Wireless guitar - get shocked anyway

  • Thread starter Thread starter cephus
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cephus

cephus

Slow Children Playing
When I gig I use a shure wireless on my guitar and my mic still shocks me. Not all the time. I used to check for a ground problem by holding the strings and touching the underside of my forearm to the mic ball to see if I could feel anything. In this situation, I can't detect the shock, but I am still getting bit when I sing.

Does that mean the mic has a short, or is it possible that there is a ground loop between the PA amp and the mixer and the powered speakers. The monitor board is the only one that has a -o+ polarity power switch.

I thought I asked this a while ago, but I couldn't find the thread. Sorry if I missed your pearls. Please retransmit.
 
cephus said:
When I gig I use a shure wireless on my guitar and my mic still shocks me. Not all the time. I used to check for a ground problem by holding the strings and touching the underside of my forearm to the mic ball to see if I could feel anything. In this situation, I can't detect the shock, but I am still getting bit when I sing.

Does that mean the mic has a short, or is it possible that there is a ground loop between the PA amp and the mixer and the powered speakers. The monitor board is the only one that has a -o+ polarity power switch.

I thought I asked this a while ago, but I couldn't find the thread. Sorry if I missed your pearls. Please retransmit.
Click to expand...

It doesn't have anything to do with the guitar, of course, since that is wireless. It sounds like maybe whatever the mic is plugged into is not well grounded, and you are. Any ground loops involving the mixer, powered speakers, amps, etc. can be noisy but shouldn't result in a charge potential out on the end of a mic cable unless none of it is well grounded. I'd use a circuit tester to check for open ground on the outlet(s) you are using.

If your gear is grounded, it could be static electricity, especially if it bites you once when you approach the mic but then is OK. Wearing rubber/plastic soled shoes on carpet in low humidity can generate thousands of volts, and touching anything grounded when you've got a charge built up will zap you good.

Or maybe it's your electrifying personality. ;^)
 
I am wondering if it's my 15 year old SM 58. Maybe it's time to buy something else.
 
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cephus said:
I am wondering if it's my 15 year old SM 58. Maybe it's time to buy something else.
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I doubt that. I don't see how a mic could be a source of voltage that could shock you.

If you walk up to the mic and brush the back of your hand lightly on the windscreen, does it bite you once and that's it, or does it continuously tingle you? If it's just the one, then it's static built up by shuffling on carpet or whatever, and there's nothing you can do but bleed it off before you put your mouth up there. If it's a constant tingle, then there's something in your grounding that letting AC voltage onto the shield.
 
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