I was one of the unlucky ones to receive a Rio Mk2a with a bad wiring loom. (A few apparantly came through with a loose wire going to the plug; I got one of them.) Rio was great about replacing it for me right away. Having read here that this was a known issue, I asked them to sell me a couple of extra wiring looms just to keep as spares, in the event of a future failure. I figured it was good "insurance," since who knows what parts availability might be like in five years. I had already had one bad harness, so I couldn't rule out another failure down the road. They sold me a couple, for about UKP 35 each plus shipping as I recall.

After using my Empeg for a while I found myself missing having one in my camper. Suddenly a thought came to me. Back when I was in the stereo business (1980's-90's, when pull-outs were all the rage), pull-out stereos often got stolen, leaving the sorry victim with a pull-out cage ("sled") and no radio to fit into it. Often the car owner would buy a new radio, and the car stereo installer would save the leftover cage from the old stereo, just in case he needed it for parts later. It occurred to me that now that pull-outs are ancient news, car stereo installers might still have a shelf full of old cages that were just taking up space.

I stopped by two local car stereo specialists, and sure enough, had my pick of several. I bought the two most likely candidates for $10 each; the installers were incredulous that anyone would pay a dime for them! With minimal drilling and fabricating, I was able to remove the cages' wiring plugs, and line up and mount my extra looms to the cages so that the Empeg slid right in and attached, just like with the stock cage. (One note: I did watch for the location of the Empeg's ventilation holes, and drill appropriate holes into the sleds to match, since many pull-outs didn't require ventilation on top.)

This worked out perfectly for me. If my original loom ever fails, and I can't easily repair it, I can always reclaim the spare out of my camper. But in the meantime, I can make good use of it.

I don't know if Empeg has many spare wiring looms left, or if they're generally willing to sell them separately through their parts department (or whether they just did me a favor since my original one was defective and they were sending me one anyway). But if they do, this might be an inexpensive alternative to buying a whole Empeg sled.

I also hope I am not inconveniencing Empeg by posting this before asking them if they mind being deluged with requests for extra wiring looms. :-(