How Did I Just Get Shocked Turning my Amp On?!?

[Wound_Up]

Well, I kinda feel like an idiot. I opened the back panel and noticed right away that the V2 tube was barely in it’s socket. Somehow I misaligned it and was barely in there, with the metal pins almost touching the metal shield. I think I got a little jolt from the tube not being seated in the socket properly (metal tube shield connected to metal chassis connected to metal toggle switch). I pulled the 12AX7, reinstalled it making sure it was properly seated, and viola! No hum/hiss ( any more than normal anyways), and no shock.

Just to be 100% I checked the wall outlets with tester. They are fine. I will be purchasing an even better power strip though.

If all you need is a surge protector, Amazon has one that protects up to like 4700(four thousand seven hundred) joules(IIRC? It was somewhere around there) for like $15

For comparison, Walmart sells some that protect up to like 900(nine hundred) joules for $25

First I had one from Walmart. Then I saw the Amazon surge protector and snatched it up.

 

[Wound_Up]

I’m convinced at this point that it’s the wiring in the house. I’ve called the landlord to get an electrician out to check it. Hopefully sometime after Christmas it’ll be looked over. Until then, I’m changing outlets/circuits and only running one amp into a single outlet.

I thought you fixed it?

Edit: nevermind. Ive come to realize it's an issue I have with how TDPRI works.

I was in page 1, yet it was showing posts from pg2, including my own. So it appeared that the entire thread was on 1 page. So I was missing quite a few posts.

I hate that. Why show 14 posts from page 1 and the last 5 posts from the end of the thread on 1 page? That's just dumb.

 

[Wally]

A wall outlet tester should be a part of every electric guitarist’s
kit…less than $10. Every outlet a guitarist might use should be tested before plugging in. The life you save could be your own.

 

[TwoBear]

Sorry to ask basic questions, but: Do you have a meter? When working inside an open chassis, can you drain the filter caps?

Even more than visual inspection, you really want to test electrical continuity of your amp's whole safety ground. Luckily, you can do this totally safely, amp buttoned up, unplugged, without draining the caps, if you have a meter. Rob tells us how: "Plug a guitar cable into an input jack and check that you have continuity (meter "beep") between the guitar cable's sleeve (the part that isn't the tip) and the amp's power cord ground prong."

Good advice definitely. This may be a ok place to insert that I mentioned this to two different people;

One was selling a 5 E3 on eBay, The other was a tweed style that was in a local GC, And both of them had the rear cover installed backwards/ upside down, where the open back of the chassis is accessible to fingers through the vents- The guy on eBay said he had maybe 200 inquiries or more and no one mentioned it.

The people at GC said they had a number of people check out the amp and no one mentioned it either.

I bring it up just to mention that sometimes things can be staring you right in the face…

 

[TwoBear]

I wanted to stress that turning the power off is not enough if the amp is plugged into the wall outlet, especially when poking around near the 120AC input.

Doesn’t Victoria go almost “note for note” with respect to Fender in their wiring? Meaning “death cap” and polarity switch? Could there be a fault there? And dibs on my new band Death Cap for Cuticle’s.

 

[Willie Johnson]

Could you send it back to Victoria, or give them a call? Easy for me to say because I live two towns over from their shop, but if a tech isn't accessible to you, that might be your best option. Imagine if it was a toaster/marital aide/VCR, and think how you'd respond--getting shocked by any electrical consumer product isn't acceptable.