Both my gallien krueger 400 rb and my traynor got me electrocuted. With the 400rb it happened while it was on, I was touching the front panel to turn it off and got electrocuted. I never opened the enclosure of this amp, so I don't know what that is, can't think a ground there got disconnected. or maybe it could have? it does sit on top of the YBA1 that sits on a 2X15 cab.

It didn't happen with the traynor, but what did happen is that when I touched the speaker cable, I got electrocuted. I didn't touch it when the amp was ON. The amp is off since sunday. This thing also happened with the gallien.
What's going on? Perhaps my speaker cable became a capacitor?
any ideas what it could be?

again, I didn't modify any of these amps. I took the YBA1 out of it's drawer just to put the tube back in, but that's it.

eliya

That's weird. I thought you were going to say you were poking around inside.

If you have not done anything recently to the amps maybe something changing with the power in your studio?

Have you changed power cables/surge protectors? Anyone working on your power lines outside?

Does the rig you are playing through have any other mains-powered gear as part of the chain?

The chassis (frontpanel, etc.) should all have very low resistance to ground.

it might be a problem with the power at your building, maybe the ground connection is broken? or it could be that a component (like the "death cap" in the Traynor) has shorted the hot to the chassis ground. not sure.

for what it's worth, you got shocked, you didn't get electrocuted. electrocuted means that you're dead now, killed by electricity. if you are posting as a ghost, I apologize for nitpicking.

have you tried unplugging everything from the inputs of both amps, and unplugging them from the main power, seeing if you can isolate which one is the problem by plugging them in one at a time and seeing which one, if either, still shocks you?

the very first thing I would do is buy an outlet tester, if you don't already have one, and test the outlet to make sure everything is correct there. I'm assuming they make a tester like that for whatever power system you have there. I just bought a US-type one this past weekend at Home Depot.

good luck! don't get hurt!

Posting as a ghost!


Snort!

scott wrote:if you are posting as a ghost, I apologize for nitpicking

Almost as good as

Bill Shakespeare wrote:Exeunt, pursued by a bear

I haven't changed anything in the power lines.
The power company people came to check our electricity consumption two weeks ago. They only used the outside cabinet(where all of the mains switches, phases, etc' are). Could it be that? I was using my amps an hour after they left and I didn't get shocked. I didn't get shocked in any of the other times I used the amps since then, until this sunday.

The two amps are connected through a splitter. The YBA1 is connected through a step down transformer which never gave me any problem. A 9 Volts DC supply for pedals is also connected to that splitter.

Haven't tried to isolate the problem yet, but I did notice that I don't get shocked if they're just plugged to the wall. It only happens after I turn the amp off(after playing it), probably will happen when it's on too.

I don't have an outlet tester, they probably sell it over here, but no one will have any idea what I'm talking about because there's probably a different name for it over here.
I can just connect a voltmeter and see if the voltage across the outlet is right. no?

Oh, and thanks for explaining me the difference between being electrocuted and shocked. It explains why I didn't find any threads about this stuff..
I will change the subject to "shocked" instead of "electrocuted" so it'll be easier to find this thread by using the search function.

sorry if I had more typos. It's 04:24am here..

thanks for the replies so far!

eliya wrote:The two amps are connected through a splitter. The YBA1 is connected through a step down transformer which never gave me any problem. A 9 Volts DC supply for pedals is also connected to that splitter.

I think this is where I'd look first. You possibly have some form of ground-loop here. I wouldn't worry about the pedals as it is likely they are earth-free (plastic pin on the adapter socket). Is the step-down transformer a specifically made box, or is it something home-made?

it is probably the step down tranny. used to happen to our bass player as he ran a 69 SVT through a transformer to convert the voltage to 240. ever since we got the transformer in the head itself rewound for 240v's this has never happened since. it was mainly the case that he would get a shock from the mic when going to sing and playing bass at the same time. brutal.

maybe it was static electricity. ha..hm.