This ought to start a liveley discussion LOL

[jh45gun]

I have been told by some of the building is not wired right a 3 prong plug will not help you at all. Comments? Actually a tech friend told me this and a electrician I know backed him up on that as far as if the wireing is wrong. Which comes to the debate of the reversing the plug or polarity switch ect.

[CatfishStudios]

My uncles house is not grounded..old place..bad hum there..got an old tweed champ that I plug into when im there..and if its buzzing I flop the plug..works

[quackerz]

It's very common for buildings to be wired poorly. Hot and neutral reversed, ungrounded grounds, neutrals measuring better than 1V to ground, etc. I convert to 3-prong but also carry an outlet tester and refuse to plug in if the wiring is awry.

[tiktok]

If the outlet isn't actually grounded, using a three-prong plug isn't going to help anything. They sell testers at Radio Shack that'll tell you if that's the case.

[jh45gun]

Originally Posted by tiktok

If the outlet isn't actually grounded, using a three-prong plug isn't going to help anything. They sell testers at Radio Shack that'll tell you if that's the case.

Which is what my amp tech friend and electrician friend told me a polarity switch would be better so your could match to the circuit. It seems like now days on these forums 3 prong plugs are gospel and any other thing is wrong.

[getbent]

Originally Posted by jh45gun

It seems like now days on these forums 3 prong plugs are gospel and any other thing is wrong.

Having your house or business wired to code makes sense. It is a safety issue. People should have their houses checked out or check them out to make sure they are safe and to code.

Using an ungrounded plug CAN present a safety issue for the user. If you've ever been hit with voltage as you leaned into a microphone (I have) it is a singularly unpleasant experience. If all circuits are properly wired and grounded as are your amps you greatly reduce the opportunity to be killed by electricity (or be shocked)

If your house is wired correctly and you still use a two prong plug or defeat the ground, you are increasing the likelihood of being electrocuted. Installing a three prong plug is one step in avoiding that. It won't fix a building that is wired substandardly, but it will help you in a building that is wired correctly.

[RocksOff]

Agreed

[jh45gun]

Get Bent you do not have to tell me about leaning into microphones and getting shocked since I am 8 years older I probably got nailed before you ever did. Yea its no bargain but even with 3 prong cords on amps I have been shocked if the outlet was not right ect. That is why my amp tech suggested the reverse plug method or the polarity switch a way to over come bad wireing.

[johnporter]

Originally Posted by jh45gun

Get Bent you do not have to tell me about leaning into microphones and getting shocked since I am 8 years older I probably got nailed before you ever did. Yea its no bargain but even with 3 prong cords on amps I have been shocked if the outlet was not right ect. That is why my amp tech suggested the reverse plug method or the polarity switch a way to over come bad wireing.

The only time you know you need the reverse feature,is when you have already been zapped. This is rarely lethal,but if it was a leathal hit---too late!
Curious what your tech/electrician's offer for advice as to when to use this feature.

[boris bubbanov]

Originally Posted by tiktok

If the outlet isn't actually grounded, using a three-prong plug isn't going to help anything. They sell testers at Radio Shack that'll tell you if that's the case.

The tester is better than nothing but those testers will provide you with some pretty misleading information as well.

Yeah, I think that's one of the more irresponsible things people do when they convert a wall outlet to 3 prong but provide no actual ground. Such as connecting to iron pipe that runs to PEX pipe, this sort of thing.

Seems like there should be some form of portable GFCI device that can be installed in series, that you can buy; I'm drawing a blank on this.

[jh45gun]

Originally Posted by johnporter

The only time you know you need the reverse feature,is when you have already been zapped. This is rarely lethal,but if it was a leathal hit---too late!
Curious what your tech/electrician's offer for advice as to when to use this feature.

What he told me was you plug your amp in and if it hums you reverse the plug or the polarity to get rid of the hum then it should also be right with the wireing. Of course then the other folks amps and PA has to be taken into consideration too. Since most new PAs have the 3 prong plugs there is no reversing the cord or do they have a polarity switch. I wonder if a meter between the strings of your guitar and the mic stand or mic would tell you by taking a reading each way?

[cantolina]

Originally Posted by jh45gun

Get Bent you do not have to tell me about leaning into microphones and getting shocked since I am 8 years older I probably got nailed before you ever did. Yea its no bargain but even with 3 prong cords on amps I have been shocked if the outlet was not right ect. That is why my amp tech suggested the reverse plug method or the polarity switch a way to over come bad wireing.

I used to tour with a National Artist who shall remain nameless...as the Engineer, one of my jobs was to PROVE to him that he wouldn't be shocked by his mic while playing his guitar by doing it myself...

I spent many an afternoon tracking down the source of a "zap" on perfectly grounded systems....

That being said, I've used "ground lifts" MANY times, in crappy clubs AND basements and NOT had an issue....

The OP's info is correct, however....

If the outlet's not grounded, the amp's not grounded...but even if it is, there's no guarantee you won't get zapped, anyway....

Potential to ground is the key point, and its many times a "moving target"

Electricity ALWAYS seeks the path of least resistance....

Also, overloading of a single leg in a multiphase electrical system will cause "return" voltage on the neutral (a single neutral must carry a balance of all of its hots in a system, or it gets overloaded), which affects both the "hum" in an amp (no matter what you do, unless you even the load) and ground potential...

[hockey_head]

115 vac, the "nuetral" or long terminal in a modern 3 hole socket, is connected to ground. "hot", is the smaller staright slot. if hot and nuetral are reversed, you get noise. a light bulb or an toaster will work fine but audio gear
hums....buy a $5-8 outlet tester at the hardware store and routinely verify the safety and polarity of your gig or jam outlets. testers are easy to use and can identify open ground and hot/nuetral reversed situations.
if you use an old two-wire vintage amp, find out which wire is switched on the amp, this is the hot side, mark your wall plug hot side and make sure you plug in the smaller slot on tested good wall sockets.
i have seen the flash of lightning from my lips to the microphone and felt my arms go wiered playing vintage amps.

[maestrovert]

jes' my $.02 here:
Get one, use it !

[drewsblues]

Okay... just to chime in (and show my true ignorance of things electrical): Plugging an old two-prong into a surge protector/power strip-type deal doesn't do any good does it? I'm thinking that since there's still no ground wire going back to the amp, you're not getting the benefits of the strip's ground.

Anyone?

[DADGAD]

Originally Posted by maestrovert

jes' my $.02 here:
Get one, use it !

+1

Every gig bag should have one.

[jh45gun]

Originally Posted by drewsblues

Okay... just to chime in (and show my true ignorance of things electrical): Plugging an old two-prong into a surge protector/power strip-type deal doesn't do any good does it? I'm thinking that since there's still no ground wire going back to the amp, you're not getting the benefits of the strip's ground.

Anyone?

Correct as far as I am concerned.

[JohnnyCrash]

If your other amps were not humming and this one is... your tech is not too bright for this as his first diagnosis/solution of your current build's problems.

Sure some houses are out of code, but chances are they'd be in the backwoods and very OLD dwellings (my old man is a building inspector).

Although to be fair, I played a gig at this small bar that used to be a roadhouse bar back in the day (I think the '40s/'50s) - the mic kept zapping my lip... so a TINY amount of places may still have problems. Still, this guy's assessment of your amp's noise issues is retarded.

So far, the things you've mentioned about this "tech" (the word is used too loosely these days) have me very skeptical about anything he has to say. Too bad you don't live close to TDPRI'er Wally here, he sounds like he knows what he is talking about 100% of the time.

[Colt W. Knight]

Theres an outlet in the house I live in thats not grounded right. When I plug into it, I get shocked when I touch metal on my amp or touch metal on my guitar. Took me a few times realize it wasnt just static. I just moved to Wyoming recently, and I get bad static shocks from everything. Its so bad, I have a habit of flicking door knobs and my truck before touching them. I dont use that outlet anylonger. I had to take a bad shock before I realized it was more than static. My amp has a 3 prong chord

[robt57]

I keep one of these in the back of my AMP, new plugs, gets a test before I plug it in.

[robt57]

Damn that's a big pic!!!

[mofugly13]

They make those with a button to test GFCI receptacles, to ensure they are working properly, plug the tester in, push the button, and the GFCI should trip. FWIW by code, an ungrounded receptacle can only be replaced by a GFCI receptacle if there is no ground available at the junction box where the receptacle is mounted. Es no bueno to replace an ungrounded receptacle with a regular 3-prong grounded one, which is what happens a lot by DIYers. And this is why you should have one of those testers mentioned in an above post.

[beep.click]

Originally Posted by boris bubbanov

Seems like there should be some form of portable GFCI device that can be installed in series, that you can buy; I'm drawing a blank on this.

Don't know if it does any good, but here's an extension cord with built-in GFCI:

http://www.rewci.com/50grfaciinge.html

[beep.click]

Originally Posted by johnporter

The only time you know you need the reverse feature,is when you have already been zapped. This is rarely lethal,but if it was a leathal hit---too late!
Curious what your tech/electrician's offer for advice as to when to use this feature.

I used to play a 2-prong Pro Reverb all the time. After I got zapped a few times, I put a foam windscreen on the mic.

The reverse switch WOULD solve the lip-zap problem.

Another test I got in the habit of doing: hold the guitar by WOOD ONLY, and bring the string up to the mic. If it was ready to zap, you'd hear a sizzling crackle, even before the strings actually touched the metal.

Recently, I got a Hum-X for ground loop hum issues. Not sure how this thing works; can't find a real explanation anywhere. Somewhere I got it in my head that it's an electronic form of ground lift. Don't know if that would help with shocks or not...