I reported it to the A1, who nixed his idea of using house power to do line checks. He did not want any equipment plugged into an ungrounded system, and with good reason. There’s an old adage in the electrical industry: “Never be the ground.” It could be fatal.
There’s always the question of whether or not to loan out my tools on site. I most certainly do not, because I know I’ll usually never see them again, regardless of the good intentions of the borrower to return them. If you have any doubt, try it yourself – go ahead, loan a few tools. Just be sure to have extras on hand to replace them.
When someone wants to borrow a tool, I usually ask, “Where’s yours?” You’d be surprised how often the answer is, “I loaned it out and never got it back.” I just look at them with a smile, and they know I’m not going to make the loan for just that reason. Other times, the want-to-be borrowers are newbies who haven’t yet learned the value and necessity of bringing their own tools. In these cases, my common response is, “I don’t loan out my tools, but I’ll be happy to do something for you.”
At this point you may be wondering about my cable tester and cab driver. Those kinds of things are in the large workbox that comes from the equipment supplier or AV company, along with adapters, gender benders, barrel connectors, XLR shorties, gaff tape, etc. However, I do have a cable tester that comes with me when I deploy my personal sound system on a gig.
Here you have it. This is what I’ve found works best for me over the years as a local freelancer in Orlando. Interestingly, no two of us have the same tools, although there will always be the crescent wrench and multitool in common. I suppose it’s because of the difference in how we view our world or how we approach our work. Hopefully, it will give you some ideas about how to be better prepared and make life a bit easier on yourself.
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