Guitar guy
Newbie
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- 17
I recently went wireless for my guitar to amp connection, and it occurred to me that an additional benefit is electrical safety, as I’m now isolated from the mains current. I was wondering about other people’s experiences of electrical safety at gig venues etc.
I’ve actually been playing for a long time, and I haven’t ever yet received a shock. So maybe it’s a rare occurrence. But it could happen.
For a while now, before I went wireless, I’ve been using an earth leakage circuit breaker, and connecting all of my gear through that. But if I touched some other gear that was live, like a mic stand, my ELCB wouldn’t have saved me.
It’s a long time ago now, 1972, but guitarist Les Harvey was electrocuted on stage and died. He was the guitarist with Stone the Crows, whose singer Maggie Bell went on to be signed to Zeppelin’s label Swan Song.
Apparently Les Harvey’s rig was correctly wired and grounded, but, ironically, it was that which killed him. There was a problem with the PA wiring, a mic went live and wasn’t grounded. When Les touched the mic whilst holding his guitar strings the current of course took the easiest route to earth, which was through Les Harvey’s properly earthed rig.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Harvey
My understanding is that an ELCB will only protect you if every piece of equipment is connected through the same ELCB. If say you had one ELCB on your backline, and a second on your PA, that wouldn’t prevent electrocution if say a mic was live due to a PA grounding issue and you touched it whilst holding your guitar. The circuit breaker on your backline would detect current going to earth and kill the power to your rig, but that’s not where the shock is coming from. And the PA ELCB wouldn’t shut off the current going to the mic because that current is not going to earth through the PA’s ELCB.
I just watched a studio clip of The Beatles in which George Harrison appears to receive a shock. Maybe it was only static, but I was very surprised to watch the reaction to the situation. Having said he’d received a shock, someone else tried touching the mic to see if it happened to him! Harrison was telling them to grip the mic firmly! A very unsafe response! If you suspect something is live, walk away and get a sparky to check it out, do not touch the equipment again to see if you can duplicate the shock!
I’ve actually been playing for a long time, and I haven’t ever yet received a shock. So maybe it’s a rare occurrence. But it could happen.
For a while now, before I went wireless, I’ve been using an earth leakage circuit breaker, and connecting all of my gear through that. But if I touched some other gear that was live, like a mic stand, my ELCB wouldn’t have saved me.
It’s a long time ago now, 1972, but guitarist Les Harvey was electrocuted on stage and died. He was the guitarist with Stone the Crows, whose singer Maggie Bell went on to be signed to Zeppelin’s label Swan Song.
Apparently Les Harvey’s rig was correctly wired and grounded, but, ironically, it was that which killed him. There was a problem with the PA wiring, a mic went live and wasn’t grounded. When Les touched the mic whilst holding his guitar strings the current of course took the easiest route to earth, which was through Les Harvey’s properly earthed rig.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Harvey
My understanding is that an ELCB will only protect you if every piece of equipment is connected through the same ELCB. If say you had one ELCB on your backline, and a second on your PA, that wouldn’t prevent electrocution if say a mic was live due to a PA grounding issue and you touched it whilst holding your guitar. The circuit breaker on your backline would detect current going to earth and kill the power to your rig, but that’s not where the shock is coming from. And the PA ELCB wouldn’t shut off the current going to the mic because that current is not going to earth through the PA’s ELCB.
I just watched a studio clip of The Beatles in which George Harrison appears to receive a shock. Maybe it was only static, but I was very surprised to watch the reaction to the situation. Having said he’d received a shock, someone else tried touching the mic to see if it happened to him! Harrison was telling them to grip the mic firmly! A very unsafe response! If you suspect something is live, walk away and get a sparky to check it out, do not touch the equipment again to see if you can duplicate the shock!
