Ground Lift

Drunken Bowling

Drunken Bowling

New member
Yesterday I bought a Fender Mustang III combo amp. It has a button on the back labeled, "Ground Lift." Does anyone know what this is for? The owner's manual doesn't have any info on it, as far as I can tell.

These are great amps, btw. I'm glad I gave them a second chance.
 
Re: Ground Lift

Drunken Bowling said:
Yesterday I bought a Fender Mustang III combo amp. It has a button on the back labeled, "Ground Lift." Does anyone know what this is for? The owner's manual doesn't have any info on it, as far as I can tell.

These are great amps, btw. I'm glad I gave them a second chance.
Click to expand...

It disconnects the dedicated ground on the power cord. Don't use it unless you're experiencing noise due to a ground loop as it can be a potential shock hazard.
 
Re: Ground Lift

In our old old old building we practice in, the wiring is terrible. And the common ground coming from one room is way different from the next room, so if I'm plugged into guitar and go to touch the mic. It shocks the beejeezus out of my lips! Worse than tattoo needles.... makes my face numb kind of pain.

So we use a ground lift on my amp to alleviate the shock.
 
Re: Ground Lift

80's_Metal said:
In our old old old building we practice in, the wiring is terrible. And the common ground coming from one room is way different from the next room, so if I'm plugged into guitar and go to touch the mic. It shocks the beejeezus out of my lips! Worse than tattoo needles.... makes my face numb kind of pain.

So we use a ground lift on my amp to alleviate the shock.
Click to expand...

That's another valid use for the ground lift.

Your particular problem reminds me of a drummer I used to jam with. He had a rehearsal space with PA, so we'd play there once in a while. Most of the vocal mics were SM58s, but he had one cheap knockoff that would shock me like that. I'm pretty sure it wasn't room wiring because none of the other mics did that, and that knockoff always shocked me regardless of which PA channel it was on or where my amp was plugged in.
 
Re: Ground Lift

I've played some shows where the mics did not. I'd be talking like I had a fat lip for a couple of days afterwards.
 
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