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Seeing others play barefoot scares me.

Forget electrocution death, here is the real reason why you should wear shoes on stage.
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Electrocution aside, there's a place we play that has a carpeted stage that is sticky from all of the beer and other crap that's been spilled on it. It's so gross I don't even want to pick things up from it. No way I'm barefoot on that stage.
I do a lot of work in Casinos. I never used to think about it, but once I clued in, I realized there's some gross carpet! I'm pretty sure my immune system is stronger from dealing with it though... Glad I'm not on the tools much anymore.
 
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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.

View attachment 2802578
That my friend is not a ground lift. It is two prong adapter. see that loop, the screw that holds the recpticle plate on is supposed to pass through the loop and tightened. It still doesn't grantee the the recpt is properly wired.
Consider using a gfi adapter in the power loop.
 
One of my bands played an outdoor gig a few years ago and one of the guitarists played bare feet on the grass. Nothing I said would convince him to put shoes on.

I always wear runners/shoes when gigging and even at rehearsals as all my bands rehearse in the basement...the only thing between my feet and the earth is a couple inches of concrete.
 
So long as you're standing on something that isn't very conductive you should be all good. Stages are made of wood most of the time. Many simple things are worth the associated risks. I ride my bicycle like a madman and surf in an ocean full of sharks among other dangers. If anything I feel I haven't taken enough risks in the 30+ years I've been around.
 
When I was a teenager my band's rhythm guitarist had a kickass old Fender tube head and a 4x10 Celestion cab. I'm pretty sure it had a 2-prong plug. Playing through it one day in the concrete-floored basement of the practice building I noticed that the strings would give me a fair to midland tingling sensation, and that was with shoes on! At the time I was too dumb to know how dangerous that was, lost touch with that guy a looong time ago, but I hope he's okay and that that awesome amp got a proper repair.



Coal, nuclear, gas, etc. all use heated water to make the 'trons go zoom.

Serious questions. Has anybody ever gotten shocked from their bass? My understanding was that powered microphones can be very dangerous if you have a ground issue and it touches your lips. Also, filter caps in an amplifier can be lethal if they don't bleed and discharge properly. How would you create a loop with your guitar or bass though?
I was stupid enough to play barefooted on a concrete floor through a tube amp. Very unpleasant. The owner removed the gfi so his son could have a garage band. Let's see we have magnets wrapped in wire. Then we disturb the flux and create electricity. Let's say, your instrument grounded the bridge and and your strings are metal. No wonder the energizer bunny plays a bass drum.
Most of us have tested a 9v battery on the tip of our tongue, I now do it on my lip. Looking at arcfault technology to improve safety.
 
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I used to rent an old house back in the day and we held practices there. No AC so I had this old square fan (2 prong) that was mounted in a metal frame with wheels. I remember having one hand on my bass strings and grabbing the metal frame to position the fan. It took everything I had to let go of the frame - the electricity made my hand just clamp down. I could feel the electricity all of the way up both my arms. No lasting damage though.
 
When I was young I'd go wherever I could barefoot. I'd ride all the way to the pool w/o shoes on a rat-trap pedal* bike (10 miles away).
Then one night I stepped on an axe in the dark & that cured me of going barefoot & brought me around to boots with safety toes.

No one has worn them for years, but I've still got a couple pairs of tall boots with safety toes.
Heck, I have have some sneakers (trainers) with safety toes

*This is a rat-trap pedal:


I had a little trick where I'd use the ball of my foot on the spline.

I've always been afraid of getting my toe caught in a bicycle chain.
 
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When I was young I'd go wherever I could barefoot. I'd ride all the way to the pool w/o shoes on a rat-trap pedal* bike (10 miles away).
Then one night I stepped on an axe in the dark & that cured me of going barefoot & brought me around to boots with safety toes.

No one has worn them for years, but I've still got a couple pairs of tall boots with safety toes.
Heck, I have have some sneakers (trainers) with safety toes

*This is a rat-trap pedal:

View attachment 2802442
I had a little trick where I'd use the ball of my foot on the spline.
I still bike barefoot, and I dont drive a car. Sure enough I cut open my toe on the pavement two weeks ago! Its healing up nicely though. I should be able to ditch the shoes again in a week or so :D
 
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Murphy's Law is always there...
just when you think it'll never bite you, suddenly it bites you.

I'm always reminded of a trainer saying to me, "Nothing ever happens around here!",
and literally as soon as she said that, we heard police sirens in the distance...
which were chasing a motorcyclist, who for whatever reason decided to pull into
OUR parking lot, jumped off his bike, then ran west between the buildings and dissappeared.
I looked over at her, said "Murphy Always Wins", and started laughing :)
 
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My favorite is the vehicle passengers who choose to prop their bare feet up on the dash, while in motion... @Killed_by_Death knows what I'm talking about...

... you can only hope the owner opted for the extra large glove box, cause that's where their arse will reside if they're ever in a head-on collision, not to mention what the seat belt will do to a person in that position...
 
Get an inline GFCI.

I used to work on jobs where the mains were set up with a GFCI.
As people started using more equipment, it would trip more & more often.
Each time, the job boss would tell the electrician to bump up the setting a little. So for instance, from 15 mA, it would get bumped to 30 mA, but eventually they'd just push it over to DIRECT & all protection was lost.

One guy I worked with in China got fired, because he refused to work on a job where they ran the GFCI on Direct. Well, he got fired from that job, but he was such a good employee that he just got shipped back to Thailand for another job.
That job was a nightmare anyway, one guy died inside a pipe, asphyxiated.
 
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