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Just electrocuted myself while changing strings!
- Thread starter Swerve
- Start date
My amp wasn't turned on but I do think the bass was still plugged into it. Appreciate the insight!
Only one of those prongs out of three should have power, which makes the odds even more crazy. IF there is power on the neutral or ground, there is a problem. To make a coil and burn the wire (in this case, string) would have had to touched two different places and made a circuit.
Ok, there has to be an easier way to become a super villain. 
Seriously, though. Glad you weren’t badly injured or worse. Marking this down as freak accident Saturday.
. Stay safe brother.
Seriously, though. Glad you weren’t badly injured or worse. Marking this down as freak accident Saturday.
. Stay safe brother.
Well there's a first time for everything I guess.
Was sitting on the edge of my bed removing some nickel rounds and replacing them with Fender ml flats on my P bass. Got to removing the G string and as I'm pulling it out the bottom of the ferrule the light in my bedroom goes out, I see a flash of fire in front of my face and felt immediate severe burning in my right hand. I screamed and leapt off the bed and out the door!
Ouch!
Ran out the room trying to figure what the heck just happened. My index finger and thumb are singed. So I go to the bathroom to run cold water under them.
Went back in the room with a flashlight on. I keep a 6 outlet surge protector on the floor near my bed to plug in a lamp and a phone charger. Apparently the ball end of the string touched or went into one of the 3 prongs on an open outlet and sent a current right through it.
After flipping the breaker everything came back on and nothing in the room was damaged. Just some sore burned fingers on my part and when I dropped the string it also burned part of my blanket.
Bass was fine, just covered in spit, apparently you drool when you get electrocuted.
Let this be a PSA, do NOT change your strings near any open electrical outlets.
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View attachment 5370993
Wow, glad to see you are ok.
Along about July of 1968: I am playing a Kingston guitar through a Gibson Dual Hawk amplifier. A large thunder storm came through the valley, kind of odd for a mid day storm. My mom told me to turn off the amp and stop playing. Being 13-14 and much more knowledgeable, I did not. 30 seconds later the house gets hit by lightning. It hit the chimney to the furnace seared a streak down the chimney blew up the furnace kind of and a ball of lightning went across the basement floor, up the stairs and through the back door.
In the meantime sparks flew out of the inputs on the amp, between the strings and the pick ups, and the light switch in the wall melted.
I did get shocked, but no burns.
Along about July of 1968: I am playing a Kingston guitar through a Gibson Dual Hawk amplifier. A large thunder storm came through the valley, kind of odd for a mid day storm. My mom told me to turn off the amp and stop playing. Being 13-14 and much more knowledgeable, I did not. 30 seconds later the house gets hit by lightning. It hit the chimney to the furnace seared a streak down the chimney blew up the furnace kind of and a ball of lightning went across the basement floor, up the stairs and through the back door.
In the meantime sparks flew out of the inputs on the amp, between the strings and the pick ups, and the light switch in the wall melted.
I did get shocked, but no burns.
That was the issue. If the amp was plugged in & the bass was plugged in the amp, the ground was present. You might find a few black spots wherever the string was touching the bass, like the inside edge of the hole in the bridge.
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Glad you’re Ok! Same happened to me once but the string mostly just melted itself into the power strip and carpet before the breaker tripped. I’d recommend changing the power stripWell there's a first time for everything I guess.
Was sitting on the edge of my bed removing some nickel rounds and replacing them with Fender ml flats on my P bass. Got to removing the G string and as I'm pulling it out the bottom of the ferrule the light in my bedroom goes out, I see a flash of fire in front of my face and felt immediate severe burning in my right hand. I screamed and leapt off the bed and out the door!
Ran out the room trying to figure what the heck just happened. My index finger and thumb are singed. So I go to the bathroom to run cold water under them.
Went back in the room with a flashlight on. I keep a 6 outlet surge protector on the floor near my bed to plug in a lamp and a phone charger. Apparently the ball end of the string touched or went into one of the 3 prongs on an open outlet and sent a current right through it.
After flipping the breaker everything came back on and nothing in the room was damaged. Just some sore burned fingers on my part and when I dropped the string it also burned part of my blanket.
Bass was fine, just covered in spit, apparently you drool when you get electrocuted.
Let this be a PSA, do NOT change your strings near any open electrical outlets.
View attachment 5370992
View attachment 5370993
Wakes you up quicker then a double shot of coffee, but it can make you shakier then the coffee as well.
I would disagree with that statement, Talking Bass is not a legal courtroom in session where the term has a legal meaning.
I have been electrocuted many times over my career as an electrician, being qualified to work on live equipment has its dangers.
If you go to any medical center or hospital and ask what they would call having an electric shock means they would most likely say you were electrocuted.
People have gone through the electric chair and survived, what were they if they were not electrocuted ?
The burn looks similar to many electric shocks I have witnessed, electricity will leave a burn on the skins surface but it might not always be bad enough to leave visible marks.
Electricity can flow through many paths, most of the current most likely went through the strings and heated them up, but the op would have had an electric shock as well.
One end of the string was most likely at full voltage while the other end was close to zero voltage, otherwise it would not have heated up like an old fashion radiator, so wherever his fingers were the voltage was somewhere between zero and full voltage.
That's just my opinion of course.
The human body is very resistive - 10's of thousands of ohms. The wire he was holding - less than an ohm. It had a lot of current running through it, but he didn't (this is simple Ohm's law stuff). He was holding on to a hot wire at one point (not enough distance between two contact points to develop a real potential between them), which burned him where the skin touched it. His description is of heat, not a shock, which is a different sensation entirely.
I have been shocked by 120 volts a few times, and 760 once. A shock from house wiring voltage does not leave a mark on your skin (but you are really jittery for a while).
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You're being punished for switching to flats.
Well there's a first time for everything I guess.
Was sitting on the edge of my bed removing some nickel rounds and replacing them with Fender ml flats on my P bass. Got to removing the G string and as I'm pulling it out the bottom of the ferrule the light in my bedroom goes out, I see a flash of fire in front of my face and felt immediate severe burning in my right hand. I screamed and leapt off the bed and out the door!
Ran out the room trying to figure what the heck just happened. My index finger and thumb are singed. So I go to the bathroom to run cold water under them.
Went back in the room with a flashlight on. I keep a 6 outlet surge protector on the floor near my bed to plug in a lamp and a phone charger. Apparently the ball end of the string touched or went into one of the 3 prongs on an open outlet and sent a current right through it.
After flipping the breaker everything came back on and nothing in the room was damaged. Just some sore burned fingers on my part and when I dropped the string it also burned part of my blanket.
Bass was fine, just covered in spit, apparently you drool when you get electrocuted.
Let this be a PSA, do NOT change your strings near any open electrical outlets.
View attachment 5370992
View attachment 5370993
I did this on my workbench once. I was pulling out a string, not really paying attention and the end of the string went into one of the openings on an outlet on a power strip. You can see the results...
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I have had to perform CPR on an electrician after he had a shock from 240v which is the mains voltage in Australia, he spent nearly 3 months in hospital from 3rd degree burns on his arms and face.
Please do not make statements about electric shock unless you have truly seen what it can do, mains voltage can be lethal and it can cause severe burns to the body.
415v 3 phase power is just 3 lots of 240 volts, thats the normal here down under in domestic and industrial situations. House power uses just one of the phases from the 3 phases available.
I once was blind and deaf for over 15 minutes when a 3 phase panel exploded in front of me, luckily I only had 1st degree burns that completely healed.
For the string to heat up like that one end would be at a high voltage and one end at a low voltage, he might have touched the high voltage side or the low voltage side (or both) or anywhere inbetween, we can not know.
scared the doo doo out of me at the time. not a big fan of house fires..... nope.
So now I'm looking at my normal string change area for outlets.
Maybe those plastic child protector inserts are useful even beyond the childhood years.
Maybe those plastic child protector inserts are useful even beyond the childhood years.
