Kinda urgent- Mild shock troubleshoot

[Dred]

Right, been away for a few weeks, feels great to be back home! Both, my house and JCF. Anyway, let's get to what I want to say, and we'll go from there.


So I'm playing today, and get a scrape to my pinky off of my volume pot shaft (the knob loosened from use, and I haven't a small enough allen key handy to fix it back into place), and carry on playing. The thought of the scrape being a shock was almost instant, but being a glass-half-full guy, I took it as a challenge of sorts- see if it could happen again. It did, this time, with more kick. and again one more time, I think.

I'm playing a solid state amp, dual hum guitar grounded well (will nit pick it tomorrow) with the inner coils selected, through a somewhat crackling cable that feels like shorting out when under physical pressure.

This didn't seem like the everyday grounding problem you have with most guitars, where you simply touch it and it shocks ya. I had to be playing, or at least it happened those two/three times while I was playing; no matter how hard I tried after the first shock, I couldn't get zapped again simply touching anything metal- everytime I got shocked, I was playin'.

So I'll change the cable to my backup shorty, tuner cable and go over the grounding in detail (the trem bar crackles when loose, but it could be static- Gotoh bar collars are lined with Delrin, after all. It's my Beta concern anyway).

I can't check the amp, so I'll ask for advice here. I don't feel like hauling the fucker to some dim-witted part-time tech (or just simply put, your average everyday tech 'round this neck of the woods), because finding a real tech is damn near impossible, nor can I check it myself, but seems I'll have to if my cables and grounding checks out. So I'll have those three factors sorted, with the cable being the first, of course. That being said, anything else I should look into while I'm at it? Don't feel like dyin' a death like that just yet. Any input is well appreciated. Thanks guys.

[Axewielder]

This is usually a grounding issue between the amp and the wall socket. Sometime wall sockets have wiring problems and aren't grounded, which can be easily checked with a voltmeter. If it's an amp wiring problem, that is beyond my pay scale! It cannot be a guitar or guitar cord issue.

[Dred]

It cannot be a guitar or guitar cord issue.

Thought so myself, since to my knowledge the amperage in the guitar's wiring is quite laughable. Or something like that.

I an using an extension cord, was going to mention that before I even began my post, so I'll have a look at that. I'm also in europe using those three prong UK plugs, if that's of any help. They do have fuses in them, but I wouldn't trust my life on the buggers.

Haven't really tried using a voltmeter. Ever. What should the reading look like, if it were to say 'Aye, you're runnin a deathtrap there, laddie!' (in a pronounced Glaswegian dialect, ideally ). In other words, how will I know I'm screwed by my socket?

[Cygnus X1]

Buy a socket-checking device first.
I really don't know what the Euro sockets look like, I know here in the US there is plenty of opportunity to get things wrong at the point of the socket. Things will seem just fine until you plug in something like a guitar amp, and suddenly there is a reverse polarity because the socket is wired incorrectly.
If this only happens on one amp, it may be the primary wiring in the amp is fishy?

[Axewielder]

You have this BS1363 stuff?



On that wall socket, the top is ground, the bottom left is neutral, and the bottom right is hot. You want to see 230 V between hot and ground, and 230 V between hot and neutral.

[Tommie]

You can check grounding of your entire system in a single move, this won't tell you what's wrong if something is duff, but it will instantly confirm if your grounding is good.

Set your rig up ready to play, everything plugged in pedals, leads an all, but don't power up. Pull the mains plug from the wall and using your multimeter set to the lowest Ohms setting (use the setting with the continuity beeper if it has one), connect one probe to the earth pin of your amp's mains plug, other probe to your guitar strings. If your system is all correctly grounded, you should get:
- full deflection on an old fashioned needle scaled meter
- close to 0 ohms (and usually a beep) on as digital meter

If you get no reading, you have a grounding problem, and you then need to check the system in stages, starting from amp earth pin to amp chassis, amp to pedal lead etc.

[Foulacy]

well it's the amp or the wall, you can't get shocked from your guitar. a guitar grounding issue will just hum loudly.