What's with this Feedback?

[Casting Thunder]

I've tried to Google this but I have no idea what to call it so sorry if this has already been talked about to death.

I unplugged my bass and placed it in a stand while holding my cord (which was still plugged into my combo amp) with my other hand. I noticed I was getting alot of feedback like when the cord is near the jack of my bass, but the bass was over a foot away. Moving the cord around I discovered when the tip was touching my wrist or palm I got loads of feedback but none with it was touching the back of my hand.

Anyone know what this is from?

[JTE]

It's NOT feedback. Feedback is when the sound coming out of the speaker is reproduced again because it's being picked up by the pickups (or microphone). That buzz you get is because you're touching the hot of the plug, and the currents in your body are sending some electrons down the cable. It'll change depending on whether you're also touching the ground connection.

John

[t77mackie]

What he^ said.

A good idea when unplugging - especially if you're going through a PA (OMG) - is to use your amp's standby or if you don't have one of those then pull the cable out of the amp's jack half way (or all the way if you're done for the night) so you don't get all the THUMP!! bzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

[Casting Thunder]

Thank you both for the enlightening!