Shocking???

  • Thread starter Thread starter demensia
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demensia

demensia

www.lukemacneil.com
I went to pick up my guitar last night to lay down some tracks, and I got a nice shock.

I unplugged everything in the room, and crossed my fingers, then plugged them all back in, but when I picked the guitar back up, I got the shit shocked out of me.

the current is comming out through the line in of my Audigy.
(to my 4track to the guitar), and I dont know what the hell to do.

Any electrical geinusi out there?

Demensia
 
Umm, not so sure what could be causing the problem. What I think is that your situation is similar to the shock lead guitarists get when they come too close to mics. If I remember correctly, it is mostly because the two appliances in question (the mic and the guitar, or in your case, the mic and the computer) are drawing power from two opposite pins of the mains power supply, which means they basically carry their full live current and pass it on to the person holdong the guitar.

What you need to do is reverse the phase on one of the supplies, get the amp into reverse. the simplest way of doing this would be to reverse the power supply pins, turn the plug upside down.

I'm also not sure this could be the problem, but it may be worth a shot. How're you gonna test if there is any current or not? You're gonna have to touch it again.

Damned if I can't remember where I read this, must be somewhere on this board, or prolly in the 'Microphones' board.

Sang
 
Other possible cause might be a lifted ground somewhere or a not connected ground on your pc. Most grounded equipment use input filters and these have a small leakage to ground. If ground is not connected, it may seek some other way....you.
 
What are you standing on or near. You should know what the path of the current is before you pick up your guitar again. Most commonly of course is a path through the mic. For this to occur the polarity does not even need to be reversed, just have a lower potential at the ground. The way to deal with this is plug ALL of your equipent into only a set of outlets(on wall plate). If you have so much crap that this is unfeasible to use just one get yourself a 2.00 outlet tester and find outlets that are wired correctly. Other possiblility is that current is through your feet or other body part that is touching somthing like mabye a drum set or a wet floor or a lightning rod, seriously just be aware. Your not playing through your amp right?

Most importanly DO NOT try to find the current path by touching your guitar strings with one hand and other things with your other hand. If the fault is DC through the computer say, you will probably be alright(tough mabye not). If the fault is AC You could very well die. It takes(i don't rembember exactly) i think 16 milliamps through your heart to kill you.

Check this out...
http://www.guitarnuts.com/safety/clubshock.html

-Angermeyer
 
Go to radio shack and get an outlet tester. I did and found that many of the plugs in my apt. were wired incorrectly. I only found this out after I plugged in an old silvertone amp that had no power transformer. The thing blew the fuse and started to smoke!

Also, as mentioned, try plugging everything into one outlet if possible.

You can also remove the string ground in the guitar or add a resistor/cap to it (see post above). May increase the noise from your pickups though.
 
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