCE.

Sometime in the 1990's, I was doing a session at a major NYC studio. It was a TV or film thing, not a jazz record. These are often quick and to the point - get in there, run it down, record, and hit the road. The vibes are generally rented from Ayers or S.I.R. (I think these were from Ayers - it was an old M-55). Many of these instruments are pretty worn, but some still sound great. However, you always gotta get there early and make sure things are working. They never disassemble these instruments, they go in one piece from the truck to the freight elevator, etc., and often things are all out of place from the roll-in (metal-on-metal buzzing somewhere). So the band is warming up, and as I am dialing the motor speed, I attempt to readjust the position of one of the mics, which is kind of in the way. All of a sudden...I get this massive shock that sends me halfway across the iso booth!! Like the same thing that happens to a guitar player who get shocked from a bad ground when putting his lips a little too close to the mic...but much worse! From then on, I never trusted those old Musser motors, and now definitely prefer the Yamaha models that have a transformer and run on 12v!

Steve Shapiro
http://www.vibraphonic.com