Shocking Issues!!

[thats_mr_to_you]

hey I posted this once before but I figured something new out.I have a simple PA in my basement, and I was getting pretty bad schocks when I touched the mic while jamming with my band. I figured out tonight that it only happened when I was touching my bass. We recently had the plugs looked at, and I dont know what the electrician did but I plugged the amp into another plug (another circut all together) and It stopped shocking. So this leads me to believe that the plug the amp was plugged into was not grounded properly? Has anyone ever had this problem? and If I plug the amp inot a grounded circut will it stop shocking for sure, casue Im still a little scared

any help will be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

[Sorceress]

this happenned to me once, i was playing the guitar and singing and when i touched the mic with my mouth i felt a shock go thru my whole body, not sure what caused it but i made sure not to touch the mic again. it was kind of a strong shock, not sure how bad this can actually get

 

[lpdeluxe]

Unfortunately, this is a common occurance. Back in my live gigging days, I used to carry a circuit tester with me to check out the stages notoriously "wired by the bartender." I clearly remember watching someone else's power amp go up in a wreath of white smoke. "Looks like you screwed the pooch with that," I said. The bandleader said, "no problems: I borrowed this amp."

Electricity, all joking aside, is nothing to fool around with. How do you know you've not taken the proper precautions?

Easy: you're dead.

Get an electrician in that basement and pay him to rewire it. You will 1) increase the resale value of your home 2) reduce the occurence in your of hum in your recordings/performances and 3) live longer. No joke.

At the very least, get a tester (either a Radio Shack outlet tester or a multimeter -- most of them come with booklets that tell you how to check outlets) and check out all of your outlets. You may find some some horror stories!

Good luck.

 

[songwritten]

O man do I hear ya on this one! Def. get the circuit tester and sleep better tonight.

 

[goldtopchas]

One of those cheap Radio Shack testers is a godsend to keep in your case or toolbox. Everytime you play at a new place, go around and check all the outlets you'll be using. And I mean ALL of them. It only takes a minute to do.
If you find a bad one stick a piece of tape over it,(you'll be doing a good deed for countless others too.)

I played a place 4-5 times before I eventually plugged my amp into the "Wrong" outlet. I got the worst shock of my life when I stepped up to the mic. Felt like someone kicked me in the throat...couldn't breath,swallow, or talk for about a min. They almost called 911.

 

[Codmate]

I'm not sure how much protection it gives me - but I use an RCD at gigs these days.

 

[Light]

If you are getting a shock from the mic, then the power between the amp and the PA are out of polarity. Probably one of the recepticles has hot and neutral reversed, but if it is a three phase system then they are probably on different legs of the service. A grounded socket is good when something is wrong, and can keep you from getting killed (yes, I said killed, it happens a few times a year), but it is not going to fix the root problem. I am NOT in any way recomending lifting grounds (which you should never ever do), But the lack of ground is not enough for you to get shocked. There are two tools which should be in everyones tech kit for gigs. Number one, you NEED to have a recepticle tester. You can get them just at any hardware store. You plug it in, and it tells you if the recepticle is wired properly, or if there is something wierd (hot neutral reversed, or no ground, or if things are really bad hot and ground reversed - yes, I've seen that, and yes, I fixed it before anyone got killed). You need one.

The other thing you want to get is a multimeter. Set it to measure AC volts, and then touch one end to your guitar and the other end to the mic. This will let you know if things are safe. The quick test for this is to touch your strings to the mix, and watch for a spark (making sure, of course, not to touch the strings while you are doing it). The problem is, if things are bad, you can actually do some serious damage to your guitar this way.

A friend of mine was showing a bass player how to set up the bass player's new rig one time, many years ago, and set it up wrong just to show the bass player what wrong would look like on the multimeter. Before anyone could stop the guy, the bass player touched his strings to the mic.

In that case, it just sent out a shower of sparks and broke the guy's strings (this was in Europe, so it was 240v at the wall). I think he jumped back 3-4 feet, but that was just instinct, and not being blown back by the electricity.

That bass player let his backline guys setup his rig for the rest of the tour.

Best bet is just to get a multimeter, and do it right.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[Light]

Oh yeah, and I used to work for a guy who LIKED to have about 12 volts running through his mic. He said it helped him get that real "on the edge" feel to his music. Needless to say, most days he didn't get it. Most days it was either 0v or 120v, so he just had to deal with it.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi