Seeing others play barefoot scares me.

[Honch]

My golden rule any time of the day, season, and conduct, is as : the lower you get on the body parts, no shorts, no barefoot, wear socks, and even long pants. The more disantce from the ground the more "nude" I tolerate it to be. Tics, bugs, insects, glass shatters, and in general FILTH exists the lower you gets. Even on stages. There's a reason why we all wearing shoes AND socks. Not just for comfort, or that it is colder down there. I am very wary in the terrain, in the woods, when wearing shorts. On the beach, as short distance to the water, and just sand and I am all game, but when packing it up and heading home, socks, no shorts (ever never). The mosquitos at nights (and day) FINDS those naked spots within a split second. I've played in shorts once, inside venue, but I got paid for it. Since it was inside, wintertime, no tics or insect looming at large. I more wary of those things than any current. If any current goes any way, it's DOWN, not from the upside. And if it by all standards should find a way through the arms (if connected to a grounded bass at the bridge) chances are slim that the current finds its way through the heart, and no matter if you're full of shoes or socks it will find its way .... down! Not up. It'll tickle your balls a bit perhaps...

If you're barefoot and current comes creeping up from below it finds it was to the ground. It goes down. If you don't belive me google abot standing on one leg when lightning strikes.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

modern guitars being properly grounded

Aren't guitars still grounded the same?
to the chassis of the amp (via the instrument cable)

 

[s0c9]

I don't know if there are really any grounding issues to worry about with everything being three-pronged these days and modern guitars being properly grounded. Anyway, barefoot playing is quite prevalent in the jam band world.

Sorry.. but in MY experience, Oh heck yeah there is !! You're forgetting the crappy wiring and non-standard NEC implementations that many, many "live" music venues have, such as no common ground.... the 3-prong plug is simply one end of the problem.
Add to that the number of "electrically uninformed" musicians who believe the correct way to cure buzz is to ground-lift the 3-prong on a tube amp.. and Bingo !!

PS: Is everyone playing a properly grounded guitar too ???

 

[Honch]

I do not ever play with a bare nude torso anymore, since an incident way worse than any jolt, happened way back when I once did. Let me see if you can guess. Playing a whammy bar strat with back plate removed from the springs to the whammy, and then in a middle of a solo did a dive bomb...

Luckily very few basses are equppied with these. If any.

So I prefer to dress up quite a bit. Anyway, regardless of jolts and dodgy power grid.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

This^ is the reason I won't buy a guitar w/o a cover for the vibrato bridge on the back.

Recently I found a nice guitar, but the only thing wrong was no cover on the back.
Searches for where to buy one were fruitless, so I passed.

How people lose those kind of baffles me.
OK not really, they take it off & never put it back, but why?

 

[Honch]

On EMG drawings I've seen the pots are grounded, so if you have conductive knobs on it, Zap!
.

Nope but you'll fry the batteries and internal components in the pickup before feeling anything, and you'll stop playing just by the sound produced. You'll ruin the gear and pickups, but you won't get electrocuted. And there's always these ceramic/plastic pots around that costs a fortune. And if you "hear" anything like that when playing I wonder if the first thing you do is reaching for the knobs, anyway...but one should be very very - extremely - aware of unplugging and grabbing the cable plug of your input jack. Very few would reach for the cable end. If you touch the steel chassi you're toast. But I think something has gone short/haywire before you even think of reaching that. Somewhere else a fuse blew.

 

[Honch]

This^ is the reason I won't buy a guitar w/o a cover for the vibrato bridge on the back.

Recently I found a nice guitar, but the only thing wrong was no cover on the back.
Searches for where to buy one were fruitless, so I passed.

How people lose those kind of baffles me.
OK not really, they take it off & never put it back, but why?

Eric Johnson signature strats comes without one because he thinks it affects the tones. I wouldn't buy one, but anyway, I wear a shirt so it doesn't matter at all.. mind you... anymore.

EDIT: Actually those springs can rip your t-shirt to or whatever you're wearing. The reason there aren't any on EJ's guitars is that he never uses it. It's blocked down with 5 springs and flush with the body. He doesn't use it.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

All the same, you won't catch me standing in a tin bucket of water on a damp concrete floor to play, just because I'm using EMG active pickups.

 

[Honch]

Aren't guitars still grounded the same?
to the chassis of the amp (via the instrument cable)

No, actually if you read all diagrams of Peavey amps, you'll get it. It's something they don't or won't strut about, but if you're into the guitar world, try buying a good STEREO chorus pedal, buy any Peavey amp, and then - all of a sudden - another brand of guitar amp and try to use the STEREO OF THE TWO. You will hear hum because one of them isn't grounded the same as the Peavey. They are not grounded through the chassis. A corporate plot, you have to use Peavey only. Of course, I don't understand the reason to connect two different amps in a stereo set up, but whenever or whatever you do, isolate the ground from the Peavey, otherwise: hum.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Ha, I'm remembering plugging a bass into two devices once & the Peavey nearly fried, but the Fender was fine. This is probably the reason, and I had to get a Radial Engineering BigShot AB pedal with the isolation transformer & ground lift.

but back to that statement about guitars, aren't they still "grounded" the same as ever?
albeit differently on a Peavey, but still the same for an old guitar vs. a modern one

 

[Sixgunn]

Will I get zapped through my wireless?

 

[TemplesOfSyrinx]

I've seen Steven Wilson perform many times. He never seems to wear shoes.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Will I get zapped through my wireless?

No, but don't step on any wires or gear on the stage, read my first post.

 

[Axtman]

Strings and bridges are grounded though the output jack through the instrument cable to the amplifier case to the power cord to the electrical outlet. At least that is how it SHOULD go. Test for yourself. Set a multimeter on the continuity (beep) function and touch a string and touch the (unplugged from the wall) 3rd prong of the power cord. You should hear a beep.

Many years ago when I was starting to play bass I had a 2 prong (ungrounded) plug on my cheap amplifier. Sometimes I felt a tickling sensation on the inside of my forearm when I played.

All modern amps are properly and safely grounded. There should not be problems using that equipment. That is unless someone used this ground lift plug.

 

[+6dB Dan]

Also, seeing people barefoot in public is kind of gross.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

I don't mind seeing barefoot people, unless they have those weird toenails or just plain filthy feet.

A guy I know in Pattaya gets his pedicured & painted,
and he's constantly in flip-flops:

 

[Sixgunn]

No, but don't step on any wires or gear on the stage, read my first post.

I know. Just funnin'.

 

[Oddly]

Also, seeing people barefoot in public is kind of gross.

This too.
Apart from on a beach, I suppose.

I know there's plenty of people that find feet sexy but to me, they just look weird.
Maybe I'm the problem...

 

[trevcda]

Broken glass and other debris are far more worse danger than anyone electrocuted.

I doubt it. Electrocution, by definition, is being executed (killed) by electricity. Getting shocked is a survivable incident, although not always. Call it semantics, but there is a difference.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

I know there's plenty of people that find feet sexy but to me, they just look weird.

Everyone probably has pasty white feet on the Emerald Isle