Question about Electricity

Andrew Lamprecht

Andrew Lamprecht

Minion of One
Hey guys, haven't been here in a while but I had a question. I moved from Michigan to New York a little over a month ago. The place I moved into was a very old home that actually had no electricity until a few years ago (I do have a wood stove though!! woot woot lol). It was actually completely done about 5 years ago. I noticed when I am playing guitar that if I lay my hands over the strings I can feel the electricity coming through the strings. It's a very light, tingling sensation.... It doesn't hurt but it freaked me out the first time it happened. I tried all 3 of my amps and 2 electric guitars. They all do this no matter the combination of equipment. I feel safe making the assumption its the electricity and not a piece of my equipment.

I read online and it seems to be split, either its not a huge deal and just ignore it (which would be awesome) or time to freak out. So which is it? Will I be fine? I've been playing about an hour a day since I've got here and I haven't died yet lol. Safe to assume I can continue and just ignore it?

Thanks guys!
 
Re: Question about Electricity

$5...

Receptacle_tester_demonstration.jpg


http://m.homedepot.com/p/Klein-Tools-Receptacle-Tester-RT100/203195018/
 
Re: Question about Electricity

Here's a pretty simple line of advice I've heard, which can be applied here, "There are two types of circuits: live ones, and non-live ones. Treat all of them as if they're live."

Check it, but I wouldn't take any chances. You don't want to play around with power outlets, especially if they have faulty grounding.
 
Re: Question about Electricity

Sounds like a grounding issue mate, get one of those meters or better still get the whole place checked out by an electrician. Surely that cost should be met by your landlord? you shouldn't be using ANY electrical equipment let alone plugging in and playing through an amp until it's checked out!!!!!!
 
Re: Question about Electricity

Check the ground with the tester. Try the other outlets in your place too, to make sure it's not just that outlet. If it's a faulty ground, have the landlord hire an electrician.
 
Re: Question about Electricity

Bad ground. You don't want to be what completes a circuit between a poorly grounded instrument and say, a poorly grounded mic.
 
Re: Question about Electricity

Check the grounding of your outlet with one of those 3 LED testers.

If you don't have a tester just disconnect the breaker for that room and check if the outlet has been properly wired. Electrical wiring in a house should be very simple. You should have a thick white cable housing with three wires in it. The black wire should be hot, the white wire should be your return, and the bare wire should be your ground. Ensure that the bare wire is properly screwed down on the back of the outlet to the ground contact (often a green painted screw). Sometimes they slip loose when the electrician shoves all the wires back into the box.

If there isn't a bare ground wire in the box, or connected to the outlet then you need to contact your landlord to have it fixed (and probably a bunch in the rest of the house need to be fixed). If the ground for the outlet is just connected to the electrical box and nothing else you need to contact your landlord too. It's against pretty much every code I've ever seen to have a three prong outlet without a ground.
 
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Re: Question about Electricity

Your circuit only has a neutral but not a true ground. A neutral is only "at or near" 0 volts where a ground is at local ground potential.
Do you go through a lot of light bulbs?
I'm not an electrician, I'm a Journeyman Lineman.
 
Re: Question about Electricity

Grounding issue or missing ground or even wrong wiring. PFDarkside is right, that tester will basically tell you what is wrong and you can then plan on how to fix it. Invest on a good ground connection for your home and you may actually saving everyone there from any potential electric shock from other devices.
 
Re: Question about Electricity

had a similar porblem at my house, if i ever tried to play a fender strat it would hum like crazy unless i touched the strings, or bridge, tunning key, pretty much anyhting metal on the guitar, then it would go quite. i also noticed that my tube amps are extremely noisey with hum and popping. i used to do electrical work so i pulled the receptacle and no ground at all. i checked my panel and i grounds are hooked up, my electrical service uses a water pipe for the ground. i have lived at this house since 1982 and i never noticed this. i have a call into my electric compnay to come check my nuetral coming from the pole. i suspect that my ground wire (going to my water pipe) is what has kept me from getting the shocked, but i am sure i have a floating nuetral, also i see the lights in my house dim, my tv dims, all types of wierd feaky stuff
 
Re: Question about Electricity

GuitarStv said:
Check the grounding of your outlet with one of those 3 LED testers.

The black wire should be hot, the white wire should be your return, and the bare wire should be your ground.
Click to expand...

Yes, and yes. Most everything in electronics uses black for ground. House wiring, for some reason, uses black for hot. If the guy rewired the house himself, he may not have known this. On the outlet, "hot" is the smallest of the two "sideways" prongs.
 
Re: Question about Electricity

I bought an outlet tester and tested them all. They all said "correct wiring." I still feel the buzzing though? Is it safe to play at this point?
 
Re: Question about Electricity

Go to the circuit breaker, kill the power to the room, and look inside the outlet to make sure it is wired correctly. ArtieToo brought up a possibility, and it is worth checking that out. I'd still bring it up with your landlord and get it checked by an electrician. You shouldn't be getting shocked. Period.
 
Re: Question about Electricity

Please..PLEASE call a state licensed qualified electrician. This isn't a 'DIY' thing.
 
Re: Question about Electricity

Is the power plug of your amp 2-prong or 3-prong? And if its 2-prong, is one prong a bit wider than the other?
 
Re: Question about Electricity

Hmm. If the tester said they're correctly wired, then you probably don't need to pull the outlet . . . they should be wired correctly. Did you check all the outlets in the house? Maybe something in another room is miswired and this is causing some current to be present on the ground?

EDIT - Also what artie said above . . . if you have a 2-prong amp you might need to flip the ground reverse switch.
 
Re: Question about Electricity

Is the same power cable being used for all three amps? It might be worn or broken from within the insulation. Maybe there's not enough mains ground from for the house?
 
Re: Question about Electricity

I've seen some old rental houses locally where the ground rod out in the yard near where the elec connects to the house has either come out of the dirt somehow or the cable is not secured tightly. That's the first place I'd look. But your lights would flicker s abut as well. Or your light bulbs would burn out a lot.


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