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

[ParthaD]

DISCLAIMER: This is by no means a suggestion for anybody to do what I state that I do in this post, do so at your own peril, I will not be responsible for anybody getting a taste of what the AC Mains "feels" like, or you may just die instantly too!!!

Well so I've bought this 1950's, 60's (put your favorite era here!)... tube or ss amp from ebay but darn it, it comes with a 2-prong plug! Now I've seen the guarantees of utter doom (!!! DEATH CAP!!!) all over the net and also on this forum if I use this. So I know that I need to change it to 3-prong, and all the reasons why. So shall I pooh-pooh all that and be foolhardy and just disregard all that and use it anyway... or shall I be ultra cautious and have my whole family standing by to cut the mains when my hair stands on end!

Neither...

Trial and error helped me find a way to still start playing immediately with "some degree of comfort" until I do change that power cord and I just wanted to share my procedure. All I use is a DMM and do this:

1. I connect the guitar to the amp and the amp to the mains and turn the amp on.
2. I set the DMM to read AC volts.
3. I touch one of my DMM leads to a guitar string and the other to some other metal piece (a metallic amp corner or my soldering iron stand). I check the AC reading, if I hit it right the first time I will see 0 to 0.3 volts or so. If not I may see as much as 120 volts!
4. Even if I see 0 volts I repeat step 3 after turning the amp off, FLIPPING the 2 prong over, and turning the amp back on to confirm that the other way is the "bad" one.
5. Then I use a felt pen to mark the side of the 2 prong facing the ground plug in the orientation with little to no volts such that I am always plugging it in the same way and religiously check it every time I use that amp.

And thus I feed my insane desire to start playing a 2-prong amp as soon as I get it and remain alive at the same time! Posting this here because there is a very evil streak in me which gets tickled when I break rules and do what I am not supposed to do, and even more when there is a possibility that others may get outraged that I do so!!!

Regards!

[d95err]

Just get a small circuit-breaker and/or a mains isolation transformer. Done.

No need for fanatic rituals involving arcane measurements before starting the amp...

[axpro]

meh,

funny enough people used (and continue to use) 2 prong plugs all over the world without dying. and mostly in crappy bars with shoddy electrical.

isn't there a really simple guitar wiring change to elminate shock risks (i forget what it is... kinda sad since I am a guitar tech )

[Gtr_tech]

You need to use something *grounded* as your reference....not just any metallic object.

[J M Fahey]

there is a very evil streak in me which gets tickled when I break rules and do what I am not supposed to do, and even more when there is a possibility that others may get outraged that I do so!!!

Since you prefer it that way, and LOVE being "tickled", why don't you just play barefoot on cement floor, previously wetted with salty water to lower the contact resistance?
Just remember to will me some of your beautiful guitars.
Gimme a break.

[Regis]

Damn stupid to do it. There isn't a guitar amp in the world whose value is worth your life.

Here is how to do it.

Here is where you buy one.

Is your life worth six bucks or less?

[ParthaD]

Since you prefer it that way, and LOVE being "tickled", why don't you just play barefoot on cement floor, previously wetted with salty water to lower the contact resistance?
Just remember to will me some of your beautiful guitars.
Gimme a break.

Oh come on Juan... where's your sense of humor! And of course I will bequeath all my guitar valuables to you - only thing is I have no plans of passing on yet! This topic sure gets some people riled up exactly as I had expected!

regards.

[ParthaD]

You need to use something *grounded* as your reference....not just any metallic object.

That would be technically correct of course but you get the reading with "any" metallic object also (don't know why but it works!).

[ParthaD]

Damn stupid to do it. There isn't a guitar amp in the world whose value is worth your life.

Here is how to do it.

Here is where you buy one.

Is your life worth six bucks or less?

You don't even know me Regis, and you're calling me stupid! But that's ok I have a thick skin, no offense taken!

[Regis]

You don't even know me Regis, and you're calling me stupid! But that's ok I have a thick skin, no offense taken!

Read my post again. I didn't call you stupid. I said using an amp with a two pronged cord would be stupid.

[Enzo]

Getting away with something does not make it a good idea.

[jrfrond]

Getting away with something does not make it a good idea.

True that.

There is no excuse to NOT convert your amp to proper 3-wire grounded and for Pete's sake, get rid of the death cap!!!

[ParthaD]

Peace!!

Getting away with something does not make it a good idea.

Enzo, I respect you a lot as I do the others on this forum who have strong opinions on this. Hence I would like to clarify something and then let it go, its pointless to carry on a debate about this when I am not even debating AGAINST it or even defending what I do! However some people get very hysterical about this issue when it doesn't warrant that degree of reaction.

In responding to this post some people have let this get ahead of themselves and missed the fact that even my title said ".. how I... *UNTIL* I CHANGE TO A 3 PRONG". That should tell any intelligent reader that I was not proposing NOT to change to a 3 prong (even though I sometimes don't bother doing it if it's a really old amp) but simply taking some precautions UNTIL I did so.

I originally come from a country that uses 220V and am not a stranger to what an electric shock feels like. When in college, I was recording an outdoor rock concert and in the process handled a wallwart one of whose wires had got frayed. That shock was quite something, that wallwart literally stuck to my fingers until I jerked my hands vigorously to shake it off!

More recently when an electrician was working on some home renovation for me I saw him make a minor adjustment to one of the switches without even turning the mains off. So I asked him if he did not get a shock. He said he DID but that 110V was too low a voltage to cause him any permanent damage in the few seconds that he had been in contact with a live wire. So I had to try for myself and since then I have respect for, but no fear of 110V.

As post #3 on this thread pointed out, there are thousand upon thousands of people who have used 2 prong amps, and continue to do so, in bars and other places with wet and electrically hazardous conditions and really nasty electrical connections and live to perform another day.

Airbags are a great idea too, and a proven life-saving device, but someone who buys an antique 1920 Model T, usually doesn't rush to retrofit airbags and antilock brakes to it! And someone who can afford that car surely can afford the few hundred or even thousand dollars to do so just like I could surely afford a $6 power cord for an amp costing say a few hundred. But I avoid putting a soldering iron to something that old and working unless absolutely necessary, others can do whatever they want to.

And now... let's close this up! There are amps to fix and other people waiting to be helped!!!

[R.G.]

The most appropriate and simplest precaution you can take *until* you can spend 30 minutes and $6 to potentially (pun not intentional) save your life or that of others is this: just don't plug that amp into the wall. Super simple, guaranteed safe. What could be better?

What you're stating with this question is that you know you should do the fix, but you think you can get away with it until you don't have anything better to do, or until you somehow decide it's important enough to fix.

It is, of course, your perfect right to put it off until you or someone else getting shocked makes it more urgent to you. Likewise, it is your right to walk across high-speed and crowded motorways, play Russian Roulette, sleep with several married women concurrently, make rapid hand movements into your pocket in front of police, and so on. Did you hear about my old friend Ivan, who was the world's champion at Russian Roulette? His record was 387 wins and one loss.

The folks here are trying to tell you that they value your life, and think it's misguided of you to put off some basic safety work that may save your life - or that of your son/daughter/friend. For this you're feeling put upon? Calm, indeed.

[ParthaD]

PLEASE... let's just let this go!