Amusing Home Recording Injuries

[Aled_King]

Last night whilst trying to get my new interface to work I came accross a few technical issues. Being a guy I decided to take out my frustration by punching the wall (stupid I know). As a result of this I have fractured my finger.

This got me thinking: Although not a dangerous industry, there are probably many amusing stories of injuries that you guys have suffered over your many years of home recording - from dropping amps on feet to electroncuting yourself.

So go ahead and share your amusing stories....

 

[LemonTree]

Not a home recording injury but years ago I done a bit of rodie work. Band was playing The Liquid Rooms in Edinburgh, Scotland. The stage is about 6 feet high and the only access is a ladder at the side.

After the gig I stepped backwards off the stage carrying a 4x12 trace elliot cab and put my foot between the rungs on the ladder. Went right through with the back of my left knee hitting the second rung and the speaker cab smashing down on my knee. It hurt like a BITCH! Hobbled about the rest of the night loading gear.

Next morning I was badly swollen but had to drive to the next date on the tour. Ten minutes in the van and several gear changes later there was a "pop" in the back of my knee and a lot of heat. The pain was agonising and I drove myself straight to the hospital where I had to crawl on my hands n knees into casualty. I had ruptured a vain in the back of my leg that was venting blood internaly. I ended up black and blue from the back of my heel up to my arsehole.....missed 5 weeks of the tour.

 

[Yonce N Mild]

A couple of weeks ago I was pulling down some instrument cable that we had run through the ceiling. It was looped over a pipe and as I pulled it through the end whipped back and the tip of the jack cracked me right in the eyebrow. It actually cut me and left me with a nice bruise. Looked like I got punched in the forehead. When I pulled the next one down I had learned my lesson and leaned way back so it wouldn't hit me. Instead it came back and hit my keyboard and snapped a key right in half! Shit! I would have rather taken another one in the eye.

 

[tojo]

I usually trip over my headphones, one time breaking a nice pair of $80 audio technica headphones. I wish they were wireless. Oh well I glued/taped them back together.

 

[legionserial]

I was experimenting with getting a kind of 'broken' guitar sound by running my guitar through an old ghetto blaster and then into my amp. At some point the power cable fell out the back of the ghetto blaster while I was playing. So with one hand on the strings of the guitar, I reached round with the other hand to plug it back in. What I had failed to remember was that the cable where it plugged in to the back of the ghetto blaster was frayed to shit and I probably should have been using it.

Obviously I completed some kind of circuit because I could feel a stupid amount of electricity flowing out of the guitar, into one arm, and out the other into the ghetto blaster. I was convulsing a lot. I remember thinking 'well...this a first...kinda wierd...I wonder what would happen if I stayed like this...it doesn't really hurt it's just...wierd. Oh well....I suppose I'd better let go now".

It was strange. I wasn't in the slightest bit worried and seemed to have the time to contemplate the pros and cons of electrocution. It didn't hurt, it was just wierd. I'm guessing that my brain must have been working pretty fast because I'm pretty sure that if the couple of minutes of contemplation actually was the couple of minutes it felt like, I would have been significantly more the worse for wear.

 

[tojo]

haha that's crazy how your contemplating electrocution while it's actually happening!

 

[Waffleness]

I was experimenting with getting a kind of 'broken' guitar sound by running my guitar through an old ghetto blaster and then into my amp. At some point the power cable fell out the back of the ghetto blaster while I was playing. So with one hand on the strings of the guitar, I reached round with the other hand to plug it back in. What I had failed to remember was that the cable where it plugged in to the back of the ghetto blaster was frayed to shit and I probably should have been using it.

Obviously I completed some kind of circuit because I could feel a stupid amount of electricity flowing out of the guitar, into one arm, and out the other into the ghetto blaster. I was convulsing a lot. I remember thinking 'well...this a first...kinda wierd...I wonder what would happen if I stayed like this...it doesn't really hurt it's just...wierd. Oh well....I suppose I'd better let go now".

It was strange. I wasn't in the slightest bit worried and seemed to have the time to contemplate the pros and cons of electrocution. It didn't hurt, it was just wierd. I'm guessing that my brain must have been working pretty fast because I'm pretty sure that if the couple of minutes of contemplation actually was the couple of minutes it felt like, I would have been significantly more the worse for wear.

Did you capture said incident on mic? If so, could you advice how to mic up electrocution? Maybe a little peak in the EQ around 50/60Hz?

 

[legionserial]

Did you capture said incident on mic? If so, could you advice how to mic up electrocution? Maybe a little peak in the EQ around 50/60Hz?

I can't really offer any solid advice other than to make sure that the sponge is damp.

 

[Dogbreath]

About a year after I started playing guitar, I was on my way to jam practice on my beat up old dirt bike with my buddy on the back carrying my guitar.

The bikes shifter assembly was trashed and the only way to shift gears was to kick this rod inwards to shift up. Stop the bike and pull it out to shift down. Pain in the ass, true, but I was broke and this was my only way of getting around.

Anyway, I was trying to kick the rod with my foot to grab another gear and kept missing so I reached my hand down to push it in and my hand slipped off the rod and ran into the sprocket.

It took off my middle finger on my fretboard hand about halfway down.

Bummer.

It was pretty mangled so no chance of putting it back on.

I don't do blistering fast lead solos.... and when I flip someone off they get a puzzled look on their faces.....but when I pick my nose with it, it looks like I can reach all the way to me eyeball.

Good stuff.

 

[dementedchord]

i once grabbed the 600V line on an old hammond pr40 speaker that sent me across the room convulsing... luckily since current is inverse to voltage it was low current (current is what kills you)...

 

[Nick The Man]

Recently the MIDI on my Digi003 was not being recognized so I was frantically crawling behind the rack to try to figure it out and wasn't having any luck (still not having any!) so i went out to my garage and found the nearest thing to punch. Just so happened there was what I thought was some OLD usable drywall sitting out there so I put a nice hole in that. Then flipped it around and found out it was a perfectly good sheet of that, still haven't told my dad but it looks like our drywall project is complete without that piece My hand was bleeding though, and i had a scab on my knuckle that took a while to go away. hmmmm