Will I die?

[2tonic]

Yes...you're going to die.............eventually.

What's worse is that it is we, the rest of us, who will sit in judgement of you.....and you know how we can be!

Why, we may even link all your posts over to a guitar forum, and let them judge, too!

No,no...sorry...that's a step too far..............cruel and unusual.... forget I said it.

Here lies our friend @geof_
From Edison's gift, he came a cropper,
Could have saved his ass,
With 7 cents worth of copper.

 

[Pulverizor]

It depends what the cords for, auto-erotic asphyxiation? Possibly... possibly.

 

[Axtman]

Being an amateur repair guy, I always replace broken grounds or two prong plugs. I replace the entire cord with one that has a molded plug. I do not trust the cord replacement plugs. Plus while replacing the entire cord I often fine worn spots or old cracking plastic sheathing.

I can just envision getting to a gig plugging in then having to move my equipment and pulling the cord (instead of the plug) then staring at a frayed cable with wires sticking out whiled and the plug still firmly seated in the wall.

In addition to safety a good grounded amp chassis will help to reduce noise.

A while ago I was at Guitar Center checking out their used amps. I had one hand on an old Maganatone amp to brace myself while I was leaning over to check out the back of the amp. Then I put my hand on another amp to tilt it back and check out the back of that amp. "BANG!" I shot bolt upright and yelled out a few expletives. I was standing their trying to catch my breath and figure out what just happened. Well the Magnatone was an amp with an old two wire cord. The amp's chassis had some how become "hot". The other amp I touched had a grounded chassis. So 120 volts ran up my left arm, across my chest and my heart and down my right arm. Now imagine if I was on a wet stage. Or if you plugged both amps into a common piece of equipment like a mixer.

Go to a tech and have him replace the cord!

 

[Johnny Fingers]

I used to play at a church where the baptismal pool was underneath the stage. When opened up and filled with water the stage was an 18” ledge in front of the amps against the back wall. Those were some hair-raising services, inches from certain death.

 

[bassistkll]

 

[Rip Van Dan]

View attachment 4065451

Well....back in the 60's I had a '66 Fender Bassman amp. It had neither a grounded plug nor even a polarized plug. If it hummed, you toggled your on/off switch to reverse the polarity. Or you would turn the plug over. Both worked. Just because the ground is missing doesn't mean it will hum, but it might. More importantly is that it is possible for that thing to give you a nasty shock when start to sing into a mic that's using a different polarity than your amp.

110v in the US doesn't have enough amperage to kill you from what I understand, but it can sure light you up! Back in the 60's we would always touch the mic we were going to sing into before getting the mic close to our lips. If you touched it and it hummed, you needed to change either your polarity or the polarity of the mics. If you forgot to do that and the polarity didn't match, yes you would jump back with your eyes wide open if you got too close or touched your lips to the mic. It wasn't pleasant.

Now if you're in Europe, the UK, Australia, China, or anywhere the standard electricity is 220v...now, that can kill you.

I used to work on cars back in the 60's, 70's, and 80's. Did a lot of things that could give a bit of a shock but nothing that was really dangerous. My younger brother and I had a small Tune-up shop in Oregon in 1985 and one day a Chrysler came in that had a 440 engine with "electronic ignition" instead of a normal ignition coil. A normal coil will send out about 20,000 volts. Electronic ignition would put out 50,000 volts as I found out to my dismay the first time I grabbed a sparkplug wire to disconnect it while the car was running.

The shock knocked me about 4-feet back from the car. We bought insulated spark plug wire-pullers from Snap-on Tools shortly after that. Later worked with a scope that could kill the spark to whatever cylinder you wanted so you didn't have to pull the wires to adjust and balance the carburetor. It's never fun to get shocked whether you're working on cars, on the house, or just making music. So replace that plug would ya?

 

[Rip Van Dan]

If it goes wrong you get to ask these guys:

Guitarists electrocuted by their guitars

Get a new lead.

Notice that all those folks died where the electricity was 220volt (UK and Mexico), except for the harp player who inhaled his harmonica. 220v AC will kill you. 110v will only make you think it's killing you. I remember walking down Main Street in Disneyland and stopping at a machine that would shock you. It would start out with low power and gradually increase it until you let go of the handles. The point was to see who could take the most before letting go. Little did we know that after the electrical current reached a certain level, it would be impossible to let go because the electricity had constricted all the muscles in your hands and arms and you were stuck. Was really funny to see that happen... to someone else.

 

[chadds]

This reminds me that I'm still pissed off that neither my gaming console or my computer have a Ground!

it causes a noisy ground-loop, or summat, when I try to use my amp together with either of them

You're supposed to be practicing. "Red Dead Redemption" will only help your Mixolydian mode.

 

[Geri O]

110v in the US doesn't have enough amperage to kill you from what I understand, but it can sure light you up!

@agedhorse Andy, help me save some lives here. This is 100% false. What’s the figure that can stop the heart, like a tenth of an amp?
(It’s the amps/current, not the voltage)
I’ve been lit up by an old Fender amp and the 2-prong non-polarized power plug. Not fun, my arm tingled for days.

Please, no more Darwin awards. Repair that power cable or toss it.

 

[Sailfish]

@agedhorse Andy, help me save some lives here. This is 100% false. What’s the figure that can stop the heart, like a tenth of an amp?
(It’s the amps/current, not the voltage)
I’ve been lit up by an old Fender amp and the 2-prong non-polarized power plug. Not fun, my arm tingled for days.

Please, no more Darwin awards. Repair that power cable or toss it.

0.1 amp is generally the given number that can kill you for sure.

 

[nilorius]

We and it will sometimes always die, it's a matter of time. It's normal.

 

[smarthound]

"Sometimes always". Well I'm glad that's cleared up.

Here in 240v Blighty, we have big chunky plugs that are built like Amp-egs. (Geddit?)

 

[flatwound62p]

Did you pick the amp up cheap from a deceased estate sale?

 

[TOOL460002]

I dont know the current draw, but I've been running a massive dehumidifier for days at a time off a busted cord with no ground. Zero issues. Thing gets hot for sure. The cord doesn't tho. If my stuff hasn't burned down I doubt yours will.

 

[chux]

Well if the dodgy power cable doesn't kill you, the dirt on the cabinet might!

 

[dalkowski]

 

[jamro217]

Yes, you will surely die. What comes after that is the real concern. Back to the present day. If you're worried about accelerating the process by using an AC plug with no ground, your fears are ungrounded. Just don't replace the plug while standing on a ladder or test the new one in a running shower. That'd speed things along.

 

[PBassin]

Nah, this is the secret to immortality. You’ll be like the Lawnmower Man but in the bass world.

 

[Iroquoisroadwarrior]

Nobody gets outta here alive. Nobody

 

[Benj-jammin]

Funny opening, relative to now, and in my kind of humor vein. Good OP!

Reminds me of the time when I garbage-picked a Zenith stereo console from my neighborhood alley.

Preceded with it right up to the Knotty Pine upstairs bedroom in our small bungalow home.
10 years old I was, I think. ( I remember, so I guess I was there ).

After some tinkering - which consisted of crossing various wires to see what it would do to "fix" it - I learned a valuable lesson about that little round connector in the middle. And back then? What was a ground wire?

nbsipics - I love your avatar - gee-zuz, man - reminds of my early parenting days!