How I "safely" use 2-prong amps until I change to 3-prong!

[Enzo]

And to this day, I prefer my naked cheerleaders well grounded.


Hey, I did pass 10,000! I had a few thousand up when this place was Ampage too.

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

And to this day, I prefer my naked cheerleaders well grounded.
Hey, I did pass 10,000! I had a few thousand up when this place was Ampage too.

Wow, there's two red flags waving that you have too much time on your hands!

[Enzo]

NO, those are pompons the girls are waving.

[txstrat]

Naked and waving their two pompoms. Ok I understand.

[Danelectron]

What are the odds of someone in the wide range of mental capacity in the advanced world with access to the internet of misinterpreting a simple do it yourself procedure(whether changing a cord or operating a tester) and creating a potentially deadly situation? We all know someone fully capable. Just pointing out that history can be changed for someone any time we open our mouths regardless of intent.



Does this question make me a troll? I am of norwegian descent.

[Steve Conner]

The Darwin Awards

"Think of it as chlorine tablets in the gene pool"

[tubeswell]

Now about the 6 dollars... there are many who consider even that safety mod as taking away the antique value and collectability of a 1950s or older amp. These are the guys I am someday hoping to sell some of these vintage amps that I am picking up and fixing these days.

Ah I see. The antique market demands antiques, and the invisible hand of the market dictates (according to supply and demand) that there will be an equilibrium where rational people are making choices that will keep the greatest number of them happy. It all makes sense now. I guess that's alright then. Forget about what all the highly experienced and appropriately qualified experts here are imploring about personal safety and professional liability. Go with the market - all you need to do is convince that market that its perfectly safe and I'm sure you will make millions

[StratTone]

Not a topic that I expected so much beef from. The TS I'll have to agree with on the fact that there really isn't that much danger in the whole 2 prong thing. Of course we all know it is safer to use a 3 prong. I will say this, I'm not going to touch a mic with my lips with a two pronger but I have a few amps with 2 prongs that still haven't been changed. I just don't play them them much, so no need really at the moment. The odds of that small amount of a current causing interuptions in your heart rhythm are very very slim.

The TS is coming off as a troll I do agree however, if he were to put it a little more moddestly I would assume not so much of a reaction.

2 prong for sure over-hyped as the grim reaper plug but I am sure we all agree there is no point in playing out an amp (expecially when we probably are drinking at a bar) with a 2 prong plug. lol

I for one will continue to use 3 prongs on my amps but if someone wants to keep there 2 prong that is there buisness. Why wouldn't you change the 2 prong anyway. I know it isn't a bad shock but with people not knowing there bodies conditions and the fact that a simple plug change and remove a piece of equipment that will shock you should be a no brainer.

[StratTone]

You've seen the posts:

"My mom got me a PV Classic for Chrismas. Whatever. What can I do to make it sound like Engl? Can I just stick in bigger tubes?I herd that if you bias it up it will better sound. How do you do that. I need it to modified. I play mostly Death by Pancakes and Gritty Pits."

Sometimes a bit of unwarranted paranoia is a good thing.

I must admit, I never met anybody who killed themself working on a tube amp. It would be pretty embarassing though, so maybe they just don't talk about it.

What percentage of coroners call the guy with the "electrocuted" list when they process a carbonized corpse?

This one has for sure happened. The amps in and amp (pun intended) can easily disrupt your heart rhythm. It dosen't have to stop the heart at all. If you were alone and had a shock cause your heart to beat off rhythm you don't have much time to get to a phone before you lose consiousness and die. Tube amps step up the voltage and you don't want to play with this at all!!! Very dangerous. Drain caps, one hand rule, and try to not be alone incase something does go wrong there is someone around to call for help and admister CPR.

[Danelectron]

Steve, That's true. For someone that dim, a good jolt would just be business as usual.

I really like those darwin awards. Like the thieves who cut down the steel supports for the roof in a warehouse to scrap the steel. End of story.

[jblues]

Get real!

I think this is absoulutely hysterical! I have read almost all of the posts and admiditly I am barely a novis at amp repair. Why then I can say that is this funny? I am a professional working guitar player for 32 years and have played in some of the best and worst situations with a 1965 Fender Delux Reverb (two prong) and one time was at an outdoor venue in the rain plugged into a generator standing on wet concrete in leather sole shoes. I do it because it is in my contract, that's how I pay the mortgage. I was never warned about anything nor did I even care since it was the sound I was concerned with. If I got shocked I just flipped the polarity switch in the back.

I guess what I am trying to say really is this if you are dumb enough to try something you are not qualified to do, especially after being warned, then you deserve to be "shocked." into reality. This just may force you to get the thing fixed.

If you don't mind getting zapped then keep on going. People that try something dangerous and don't have a clue deserve what they get in return. We are all taught from the time we are kids to respect electricity. If you really think this sounds okay from the very first post then you would also be dumb enough to whiz on the electric fense.

I agree with the initial purpose of tihs post and realize that a person like me should never ever attempt something like this. From this moment on I would now take my amp to a qualified specialist and have it properly repaired. Now that I know it could kill me by all means it served a safety warning to me after owning a two prong amp. I will definetly change every amp over to three prong ASAP. Thinking out loud and sharing an experience is not a crime but can be a learning experience for others . I get it, it was great!

Thanks Brother you just saved my life.

J. Blues

[Wilder Amplification]

The whole point behind a 3 prong cord is to ensure that the chassis cannot ever become live should a mains hot short to the chassis ever occur (i.e. power transformer primary shorting to its core). In US mains wiring (not sure how it's set up for other countries) the ground prong gets connected to the neutral buss via the bonding strap in the mains panel (on older systems they would just tie the grounds straight to the neutral buss), which is just the center tap of the mains transformer on the pole. If a hot wire ever shorts to the chassis, it creates a short across one side of the pole transformer's secondary through the ground prong and bonding strap, which allows current draw on the mains line to exceed the rating of the mains fuse of the amp as well as that circuit's circuit breaker, which will either blow the fuse or trip the breaker.

I know on some older Marshalls the fuse is located in the neutral line and if on your Marshall you have a 3 prong cord and that fuse is still in the neutral line, the mains fuse will not blow in this scenario and hopefully the mains circuit breaker on that circuit trips in time. On older Marshalls that come in for repair I always inform the customer of this so that they can make the decision as to if they would like me to relocate the mains fuse to the hot line for the sake of safety.

Then you get into death caps...which I always preach to do away with and install a 3 prong cord instead.

The only thing that makes a non-grounded 2 prong amp unsafe is that there is the possibility of the chassis becoming live should a mains hot short to the chassis occur. Without the 3rd prong, there is no way for it to create a short across the mains in order to blow the fuse/circuit breaker since the chassis isn't referenced to the other side of the circuit. In that situation you would have a live chassis on your hands and as such I don't recommend cutting the 3rd prong off the power cord for that reason. I also always recommend to have amps that didn't have a 3 prong cord originally to have one fitted in place of the original one. I know some people like to preserve originality, but I think I'll take personal safety over originality any day of the week.

[allante666]

Errm, before you all shoot each other, could one of you please just briefly explain what the aforermentioned 'death cap' is/does.
Thank you

[guitician]

It's a Mains Line Filter

And if it shorts out to the un-grounded chassis, your likely to be electrocuted.
Line-Filter

[allante666]

got it. thank you