Getting shocked

S

Supapowa22

New member
I keep getting shocked when I play my electric guitar and sing through my PA system whenever my mouth touches the mic..is there anyway I can fix this...also my hands get shocked sometimes when I'm playing guitar through my wireless mic. I've tried switching up my amps, guitars, and mics..but no luck :( any ideas of how I can ground everything??? Thanks
 
PA amps normally have a polarity switch on the back, that would be the first step to take (I'm not sure if thats what you mean when you say you "tried switching") .

Is the guitar amp and the PA plugged into the same outlet? Is this happening at a rehearsal space or at gigs?
 
Does your guitar amp and PA amp and mixer have the ground pin?
It sounds like wrong polarity

First you have to make sure all you gear has 3 prong cables, if that doesn't do it then you have to check the outlets.

I think there are testers that check the polarity of outlets.
Be careful though,.. you can get a nasty zap!
 
this used to happen with my bands setup, the guitarist old amp leaked voltage into the chassi that was connected tot he ground, causeing the mics to have current in the
ur lips through ur body to ur guitar back to the ground creates a circut causeing the shock
 
You have two different ground potentials. first, try to make sure everything is plugged into the same point. this at least puts all the grounds to the same point. Definately if you have a ploarity switch on your amp, toggle it and see if it gets better. If your gear is relatively new it came with a three pronged plug, make very sure that the third prong hasn't been removed. Beyond that, it you maight have a shorted piece of gear.
 
I have all three prong plugs for everything but I am plugging them all into different outlets, I haven't checked the back of my mackie PA to see if it has a switch but I"ll check it out. I'm pretty sure that the PA has ground pins on it somewhere and I know that my wireless mic reciever has a ground pin...hopefully the polarity switch fixes the problem...oh yes and its happening in my practice room.. Thanks for all the replies too
 
Plugging everything into different outlets is bad boogie. That's a fast way to either set up a ground loop (you'll hear a nasty hum coming out of the speakers) or a situation where you can get zapped.
 
Track Rat said:
Plugging everything into different outlets is bad boogie. That's a fast way to either set up a ground loop (you'll hear a nasty hum coming out of the speakers) or a situation where you can get zapped.
Click to expand...


Yes,.. If all is well on your side then it's probably the outlets.
Is it an old bulding/house?
Our (80 year old) church had the same problem, we had to rewire the circuts going to the audio room and altar.
By getting rid of all the old (cloth covered) cables and outlets we never had that problem again.
Let me tell you, the zaps were pretty freaking bad.
 
c7sus just about said it all. If the outlets are on 1 circuit you dont need to plug everything into one outlet. You should have a 3wire system and not the old 2 wire system. The common household wiring colors are white which is the neutral,Black or red which is the hot, and a bare copper wire which is the ground. You should not have any voltage on the ground wire.
If you think the Amp is the problem you can take a meter set for volts then find the ground wire and put one probe on the ground wire and one on the metal chassi. The amp has to be on. If there is any voltage on the ground the unit needs to be repaired.
As c7sus mentioned do not do a continuity test without the power being off. You can get a nasty shock or burn up your meter.
I would get a plug in tester to verify the ground. There cheap enough and come in handy anyway. If you only have a two wire system you may have to rewire. Modern 3 prong outlets can be wired to a 2wire system, so thats not an indication that it is a 3wire system.
Be Safe!
:cool:
 
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