Welcome back to the Starship TechTips. It's unending mission: To bring usable common sense tips to the weekend sound tech who works in less than favourable sound conditions and to help them boldly go where no sound tech has gone before: (Imagine Music as a microphone stand blasts off from centre stage at this years Posi Awards) Now that you have that visual firmly emplanted in your minds eye, lets look at todays Tech Tips subject.
WHAT A SHOCK!!
Technology has come so far that we often feel safe and tend to overlook the fact that we still have to be mindful, careful, and sometimes even a bit cautious. My intent is not to scare anyone, but the old saying “forewarned is forearmed” certainly has merit. When musicians are playing on stage there is most likely many devices surrounding them that require power, such as electric guitar amps, keyboards and keyboard amps, sound boards, computers. The list goes on and on. So often we walk out on stage assuming that all is well and everything has been connected, tested, and otherwise confirmed to be in good and safe working order. When it comes to electricity this is not always true, and definitely should not be taken for granted. The biggest hazard in my opinion is for guitar players (bass guitar too) and especially those who sing. I am sure some of us have at some time walked up to a microphone with a guitar in our hands and experienced a shock of some sort. This is a big warning sign that something is not right with the wiring and precautions should be taken. Well, what can you do about this you ask? Lets establish some basic stage safety guidelines.

Get a $10.00 power checker from your local hardware store. This device plugs in to an electrical outlet and instantly lets you know whasssup with the power. It has easy to read indicators with a label that lets you know what they mean. Possible dangerous conditions are:
Open Ground. This one is the worst as you can become the ground when you touch the microphone with your lips. A shocking experience indeed.
Hot/Neutral reversed. Happens quite often when people switch the black and white wires while doing their own wiring. Not good
If you are a guitar or bass guitar player heed this advice. Never ever let someone hand you a guitar to hold while you are still holding yours. If you are switching instruments or whatever……… the proper thing to do is to put the instrument on a stand. You never want to be holding your instrument and another at the same time. If one of them is not plugged in, then there is no issue, but if they are both plugged in, and there is any voltage potential from improper wiring, disaster can strike.
If you are a singer, a guitar player may ask you to hold their guitar for a moment while they fix their hair or make up. Put your mic in the stand first. Only takes a second and is by far the safest thing you can do. Now, many people will say, oh I have done that tons of times and nothing has ever happened. Well I say, you have been lucky. You may have been out in a lightning storm many times and never been struck, but does that convince you to stop seeking shelter or get out of the open? Of course not! I have personally seen musicians shocked by faulty stage wiring. Hard to give a good show when you think you are about to be shocked again. Keep a guitar stand handy and put your guitar down before grabbing someone else’s. Better yet if someone says hold this for a second, just grab a guitar stand and hand them that instead. Good habits take time to develop and just because you have been doing something a certain way for a long time does not mean it is the best, or more importantly safest way. When I was at the height of my touring days I would make a habit of taking my multi meter out at sound check and touching one lead to the vocal microphone and the other to the guitar players strings. Very rarely was there zero voltage. In fact I once read over 200 volts and immediately cleared the stage while I located the problem. Almost an hour later I discovered the guitar player had cut the ground pin off of the plug for his amp because a buddy had told him it was the way to ensure that your amp did not buzz. He forget to mention it was a real good way to electrocute yourself. A good sound tech can always trouble shoot and fix hum and buzz problems through proper safe practices, so don’t ever cut the ground pin off of any grounded device. Period! Safety first folks. First and foremost.
Talk to you next week.
TT
techtips@mts.net