Why is my mic shocking me

Your face gets a big electric shock from the microphone. When mic shocks happens, look at the soundboard and speakers that your mic and instrument are plugged into.

Follow the power cables to the outlets and make sure all plugs have three prongs. Whenever you touch your face to the mic and your hand to the guitar strings, you are completing a circuit and the result is pretty rough.

The solution? Ditch any two-prong cords and replace them with grounded three prong cables at every outlet. Not an option?

Use a pop screen on the mic as a quick fix a coat-hanger and tights can do the trick in a pinch. A quick fix is to put an isolation transformer inline with your mic. Something like this:. You could also go wireless guitar or mic and loose the conductive connection back to one of the grounds. Just a stupid idea I always use one.

Getting mild shocks used to be pretty common. These days there's no excuse - something is wrong with the equipment, and there's very likely a safety hazard. Cheaper to get it fixed than to get sued when somebody gets hurt. I always run the power cabling myself since then and haven't had a shock since.

If your amp has a ground switch like the old Fenders, have it disabled. Fender 65 reissues have the switch, but it's just for looks - it's not connected to anything.

If you still get shocked, change wall outlets until you find one that has its ground at the same potential as the PA's outlet grounds. Big mistake. The mic shocked me so bad, it was like someone punched me in the mouth and I almost fell down. He had no foam covers, and since the show must go on, we put condoms over the mics and did the gig. It was a bit odd with the nipples sticking up over the mic ball, but condoms were something everyone had an abundance of at an after prom party and so we went with it.

People coming in thought it was deliberately part of our schtick. I carry one of these with me in my gig bag to check for stray AC voltage.

When voltage is detected it flashes red and beeps. I run it over all the mics prior to soundchecking. Still have a mark on my lip from lipping a mic and holding an electric guitar while on stage, years ago. About knocked me to my knee's. Bad ground or no ground. Don't mess with it. Check it out before hand. B Money Member.

Messages 6, TubeStack Silver Supporting Member. Messages 11, This was happening at our rehearsal space, every time my mouth touched the mic. I became like a trained rat and learned how to sing without ever touching the mic, for years.

RupertB said:. Don't take a chance. Scary stuff, Italy's electrical wiring is notorious for this stuff, heads up to those who don't know. Saxon68 Member. Messages 7, VaughnC said:. You must log in or register to reply here. Trending Topics. Your go-to guitar…. Started by jlectka Yesterday at PM Replies: