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November 2002
Posts: 93
Location: Canada | Question about Electric grounding wires. Are they really necessary?? I keep getting shocks when I play my guitar... ouch! Obviously from the grounding wire.. so are they really necessary?? ANy remedy to this? |
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February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | If you are referring to the ground wire connectiong the controls to the bridge, it is intended to reduce earth hum. If you are getting shocks it's not the guitar at fault & this really needs to be addressd, as certainly in the UK it can be a sign that there is a major & potentially lethal problem with the equipment the guitar is plugged into, or the mains wiring.
[ December 06, 2002: Message edited by: Paul Templeman ] |
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Location: NJ | I'd have the amp checked out. |
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Location: NJ | a little 110 ac jolt just is enough to wake you up
when you start dealing with 420 or 220 that's when it gets dangerous
just teasing |
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November 2002
Posts: 93
Location: Canada | Most of the Ovation Electrics use active systems which do not require grounding to the brdige. I'm not too sure about the Viper though.
But the problem I'm having is with one of my GSs. I've already changed one of my GSs to an active EMG so there is no grounding required there but as for my other one which still uses the Dimarzio stock passive, it still gives me shocks! I'm running it through a Boss VF-1 to a little Peavey practice amp currently but I still get the shocks. |
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December 2001
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Could be your house wiring also. In my "bag 'o stuff" I keep a Behringer DI box. Although the DI is handy, it also provides a ground lift function on the input.
Anyway... I would try to isolate the problem and one of the first things to check is where the amp is plugged in. You can get a little 3-prong tester that shows if it's wired properly. Just because it has 3-prongs doesn't mean something has wiggled loose and it's not grounded anymore. |
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November 2002
Posts: 93
Location: Canada | Ok, I did a little research. Turns out some people put capictors between the bridge ground and the electronics. Does anyone know anything about this? Or what the capacitor is rated at?? |
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December 2001
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Before doing any modification, you really should identify the problem. What type of amp is it? Does this amp shock you no matter where it's plugged in, and no matter what is plugged into it? What about when nothing is plugged into it? It could be just a faulty part in the power supply which is easily remedied. The key is find the problem before trying to fix it. It could even be something as silly as a bad guitar cable, power cord, leaky cap in the power supply, bad rectifier tube (or any other tube if it's a tube amp of course), a bad switch, a wire too close to the chassis on the inside of the case or house wiring. The list is long.. so how about some info and maybe I can give you some simple tests that do not really require much in the way of tools.
Adding an extra filter cap is a nice mod on an amp that is already in good condition, but may have need for filtering to protect it from interference or wiring situations that didn't exist when it was produced. Adding a filter cap to a "bad" amp could cause more damage... and in fact could result in something as downright annoying as DEATH! (ruins your whole afternoon in my book). Sorry to be so harsh, but it's a rather silly outcome for a possible 75 cent part replacement. I am 44 years old and still have the scars on my right hand from a power supply accident that happened in 1974 when a test lead dropped and shorted a transformer to the chassis of an amp I was working on. |
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Location: Scotland | I think the mod you are referring to is putting a resistor in the ground wire path, which burns out if it gets AC voltage. The trick is not to get AC voltage down your guitar cord in the first place. Have your gear checked by a pro. Like Miles, I have scars on my right hand from electrical burns caused by (somebody else's) faulty gear. Don't take chances with mains juice. In the UK we have residual current circuit breakers which trip out at a 30mA leakage to earth, they are good indicators of dodgy gear and can be life-savers.
[ December 07, 2002: Message edited by: Paul Templeman ] |
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Grounding Wire
