Guitar Help Needed

[evh5150]

Having a giant problem with my rig I noticed when playing I went to touch my mixing board and I got a giant zap. Now my amp sounds to be shorting out. sounds maybee like the cabinet is only working with 2 speakers, I have a fender metal head , it is plugged into a power conditioner. Now three of my guitars that I used that night, hum when the volume knob is turned off(through a different amp ) I am sure it messed the volume pots up, hopefully not my pickups? any ideas about what the heck is going on with my rig ? I am affaird to plug into it now .. I unplugged my rack all but the power conditioner and the same thing just doesn't sound right , when I got the jolt my whole rack was plugged in , sonic maximizer , and my gsp 2101 tube processor ( which is a new addition) any ideas?

[onetooloud]

I ran a small show just about a week ago and something very close to the same thing happened.

Sound check goes well, drums, lead quitar, bass, then back to lead vocals. Then whack the lead player is on the floor. He got a bad shock. He's fine but understandably will not touch anything.

Now where did it come from? One of the few times I'm not running a distro for power. First off I checked everything for 3 prong grounding alls ok. Next checked to see where all the power was coming from. I found it to be coming from 3 differing outlets. We used an outlet tester to find that one outlet was wired wrong. The hot and netruel where reversed in that outlet.

In this instance the shock came from a poor wiring job. The power went to the quitar amp up the guitar strings into the the lead singers arm out the piercings on his face into the microphone to the mixer and on to the first ground it came to.

This was a dangerous problem luckily noone got killed. I told the owner of the bar this and his exact works where "I've been doing this for ten years with that outlet and onebody has been killed yet". I told him just because it has not happened yet doesn't mean it won't. The owner seemed to care less.


I always carry an outlet tester and check the power when I supply it. I didn't supply power so I didn't check it. Lesson learned.

You may have had a similer problem.

It could have been improperly wired power cord.

If not have everthing checked for ac between any exposed metal parts and earth ground. Mixer, quiter amps power amps until you find the issue.

The life you save may be your own.

[Ron]

With just about any tube amp, your guitar strings have a direct connection to the neutral side of the AC outlet. An outlet with the hot and neutral reversed is a deadly combination.
I saw a show once where a guitar string touched a mic stand and lit it up like a christmas tree. It ruined both pickups and all of the electrical parts of the guitar and burned a notch in the bridge saddle.
Luckily it was a cheap-ass guitar.

[songsmith]

I lifted the ground on some homebuilt lights once (hey, light bulbs don't need earth ground, right? ) and the guitarist reached down to push the plug in on a stompbox. When he touched it, it blew a big chunk out of his finger, and he did a somersault onto the dance floor, landing on his back.
It's not just dangerous. I've seen the groundpin cut off of gear that did all kinds of weird-ass stuff, like reverb turning on full-blast even with the knob turned down, foreign-language radio announcers coming over the PA, something that sounded like a robot cutting the cyber-cheese, in addition to the aforementioned lighting you up like a Christmas tree. If you have to lift a ground, use a ground-lift adaptor, they're a dollar at Dollar Tree, that way it's reversible. On second thought, don't do it at all. You may be okay with going out in a fiery blaze of glory... but I'd hate to see you ruin the gear. ----->JMS

[evh5150]

In this particular case I had it running through a power conditioner into a two prong outlet with a three prong adapator, do you guys think this is the cause? Is two prong old fashioned power dangerous to equipment even through a power conditoner. My metalhead is actually solid state, if that matters. Do you think this AC was damaging to my pickups? I know the volume pots are shot, but when they are on full blast the guitar seems to sound ok. What a expensive experience.

[Ron]

In this particular case I had it running through a power conditioner into a two prong outlet with a three prong adapator, do you guys think this is the cause? Is two prong old fashioned power dangerous to equipment even through a power conditoner. My metalhead is actually solid state, if that matters. Do you think this AC was damaging to my pickups? I know the volume pots are shot, but when they are on full blast the guitar seems to sound ok. What a expensive experience.

Amps with three-prong power cords and old ungrounded house wiring are a dangerous combination. (As you found out) Without the ground, the power conditioner makes no difference. Some old two prong outlets aren't polarized, so you can also put the adapter into the socket either way. Some old house wiring has no ground wire at all, only two conductors, so even if you grounded the tab on the adapter to the screw in the middle of the outlet, it still wouldn't be safe.

You are lucky that it wasn't a tube amp. Things could have turned out MUCH worse. Solid-state amps use a transformer, so the nuetral side of the outlet isn't tied straight to the strings (and you).

If the guitar works at all the pickups are probably OK, though it's possible that their output could have been altered by shorts within the coil windings.
If the strings of the guitar had touched instead of you, the guitar would probably be in worse shape. Your shock may have saved it.

[Ron]

I told the owner of the bar this and his exact works where "I've been doing this for ten years with that outlet and onebody has been killed yet". I told him just because it has not happened yet doesn't mean it won't. The owner seemed to care less.

Should have told him that the one outlet could land him in prison.

Recklessness or willful blindness is defined as a wanton disregard for the known dangers of a particular situation. There exists no intent to kill; consequently, a resulting death may not be considered murder. However, the conduct is probably reckless, sometimes used interchangeably with criminally negligent, which may subject the principal to prosecution for involuntary manslaughter: the individual was aware of the risk of injury to others and willfully disregarded it.

[evh5150]

Ron thanks for all the info and the eye opener . Your story is amazing and I cannot believe the bar owner told you that , I will never plug my guitar amp into another outlet that isn't proper its to risky and expensive now I am going to try to asses my damage to both my pa and amp , at this point I must retract and see if my guitar amp was actually plugged into a 2 prong or the pa or both it may have been reversed thus the board zapped me but that wouldn't explain the other guitars acting up. Any tests you think I could run to test both my pickups outputs once the jacks our replace and the amp to make sure it still works properly? As i stated it did seem to be shorting out the cabinet . I am going to plug it in now that I have an idea of what happend and start trouble shooting.

[bassist_25]

I told the owner of the bar this and his exact works where "I've been doing this for ten years with that outlet and onebody has been killed yet". I told him just because it has not happened yet doesn't mean it won't. The owner seemed to care less.

Should have told him that the one outlet could land him in prison.

Recklessness or willful blindness is defined as a wanton disregard for the known dangers of a particular situation. There exists no intent to kill; consequently, a resulting death may not be considered murder. However, the conduct is probably reckless, sometimes used interchangeably with criminally negligent, which may subject the principal to prosecution for involuntary manslaughter: the individual was aware of the risk of injury to others and willfully disregarded it.

I've played some rooms that I'm surprised haven't burned to the ground yet because of the horrible wiring in them.

There's one particular club we use to play (don't anymore because the owner became a major PITA) that I use to hate playing because the wiring caused all kinds of hum to go through my rig and the FOH. Setup always took like an extra 20 minutes because we had to spend it looking for clean recepticles.

[songsmith]

You can pick up receptacle analyzers at Harbor Freight on sale sometimes for $4.00, and I always have one in the gig box. Sometimes lots of headaches can be avoided by checking your power situation. I generally also guesstimate what else is on that AC circuit, like air conditioners, neon signs, and such. Usually all it takes to fix that is an extension cord to get you to the next best outlet, but keep your cords as short as possible.
Outdoor shows are the worst. I've had 220V in a supposed 110V line at a kegger. I've been at the end of 5 french fryers and 20 fluorescent lights at carnivals. I've played on a generator out in the woods. You have to be careful, people get killed.---->JMS

[onetooloud]

I'd recomend an outlet tester to everyone. They are cheap and almost foolproof to use.

I think they cost around 5 dollars at Lowes and home Depot heck I'll bet you could find one at China Mart.

We need to post an image of one so all can see how simple they are.