Dont ya hate it?

I hate it when ppl come to me for an install of their junk!  yesterday, I did what was supposed to be a simple 2 amp install, change out all speakers, add 2 pair of tweeters, and put in an alarm--all in a 95 yukon. The speakers went well: the guy actually purchased some 6 1/2" pioneer coaxes with an oversize basket. The rear 4x10s were cool too. The "tweeters" were those awful harsh cylinders with 3M tape on the back. ew... but they install okay: front windshield pillars and all the way to the back in the corners. The guy had some cheap amp by Logic Soundlabs that was supposed to do 2000watts. It was a two channel amp. He wanted it on all his mids and highs... Then we had a choice out of a punch monoblock amp with a crossthreaded set screw on the 12volt + power input or an antique phoenix gold... one of the old 1994 model amps with the long white chassis that was all heat sink. This amp had its negative input post get so hot that it had once melted its holder and now hung sunken downward!

I got the mids amp in and it sounded like crap but luckily it was not a noise machine. I started doing the punch on his 4 kicker compvr 12's but i discovered that I couldnt budge the 12volt+ set screw... in fact my allen wrench was twisting! So, needless to say, that amp was a lost cause, along with my now twisted 1/8" allen wrench.

We were putting these ams underneath the rear seats in the Yukon. The phoenix was much to big to sit flat in the nice spot available so we had to make a pedestal for it. I got it installed and turned it on to find that it has this nice deep hum to it and everytime you do something like lock the doors using the power door locks in the vehicle, the amp would produce this nice 45Hz thump really loud. I guess that would be cool for the guy: he could drive around his block with the beat created from hitting the door lock switch... until his switch burns up and then he's just stuck!

The alarm went smooth as silk. I wish we had better products to install, ampwise.

Ya what jeff said always bench used equipment before you end up with a headache.

You dont ever want to tell a customer it's not your problem. What you do tell them is to purchase some decent equipment and you can make it right.

Oh wait! I am sorry if I conveyed across that I told the guy that... no no no no... I didn't tell him that. I told him to try to see if he can find a better amp and I would install it for free provided that I didn't have to reroute the wiring, etc. No, I would never tell someone that... I am a psychologist by trade. Mobile electronics is only a hobby that I have been into for about 15 yrs now. I used to do it for a living but quit as I went on after my graduate degree.

The amp was checked to see if it would come on. Normally, and not just saying this as a defense, I would do a full check on it with a test speaker and all. Yesterday, I didn't have the time. At that point, we had wasted away time working with the Rockford. Being on a time crunch, I had to gamble.