Electric shocks??? Weridness

[mapfbadger]

Hi, I hope this post is in the right place. I was doing a gig at the weekend and almost all the gig was fine until about 4 songs from the end. When I went to the mike to sing backing vocals I got a small electric shock in my back on the right hand side about 6i inches from my belt. I though I had imagined it but when it happened again I was certain it had happened. It was the first gig i was using my new passive Fender jazz bass. The last time I used a passive bass was way back when i first started playing bass. I used to get shocks all the time off the mike then on my lips. Has anyone had this happen to them or know how to combat it. Any help or advise would be great. Thanks

 

[Phalex]

It's a ground issue.

It's not the bass. It's probably coming through the cable from your amp. If you are using a wireless, then it is most definitely coming from the mic, but my money is on the amp not being properly grounded.

 

[mapfbadger]

Thanks for the reply. If it was the amp would I not get shocks with all basses. Bering in mind this has never happened to me expect when I first started about 15 years ago. Never since and the only thing that links the two is passive basses.

 

[joeyl]

in most passive basses, the pickups and electronics are grounded to the bridge and the output jack, so a bad ground would send the juice to shock you from the amp, through the instrument cable and into the bass ground which is connected to your strings, that if you are playing, you are touching. poww.
and if the mike is not grounded, same problem when you touch it if you are grounded from your hands to the amp

You could:
1) switch to EMGs or other active pickups that do not require a bridge ground connection.
2) you could wire a capacitor in the ground wire to let a very small voltage to your hands in case of a fault, I think guiatr player Adrian Legg came up with that

 

[Rodent]

definitely a grounding issue

disconnect the ground wire to your bridge so that your strings are not 'hot'. this will resolve the situation until you touch something else that is grounded (like your pickups, metal knobs, grounded pickguard screw where the foil connects the pickguard shielding to the control cavity shielding, etc ...)

this can happen on any bass with a grounded bridge. it would be worth your time to check out the grounding issue with a multi meter each time you soundcheck

all the best,

R