Riaan
I just wondered about something... I've seen one or two movie scenes where the villain fiddles with some poor guitarist's kit before the show, and when the guitarist strikes his first chord...sparks, smoke, our guitarist convulses and then drops dead on stage. Ouch...
I've also heard David Gilmour relating a story on his Remember That Night DVD how they used to let the guitar strings first make contact with a mike stand without touching the strings when playing in the rain, and on one occassion he apparently saw one of Roger Water's bass strings burn through as current was discharged.
So, is this possible? Under what circumstances can one get an electric shock from your guitar?
Squonk
I seem to recall that Gary Thain, bassit for Uriah Heep had an elctric shock during a gig and was tossed a couple of metres in the air. He did survive. Not too sure why it happened though. Will research on net
arjunmenon
Strangely, i read about this in the Q&A section of Guitar Player magazine. I was not aware that Gilmour did the same thing. And to answer your question, it is possible for that to happen. Its physics, the string making contact with the mic stand (un-earthed) would complete the circuit..at least, that was the answer in the guitar mag. Can't say i have seen this happen though.
MikeM
I read something similar to this but wrt pickup wiring. Can't remember what exactly was said, but a wiring fault that'd shock you if you touched the pups or bridged them with the strings... Will try find it!
Heath
definetly possible , its normally caused by bad earth somewhere along the line , like a hot wire hitting the earth somewhere in the circuit , you get the tingle but no real shock until you touch a clean earth , then it kicks like a mule .
Squonk
cant find much on why Gary Thain received a shock but here is a fan's account of the event
It was 1974 and I was about 20, there in Dallas at Southern Methodist University’s Moody Coliseum with my first wife for a Uriah Heep concert; they were my favorite band. We were very close to the stage, probably around the 10th row. They were using ShowCo equipment, and were really hitting their stride; it looked to be a fabulous concert. Around the middle of ‘July Morning’, when Mick Box was doing the heavy instrumental guitar part, bassist Gary Thain, ordinarily very calm and even subdued, suddenly started seemingly dancing and jiggling around wildly on the right side of the stage where he was playing.
The band members didn't immediately realize what was happening, and continued playing until he hit the floor perhaps after only five seconds later. The crowd had been totally rocking out; then a weird silence descended, and then people started to talk, but in an almost hushed tone. After a quick medic exam, two guys carried him out, and man, he was stiff as a board. They only had to grasp his shoulders and his feet. It was obvious he had sustained a terrible electric shock through his bass guitar.
Ken Hensley, whom I considered the band's 'leader' of sorts, awkwardly said "Well, can't dance!"...and nervously paced around waiting in front of the crowd for word. After a few minutes, the show was announced cancelled, but without a group meeting or hesitation, a band member, again, if memory serves, Hensley, announced that they would play a free show later, and they did so, also at Moody.
Manfred-Klose
I shocked before and here is my survival story:
Many have probably ancoutered this type of electric shock.
Attaching a mic to a unbalanced lead connected to one of those cheap practise mic amps, pick up the guitar, and as soon as my lips touched the mic , i had quite a electric shock, wasn't painful or anything.
So i just got a cover for the mic and never shocked again.
that was quite a few years back and experimented with audio back then, and would probably never ever use a unbalanced mic lead on a mic with a cheap mic amp again.
Bob-Dubery
Riaan wrote:
So, is this possible? Under what circumstances can one get an electric shock from your guitar?
It certainly can happen - though it's probably a bit overdone in the movies.
I don't hear so many stories about these days, but back in the 60s...
As other people have said, it's down to poor or non-existent earthing.
There's a tale about Mike Heron getting a nasty shock during an Incredible String Band gig in Holland in... must have been '69 or '70. The problem was that the ISB had their own PA and amplifiers and mikes, and in addition a local radio station was broadcasting the gig and had their own mikes on the stage. Their equipment used a different power supply and was not earthed.
Heron's guitar brushed against the stand for one of the radio mikes, and when the strings came into contact with the stand that completed a circuit via the guitar lead, the amp and the amp's earth. As Heron had his hands on the strings at the time he got the shock. The ISB's set was cut short whilst he recovered. Fairport Convention came on earlier than planned, and the ISB came back on again after Fairport's set - with Heron looking pale but playing well.
Somebody died in this way. Leslie Harvey?
Christian
I have gotten a few shock when I play. On my fret hand. ☹
[deleted]
not much too say,
but do remember seeing an episode of rescue 911(if anyone remembers that) many years ago,where a guy playing in his garage got a big enough shock to get the ambulance sent out, cant remember what happened to him though.
Matt-W--Rowley
Bob Marley performed in Harare in 1980 at the Independence Celebratory concert. Like Jo'burg, in Harare you can set your clocks by the afternoon thundershowers - real electrical storms. Bob and his band happened to be on stage as the afternoon shower struck, drenching the stage and all its occupants. The result was that Bob's guitarist was seen to levitate for a bit as he earthed the stage on behalf of his amp, which shorted out in the rain and sent 240 through the cable to his hands. He was knocked out but he did survive.
toastyrat
I got a really bad shock once with a big valve amp that didn't have an earth on it. I touched my mic and fell over, the earth leakage tripped in the whole building!
Explorerlover
Mine electrocution was from stupidity, I might aswell have pushed the string into the wall socket. I was replacing strings on a bunch of guitars...the fan going and everything and one of the old strings slipped in between the multiplug and the plug for the fan, touching on of the prongs...As I was attempting to clean up the area, I grabbed the "hot" string...wasn;t a pleasant experience
