Ran into an issue I believe may be related to my Stereo Memory Man with Hazarai being overheated by a stage light during a performance.

Clip of a picture showing the Hazarai being maybe a little too close? It was about a foot or two away and only happened because the staging was such that acts that were going to be playing were setting up behind us as we played and when we were done we’d leave via a ramp by the stage.

At room temperature under normal conditions my SMMH seems to be fine such as in my home studio.

I recently played another live gig where there were eight vintage stage lights on either side of me and I could feel the heat like I was under a sun lamp onstage.

During the performance I make use of the SMMH loop feature extensively.

About 40 minutes into the performance I started noticing strange things happening that in theory should not be possible:

-at one point looping stopped dead as if I’d stepped on the footswitch but I hadn’t touched it. It just stopped dead.

-at one point older segments of music I’d played into the loop were coming at me backwards even though I wasn’t using the backwards feature at the time.

-at one point layered sections that weren’t even played during the same piece occurred.

I’d never experienced anything like it. It seemed like the frequency response was getting duller on the high end too but that may have been that particular set of monitors I was using at the venue.

After the show one of my audience members thought I was trying to do a more “avante garde” performance during that section but it was like the little box was getting a bit brittle under higher temperatures.

Any ideas? I was tempted to blow the insides out with compressed air just in case debris had somehow gotten inside and/or using a set of fresh cables to do a frequency response test. I wondered if the left footswitch was getting touchy possibly or some debris preventing it from actuating its full travel.

The unit is completely stock except the original power adapter needed replacement and I’m using an Electro-Harmonix replacement from my dealer.

I use this box both onstage and in the studio.