Getting Shocked From Amp (I think)

taylormade

hey Guys -

trying to trouble shoot this one. I'm getting shocked (literally) by my rig. I did a bit of diagnostic, and it walks up the chain to the amp - i.e. if I have a chain of

Amp -> Wah, the case of the Wah shocks me - nothing serious, but enough to make your hand/arm tingle.

Where should I start to T/S this? Building Ground? Something internal to the amp?

Thanks!

tragictravisty

yea, supposedly this means your guitar isnt grounded well

JaguarOW

lol i got shocked by my overdrive pedal while unplugging it

tragictravisty

i got shocked from my ps2 while unplugging it

taylormade

Well, to add to the story, I used a circuit/outlet tester, as described here:

http://www.guitarnuts.com/technical/ele ... /index.php

And... All the outlets come up a-ok.

When I say a shock, it's a pretty good one - like bang your funny bone.

Amp? Guitar?

tragictravisty

the guy at my local music store says grounding.

AnotherTool

Plug your guitar into a different amp, and see if the hum dies when you touch the strings. Repeat this for every metal piece on the guitar and you might be able to rule that out but i'd say it was an amp problem for sure.

taylormade

Thanks for the help guys. I didn't get a chance to do anymore trouble shooting last night, I'll work on it more tonight (hopefully) and report back.

tragictravisty

yea, get an extremely dirty tone, and you should get hum when your hands are off the guitar. if not, either your guitar is shielded incredibly, or its a grounding issue with the guitar. The hum'll stop when your hands touch the strings. there are two ways to find out if its guitar or amp, do the above method with your amp and another, or do it with another guitar which you know is grounded with your amp.

Purplehaze19x

Yeah, i would check to make sure the ground prong on the AC cord is still intact.

tragictravisty

hes right, use a new cable too

TheJam104

I got shocked in electrical class when my finger got stuck under a whole hand got stuck behind a breaker.

taylormade

Well, I've narrowed it down to a confusing (and troubling) building ground issue, after other things shocked me too. I'll keep posted with a resolution.

tragictravisty

do you live in an apartment complex, house, condo, etc.? I hope youre not renting, that would be troubling.

AnotherTool

Get that fixed as soon as possible man, a power surge or lighting strike and it's death by guitar.

tylerfender

my guitar was huming alot one time and i just got a new chord, it quit immediatly.

taylormade

Well, we'll see if there is another issue, but the ground was disconnected in the feed to the room - so either a) there is/was voltage on the floating ground - which is now fixed, or 😎 there is another short somewhere that was putting power onto the ground - but that should now kick a breaker and I can go troubleshoot it if it happens again.

If problem recurs, I'll be back!

cobascis

At the last two band practices, our singer was shocked by the mic, and he wasn't holding a guitar which is the usual problem, he was drumming. 😵