A friend recently told us that his entire pedalboard was fried several days ago at a live show. Ouch! The likely culprit in this case is a voltage spike, since all the pedals were plugged into a single power strip. This again bring up the need for a power conditioner. While it's not as sexy as a new wah pedal, it will give you great peace-of-mind at those gigs played in halls with what may have substandard wiring. The sad thing is that power conditioners are not expensive (we have them starting at under $60, but this is one item you don't want to pinch pennies on if you have a big truckload of equipment). All gear that runs on AC power should really be connected to a power conditioner, both on stage and in the studio. Voltage sags can suck all the tone from the best solo you ever played through your Vox or Fender amp. With greater demands placed daily on local utilities, the situation will get worse before it gets better. Brownouts, spikes, surges, sags - they are all "show-stoppers!" Dealing with it now means you'll never have to worry about losing gear again to substandard electrical systems!