Nashville flood damage to MANY amps, any tips to save?

[Dai H.]

looks like some good info here:

http://music-electronics-forum.com/t19647/

[flood]

very sorry to hear about the floods in your country and the aftermath. while it is still only gear that has been lost (i imagine a lot of loved ones were lost there, as well as other seriously irreplaceable things and memoirs), that gear meant a lot to a lot of people too.

i think for the electronic stuff, there may be a hint of a chance using full alcohol washes... my dad used to deal in dental equipment. when the floods struck in bombay, we'd pretty much lost hope for the control unit PCBs in the dentist chairs sold by us, but decided to give it a shot - after a full cleaning and alcohol wash, the chair was operational again. i believe isopropyl alcohol was used.

a product i've had success cleaning crud off circuit boards with is SWA electrolube. it can be used on the component side as well. http://www.electrolube.com/docs/cleaning.asp

hope this helps in some way.

[geetarpicker]

Thanks for the tips folks. We got in and pulled out the gear. The water marks on the "Souncheck" walls was about 3 1/2' feet up, meaning with the dock height of the facility the total flood water height in the area was 8-9'! Incredible. It's now being called a once in 1,000 year flood...

Words have it that Vince Gil lost 80 guitars, and even had a Lloyd Loar Mandolin down there which are as valuable as burst maybe more. Keith Urban lost 200 guitars. Peter Frampton lost his complete live rig and stage guitars, which makes it the 2nd time Peter has lost his performance gear. Lynyrd Skynyrd backline and guitars are gone. Brad Paisley lost all his stage stuff, but I'm hoping his Trainwreck amp was back at the house safely with his Paisley '68 tele which I did hear was safe. I also heard Carlton lost two Dumbles, but that isn't confirmed and I'd surely think folks would be hard at work to save those. Also alot of session guys lost tons of gear including Brent Mason, Brent Rowan, Bryan Sutton, this list goes on an on...

As far as my friend's amps about 7 or 8 of them had been totally submerged for obviously quite a while. Luckily 3 amps were above the water line and were fine. Of the ones that were submerged we set up a 50/50 mix of rubbing alcohol and distilled water and dipped the full chassis in to sterilize and clean. This was after opening up the transformer end bells. Then we dried things off with towels and compressed air, and washed out the pots with deoxit. The amps were set aside to dry. So far there are 3 Marshalls (new handwired plexi 100, JTM45 reissue, and a handwired 20), an original '65 Fender deluxe and a '72 Princeton, and an original '63 Vox AC30 with original transformers. On the Vox I pulled the OT and PT and put them in a food dehydrator set on about 110 degress. I may pull all the transformers in the other amps and run them through the dehydrator too. The Fenders suffered some board warping, but other than needing maybe a little resoldering on the stretched grounds they should still work. I may have to replace switches, but they don't feel bad at all and it probably doesn't hurt to try them.

Hoping for the best on these amps. It was amazing seeing the gear come out of the cases. I saw a few original 60s Marshall plexis, with water pouring out the input jacks once pulled from the road cases. More than a few vintage AC30s, original Fender tweeds, flip top Ampegs. Drums sets, Hammond B3s, Leslies, SVTs, boutique amps, grey fame JBLs, boutique amps. It seemed folks were mostly giving up on things as a total loss. Some not even trying to pull the amps apart to dry some even putting them back in the wet road cases and closing them back up. Still I'm optimistic on getting these few amps saved and I hope others try to save some as well. The cabs may be another story though. They really weren't yet coming apart and even vinyl was staying mostly intact, but I feel the smell may never been gotten rid of short of cleaning solvent soak, tear down, and full recover.

Anyway, time will tell on this. I'll be posting some pics later. All my friend's guitars we pulled out were a total loss, including a new Historic R7 LP, reissue ES335, Gretsch and Guild hollow bodies and others. One telecaster had a neck that was so swollen there was 1/8" of fret slots unfilled on either end of each fret as in the neck was virtually about 1/4 wider than when it was dry. It looked like it had been fretted with frets that were 1/4" too short!
Maybe some will look better once dried out, but I can't imagine the necks will be playable without much work and may never be stable over time.

I really feel for the folks that lost vintage instruments. They seemed to fair the worst, and acoustics were coming apart and warping in totally wacky ways. On the other side of the coin I actually saw some PRS guitars that came out almost looking fine. They must have very water proof finishes. Still I only saw a handfull of guitars that seemed to withstand the submersion. Oddly I saw one fairly new relic maple neck strat that seemed like it'll be fine, perhaps it was in a road case that floated some and it didn't get as wet for as long.

Overall it was quite a shock to see all this. I watched over 4 tractor trailer loads of gear come in as it was moved out of the original facility to another warehouse, all dripping wet (out the bottom of the semi trailer even) and smelling absolutely horrible. It all filled a large grocery store sized warehouse, AND it was just the studio player's and rental gear and the road guys stuff was yet being sent over to yet another even larger warehouse. It almost looked like going to NAMM or something as far as the quantity of gear was concerned, but ironically most of the gear is now junk. Pretty tough blow for the working musicians in Nashville, and many didn't have insurance.

[Richie]

Maybe now, someone can invent a waterproof air tight road case.

[Structo]

Wow Glen, that's pretty sad!

I hope they have insurance to cover the damage.

I was wondering about that and what the areas rating is for flooding.

Where I live I think if you are in an area that is rated a 100 year flood plain or greater you don't have to buy flood insurance.
So if it was flooded you are SOL.

Sad to hear about the guitars and amps.

The old VOX amps wouldn't hold up to water at all since their cabs are made from chip board.
I was very surprised when I bought a early 60's VOX 2x12 cab and discovered it was made from chip board.


Yes and why aren't road cases water proof?
I would think they would be.
All it would take is a gasket around the lid and bottom, right?

[M Fowler]

My advice is to find another storage place.

In North Dakota/Minnesota the 100 year floods have been an annual event so I suspect the same for Nashville area. No one expected it to flood here but you could see the water coming miles away and the way it flows is North to Canada so its going to break out in the low areas.

Nashville is lucky that sewage didn't hit that equipment or FEMA would not allow those people to even get near their gear.

What a shame for all those musical instruments and gear to be water ruined, very sad.

[selloutrr]

Maybe now, someone can invent a waterproof air tight road case.

didn't pelican cases already do that?

[Bob-I]

[quote="M Fowler"Nashville is lucky that sewage didn't hit that equipment or FEMA would not allow those people to even get near their gear.
[/quote]

Not true at all. When my rental property was underwater and filled with sewage and heating oil leakage, FEMA only made us wait until the water subsided and we were safe from more floods.

[Structo]

Hmmm, I wonder if a person could pick up on any deals from stuff that is going to be thrown out anyway?

I mean, here is a 1960 strat, no good, throw it away?

Here is a 1962 Bassman, mud all over it, cab shot, throw it away?

I would like to be a dumpster diver there right now!

Love to see some photos Glen.

I guess Mercury Magnetics is helping with the transformers and rewinding for cost if need be.
That's pretty cool.
There has to be a ton of work and I'm sure the techs will be busy for the next year or two fixing amps.
Hollow body guitars will most likely be toast, not sure you can repair the kind of damage they will see.

If I was a Hammond B3 player and had my organs and Leslies there at Soundcheck, I would be sick to my stomach about now.

http://soundchecknashville.com/wordpress/

[Richie]

and ins companies suck. Some stuff wasn't insured, others probably were, BUT, they will probably not have flood insurance,or make up some loop hole to not pay off. Or people won't have serial numbers, or appraisals on how much the gear was worth. And i don't know if the place that stored the equipment could have enough insurence to pay off all that was lost.
It may turn into a legal nightmare.

[selloutrr]

i'm going to guess the storage locker has it's own insurance to cover this because it's property kept under there watch while in storage. but since it is a once in a 1000 year flood as they call it it's possible they don't have flood insurance. I would assume all major acts have the gear insured when on the road or in use but it may have a storage loop hole meaning something to the effect that if it's not in use it's not covered.

it's still possible to get the gear valued for payout they just have to provide proof of the going rate or replacement.

hopefully they have a good insurance plan that covered replacement cost. some dont only a fraction of that.

I can see insurance rates in nashville going up

[M Fowler]

Not true at all. When my rental property was underwater and filled with sewage and heating oil leakage, FEMA only made us wait until the water subsided and we were safe from more floods.

Consider yourself lucky with FEMA then buddy. Not so in this region.

Mark

[geetarpicker]

My friend didn't have insurance and the facilities insurance doesn't extend to the renters of the "lockers". The place is 160,000 square feet, and about 600-1000 musicians store their gear there. Hundreds if not a couple thousand instruments and amps were lost, and I'm more optimistic about how the amps will take to salvage efforts than the twisted guitars. Some folks had insurance some not. Last friday we finally were able to get into the original facility to move the stuff over to a dry warehouse. The flood event is now being called (by the Army corp of engineers) a "once in 1,000 year flood".

Throughout the day while I was working on amps and helping with the clean up I watched quite a number of tractor trailer loads came in, all dripping even before the trailer was opened. It was pretty sad to open road case after road case of horrors, from drums filled with water to Hammond B3s. Trust me, seeing and original '68 Marshall plexi (or other nice amp there were plenty) with stinky filthy water running out the jack holes is not a pretty picture.

I took 6 amps home once we recovered the gear from the storage place. I left the cabinets in a warehouse to dry out. 3 Marshalls (new handwired 100, handwired 20, and an older JTM45 reissue), two Fenders ('65 deluxe, '72 Princeton reverb) and an original '63 Vox AC30. The flood water was absolutely wretched smelly stuff and the chassis looked fairly clean but smelled bad. First I opened up the transformer endbells and dipped the entire chassis in a 50/50 mix of rubbing alcohol and distilled water, then dried off with compressed air. Sprayed out the pots with Deoxit and sprayed the transformer cores with a little WD40. Then I pulled the transformers on 3 of the amps and put them in a food dehydrator. That was all I could fit in the dehydrator for now, I'll do the others in a few days maybe in a week.

All but the Matchless (it was just above the flood line) were submerged for days, plus several old Fenders. We'll send the Bogner back to them to evaluate, too many relays and small switches to deal with>

[img:800:1200]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-10/ ... _5134e.jpg[/img]

VERY wet '63 AC30 non-top boost>

[img800]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-10/ ... _5130e.jpg[/img]

Massive warehouse full of water damaged gear after it was moved out of the original facility. By the end of the day it was full, and the next day more stuff was moved out to yet another and even larger warehouse>

[img800]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-10/ ... _5137e.jpg[/img]

Water line on the wall shows how deep it was. Also remember the storage facility is dock height, so the full water depth in the parking lot outside was about 8-9'! They are now calling it a once in 1000 year (not just 100) flood>

[img:800:1200]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-10/ ... _5031e.jpg[/img]

Pouring out a 335>

[img800]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-10/ ... _5094e.jpg[/img]

Historic R7 not so pretty anymore. I didn't see many guitars that looked salvagable>

[img800]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-10/ ... _5109e.jpg[/img]

Neck swell on soaked tele made the neck almost 1/4" wider than when dry>

[img800]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-10/ ... G_5224.jpg[/img]

Chassis drying out, some with transformers waiting their turn on the dehydrator>

[img:800:1200]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-10/ ... _5226e.jpg[/img]

Transformers and chokes in the modified food dehydrator currently at 115 degrees. It seemed a safe temp that felt close to operating temp>

[img:800:1200]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-10/ ... _5227e.jpg[/img]

This thing has a heating element and a fan that pushes fresh hot air through the trays continuously. I cut most of the trays out to have room for the transformers. Hope it works on saving the expensive iron!

[img:800:1200]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-10/ ... _5229e.jpg[/img]

GK

[geetarpicker]

Some more pics from the 2nd warehouse. Some of this is Peter Frampton's gear. Looks like they pulled the hardware and are hoping things will look better once dried out. Time will tell if the necks actually cooperate, but I bet the smell will never go away completely>

[img:720:540]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-10/ ... check1.jpg[/img]

[img:720:540]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-10/ ... check4.jpg[/img]


[img:720:540]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-10/ ... check2.jpg[/img]

[img:720:540]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-10/ ... check3.jpg[/img]

[geetarpicker]

Not just amps and guitar and stage gear was lost. Lorrie Morgan just posted a video of going down to open her locker of stage clothes. I bet that was a ton of $>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_TU5LqqgQI