Hi all again,

I know this subject has been done before, but I searched and didn't find a solution. Yesterday I was playing my tele through my Boss BD2 into my blackstar HT5R. I noticed that after not touching a metal part of the guitar for maybe 10 or more seconds, a potential difference, voltage, built up. When I touched the metal (eg the strings or bridge), I received a small shock. The humidity was around 45% I think, although recently we've had a lot of wet weather and it's been more like 60%.

Firstly, does anyone know what is causing this, and if/how I can remedy it?

And secondly, will the size of the shock become greater the louder my amp is set?

All help appreciated

_________________
"reach for the sky and aim for the moon, for if you miss you will end up among the stars"

Zoom MS50G
72 tele dlx RI
2011 standard strat
Blackstar HT-5R
Taylor Big Baby

http://www.youtube.com/user/Almungo/videos?flow=grid&view=0

A ground is missing , or broken with one , or more of your amp or gear's power cord to the wall outlet. Or wall outlet is not grouded.

Same schock hazard at any volume. This should not change.

Check all your tree prong power cord ti see if it look broken , Try another wall outlet.

Do you have any new pratice room or gear since you have schock hazard ? Look at this , what is new . If nothing ; gear are defective

Power supply for the pedal maybe? It may be worth trying running it on a battery.

Other than that, unplug everything. A small shock can rapidly become a large shock. Without having the thing physically in front of us, it's impossible to determine the cause. Anything we come out with is just speculation. I wouldn't want to chance my life on the speculation of people that haven't physically handled the problem gear.

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No no and no

+1000

This is a situation that demands an immediate and proactive solution.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Well, I've played my strat through the same setup and had no problem. This leads me to think it is the tele-I'm going to take a look at the socket and see if anything looks wrong.

Sometimes I hear about a grounding wire in guitars? Is there one of these in my tele? If so, does anybody know what it looks like, so I know what I'm looking for. I usually don't go looking at the inside of my guitars, so I am fairly inexperienced. I will of course look up diagrams etc on the internet before I do this.

Thanks

_________________
"reach for the sky and aim for the moon, for if you miss you will end up among the stars"

Zoom MS50G
72 tele dlx RI
2011 standard strat
Blackstar HT-5R
Taylor Big Baby

http://www.youtube.com/user/Almungo/videos?flow=grid&view=0

That grounding wire in the guitar grounds you, not the mains. It sends your bodies natural electrical noise to ground. It certainly doesn't allow the guitar to ground the amp through you. You'd be nothing more than a pair of smoking shoes if that happened.
Your bodies electrical noise, instead of being picked up by the pickup then going through the hot side of the circuit to the amp, creating noise. Grounds through the ground side of the guitars circuit to the amp and is a lot quieter.

And your telecaster has a ground wire. It connects to the underside of the bridge.

Now stop being silly and ignoring good advice. It could well save your life.

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No no and no

No chock with your Strat ? You are sure !!!!!
IMO it can't be the tele the problem . Guitar have ground yes. A defective guitar ground mean a noise, buzz in the amp. Never electrical shock. Do you hear loud hum with the tele ?
Why shock only on your tele ?????
It is very difficult to repair something just by e-mail.

I'm sorry if it appears I am disregarding your advice-I am definitely not. However, I am going to have to fix this problem. Therefore, I must try and find the problem and then fix it.

What do you suggest I do now? Bearing in mind, I am fairly sure the problem is the telecaster.

Stratele-that is correct-it is only my tele when the problem occurs. There is a hum, although not huge.

Thank you both very much for your help

_________________
"reach for the sky and aim for the moon, for if you miss you will end up among the stars"

Zoom MS50G
72 tele dlx RI
2011 standard strat
Blackstar HT-5R
Taylor Big Baby

http://www.youtube.com/user/Almungo/videos?flow=grid&view=0

Mate you need to firstly, lose the power supply to the pedal. If you use one. People get the polarity wrong. That can result in minor shorts.

Whether that shows anything or not, get the amp checked out by a professional. Over here we have a thing called PAT testing. A lot of venues demand that your electrical equipment be tested and up to date.
http://www.pat-testing.info/legal.htm

Surely there is an electrical appliance service place, if not an amplifier repair place near you that will test your amp.

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No no and no

You could have two problems , bad ground in your Tele witch make a hum and this, WITH a electrical problem on your gear have a result of electrical shock ONLY on your Tele. Not in your Strat because Strat ground are ok

But caution, something wrong in your gear.Need to be check.

Maybe it's tube liquidity...

Seriously though--go get your grounding on the electronic things checked. You're in a dangerous situation.

Secondly--if it's only on your Tele, think about what your hands touch on a Telecaster that they don't touch on a Strat--metal knobs, the larger bridge plate (metal further up on the playing/strumming area) on a Telecaster as opposed to plastic knobs and pickguard on a Strat (plastic not conductive). It's not the Tele, it's some of your other gear...

_________________
Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

Metal bridge on the Strat is enough metal part for electrical chock. I suppose Teledeluxe72 touch it to do a complete test. Also, as teledeluxe72 write there are hum with the Tele ( not with the Strat ) meaning a ground is not good in this guitar. There are probably a capacitor with small leaking current somewhere in the amp or on another gear .

I did touch the various metal parts of my strat for the test. There is a hum with both the guitars, although usually there is more hum with the strat because of the single coil pickups, but now the tele is slightly louder.

This is what leads me to think that the problem is most likely with the telecaster, although to be on the safe side I will still get my amp and pedal checked out.

So, am I correct in that the grounding wire in the guitar connects my bridge(and therefore strings etc) to the ground terminal of the output jack. This reduces excess noise from my body going to the amp. So if this is broken, does that mean that small amounts of charge can build up on the guitar?

Is it possible that this was a consequence of the weather? The humidity was on the low side of normal, and the temperature moderate(for the UK ). I was wearing an overshirt that could have brushed against the guitar causing the build up of static. I have heard of the weather causing small shocks to people sometimes.

Thanks again

Edit

I have been doing some research, and apparently the fact that the hum went away when I touched the metal parts of the guitar shows that perhaps the grounding on the guitar is fine.

So before I take the amp to a repairman, surely it is OK to have a small look around, obviously without the amp connected to the mains, and see if anything looks obviously out of place?

_________________
"reach for the sky and aim for the moon, for if you miss you will end up among the stars"

Zoom MS50G
72 tele dlx RI
2011 standard strat
Blackstar HT-5R
Taylor Big Baby

http://www.youtube.com/user/Almungo/videos?flow=grid&view=0

What amp is it?
Not being funny mate but with little knowledge the last thing you want to do is go poking around in a valve amp. Even when they've been switched off for a month the capacitors can still contain enough electricity to kill you outright.

I really wouldn't.

Is the shock more of a static kind of shock? Like the miniscule jolt you'll sometimes get from shopping trolleys when out round the supermarket?
If so it could be a static build up on the guitars finish.

Apparently giving the guitar a good wipe with a dryer sheet (yeah them things used in tumble dryers) can sort it out.
The safe way to test whether that is the case is to just play the guitar unplugged. If you still get a shock, then it's the guitar.

_________________
No no and no

[quote="nikininja"]What amp is it?
Not being funny mate but with little knowledge the last thing you want to do is go poking around in a valve amp. Even when they've been switched off for a month the capacitors can still contain enough electricity to kill you outright.
[/quote="nikininja"]

Ooh. I didn't know that-sounds nasty... OK, I won't do that.

The amp is a Blackstar HT5R that I bought last october.

It was definitely a miniscule jolt, although it didn't come from the finish-only the metal parts like the bridge and strings.

When you say, if I still get a shock playing unplugged, do you mean that that is the guitar building up static or a problem with the amp?

Is it a good idea to try playing both guitars through a different amp-I also have a marshall mg15 that I got when I started. Perhaps that would help me determine what the problem is?

_________________
"reach for the sky and aim for the moon, for if you miss you will end up among the stars"

Zoom MS50G
72 tele dlx RI
2011 standard strat
Blackstar HT-5R
Taylor Big Baby

http://www.youtube.com/user/Almungo/videos?flow=grid&view=0