Electricity Problems! Help!

[Sean White III]

Whenever I touch my mic and the strings on my guitar at the same time I get shocked. This is especially inconvenient when I'm singing and my lips touch the mic. It hurts. Can somebody tell me what could be causing this? I have a gig this Saturday and I hope to get the problem fixed by then. Thanks.

[BlueOrb]

are your mic and guitar running to the same thing?

[bigmuff]

Check the earth link of your amp and/or house!!!!

it sounds like your amp isn't grounded!
the "lost" current from your amp flow trough your lips to the ground of the PA-amp...... this is very dangerous!!!!!
one more loose wire in your amp and you look at the lawn from a different side.....

check your amp
or lern stairway to heaven.......

[corvette]

Originally posted by Sean White III
Whenever I touch my mic and the strings on my guitar at the same time I get shocked. This is especially inconvenient when I'm singing and my lips touch the mic. It hurts. Can somebody tell me what could be causing this? I have a gig this Saturday and I hope to get the problem fixed by then. Thanks.

I've had that before as well......you have a ground loop. What's happening is the ground of the PA and the ground of your amp are connecting via your lips.....the common link is the bridge wire connecting your strings to ground. When you touch the string, you complete the circuit......best case, it's annoying, worst case.....you die from electrocution.
You can solder a resistor and cap on the bridge wire to reduce the shock hazard, but you still get a buzz.........about the only thing I found to prevent it is to use a guitar wireless system, so you are not physically connected to the amp.
corvette

[Sean White III]

This is my setup...:

Mic goes into PA (On table next to me).
Mic is on boom stand (In front of me)
Guitar is connected to amp head via 1/4" (About 6 feet behind me, on the ground)

Both the amp and the PA mixer are plugged into the same extension cord (Could this have anything to do with it?)

Thanks for your help.

[bigmuff]

is your system grounded?
it sounds like not......

[corvette]

Originally posted by Sean White III
This is my setup...:

Mic goes into PA (On table next to me).
Mic is on boom stand (In front of me)
Guitar is connected to amp head via 1/4" (About 6 feet behind me, on the ground)

Both the amp and the PA mixer are plugged into the same extension cord (Could this have anything to do with it?)

Thanks for your help.

It might......make sure it's a 3 wire cord with 3 prong ends.....sometimes they break off, or people break them off. The moulded multiple ends tend to break as well.....I'd use a good quality power bar instead. Now.......
The other thing you have going on is because the amp and PA are chassis grounded, you have more than one path to ground......it can go from the guitar through your amp, or through the PA, when you make contact with the mic. Because of this, sometimes you create voltage across the grounds, resulting in buzzing in the PA (in DI Boxes) or in your case, a lip zap.
These things are hard to get rid of, unfortunately.....if you know anybody who has knowledge of electricity, it would be wise to enlist them to help you out.
corvette

[Lukin]

well....your must have a ground conecction from your amp...otherwise...YOU will be the coneection...and well..thats not a nice story...check out your amp wires, your plug conecction to electricity are important to, also check your mic isolation, statics cuold be very annoying to....and the most important thing....
"dont be afraid of electricity, but treat it with respect"

[Sean White III]

Thanks everyone...

Both the amp and the PA mixer are grounded... Could it be because I am using a vintage head and cab?

[Sean White III]

Originally posted by gururyan
Glad to see you are still alive...I am still searching for where I read EXACTLY what you need to know.

...damnit!...where did I read this!?!?


....it's REALLY starting to bug me.

It sounds like what you're looking for would help me a bunch. Thanks... in advance?

[joeinthebox1980]

i don't know if this was the one Guru was thinking of... but it's interesting information:

http://www.guitarnuts.com/safety/clubshock.html

good luck!

[Sean White III]

Wow, that's really helpful, thanks! I think this might be my situation:

"Failure of the guitarist's own amplifier places a lethal voltage on the "ground" side of the jack and thus on the strings. This scenario is usually only encountered on early vintage equipment. Even then such failures are extremely rare but when they occur they can place hundreds of volts DC on the "ground" side of the jack and the failure may be difficult to detect until the shock knocks you on your backside. This failure is basically impossible with modern three-prong equipment plugged into a properly grounded three-prong mains outlet. Never use ground lift adaptors on power cords! The shock path is from the amplifer, through the guitar chord to the guitar bridge and strings, to the guitarist's fingers. From there the shock path either goes through the guitarist to the floor through his feet or through the guitarist to a grounded piece of equipment such as a microphone. Even the first path through the resistance of shoes and floor covering may sometimes be lethal because the voltage potential is so high. The second path is easily lethal because the path from the guitarist to earth ground has very little resistance to the flow of current. "

[BlueOrb]

At least you'd die doing somthing you love

[Sean White III]

Originally posted by BlueOrb
At least you'd die doing somthing you love

Not quite what I was looking for...