Power Light - depends on location

[R.G.]

Do you mean "feel the electricity"? Many years ago I discovered that I could very lightly rub a finger along the front panel of my 2-wire Ampeg and if I felt a sort of vibration I knew the ground switch was set wrong. I've never heard anyone else make reference to the phenomenon.

Yes, kinda. I was more worried about feeling the electricity clamp your hand onto the thing you're touching so you can't let go. Using the back of your hand means that a really bad fault can't clamp your muscles down holding the electrocution source while your heart goes into fibrillation.

The buzzy sensation is a minor issue - or can be unless dry skin is making you not get a lot of current, but as you get sweaty on stage, skin resistance goes down and that which was buzzy is now deadly.

You can get a false positive that way due to the high input impedence of the meter (but better a false positive than a false negative ). You can make a poor man's leakage tester by bridging the meter with a 1500 ohm resistor parallelled with a (I think) .15 uf cap. 0.75V = 500uA leakage.

True, and true. On issues where I might suddenly get to watch myself die, I tend to vote on the side of NOT false negatives.

I've often wondered if I'm particularly sensitive to it, because I absolutely HATE getting shocked (funny, for someone in the electronic repair business ).

Actually I'd call that a survival characteristic.

[lowell]

You are crazy.
No, it's not a compliment.
Say hello to Jimi and Elvis when you meet them.

If the power light failed wouldn't the fuse just blow? Yes I see how this could be dangerous if there was no earth connection at a club.

[Tom Phillips]

I think there is a lot of relevant information in the thread at http://music-electronics-forum.com/t23203/

[J M Fahey]

this could be dangerous if there was no earth connection at a club.

Yes, I meant exactly that.
No or bad ground usually is not fatal per se, because you would only get whatever current passes through not too good insulation, but if you connect your light that way, you are providing a direct path from hot to floating ground/chassis (to which you are directly connected through the instrument cable) that didn't exist before.

[NorCalTuna]

I can do the same "tickle test" on the bowl of my vintage Kitchen Aid K5 mixer. Creeeeeepy in the kitchen with water and such around. I really should polarize that plug...