Playing barefoot

[Axtman]

I made a post in a musical instrument forum about it scaring me to see people play barefoot. Boy did I get an earful. People were divided into two camps of "Yes it is gross and dangerous." and "You can't tell me what to do. You're not my mother!"

My point was that it was dangerous to have an electrical device strapped around you and being a nice electrical path to ground. There is also the danger of cut feet (been there done that) and stubbed toes (who hasn't done that?).

So go ahead flame me. I've got my asbestos suit (and firefighter boots) on!

[Enzo]

I don't know about gross, after all there is nothing you can step in with bare feet that you cannot also step in wearing shoes. But dangerous? Definitely.

As to don't "tell me what to do", point out you didn't demand they stop doing it, just pointed out what can happen.

Things are much better today, with all the three-wire grounded amps. In my touring days, when amps had two wire power cords, we often got shocks even wearing shoes. My guitarist once melted his E string in half when it touched his microphone.

[Mick Bailey]

My point was that it was dangerous to have an electrical device strapped around you and being a nice electrical path to ground.

A brief search reveals quite a few videos showing naked ladies playing with electrical devices strapped around them. They should be more careful and at least wear shoes and knee pads.

[J M Fahey]

Those complaining "You can't tell me what to do. You're not my mother!" ***clearly*** show they are still living in their Mom´s basement and depending on her for pocket money (up to and including Guitar, amps and stuff).
Can´t call them "kids" or "early Teens" because sadly I know even 60 year olds still living that way
Some of which are customers of mine, go figure.
They read and are members of ALL Forums you can imagine and drive me crazy with all the "knowledge" they pick there

[Axtman]

I would like to present Exhibit A.

Barbara Weldens dead: 5 things to know | EW.com

Please note #5. She liked to sing barefoot.

[eschertron]

I would like to present Exhibit A.

Please don't think that posters are being 'flip' about the subject. The topic has come up numerous times, and the consensus is that electrocution is a real, valid, concern.

Although post #3 makes me think I could be focusing my attention elsewhere...

[olddawg]

Those complaining "You can't tell me what to do. You're not my mother!" ***clearly*** show they are still living in their Mom´s basement and depending on her for pocket money (up to and including Guitar, amps and stuff).
Can´t call them "kids" or "early Teens" because sadly I know even 60 year olds still living that way
Some of which are customers of mine, go figure.
They read and are members of ALL Forums you can imagine and drive me crazy with all the "knowledge" they pick there

Wow... I'm Argentina too? Must be a world wide phenomenon!

[J M Fahey]

I would like to present Exhibit A.

Barbara Weldens dead: 5 things to know | EW.com

Please note #5. She liked to sing barefoot.

Not only that.
Cut and paste from same page:

The 35-year-old reportedly suffered cardiac arrest, possibly caused by electrocution, according to police, who are investigating, via the BBC.

[g1]

Yet the idiots have the gall to imply that wearing shoes would have inhibited her, claiming shoes "might have only gotten in the way, though, of her dynamic stage presence and lively performances."

[J M Fahey]

I love the

lively performances

bit

How about "deadly"?

I posted many times about customers and people I directly know who got badly shocked, only saved because somebody jumped to the stage and kicked them away from electrified stuff ..... plus they were young people with a strong heart.

Including a 25/27 y.o. Brazilian acquaintance who now has some 20% scar tissue in his heart , same as if he had a *massive* heart attack and will have to live forever with that (no sports, not heavy physical activity, regular medication, etc. , like if he were a >60/70 old guy in not too good health)

[darkfenriz]

Why don't all touring guitarists use wireless systems?

[bob p]

A brief search reveals quite a few videos showing naked ladies playing with electrical devices strapped around them.

got links?

[Justin Thomas]

I kinda wish Janis, Jimi, & Jim had been maybe 1% more "inhibited"... then maybe they'd be alive. A little tiniest bit of "inhibition" during life is better than 100% dead.

Do we know if she'd been warned of the dangers of playing barefoot and just ignored them, or if nobody intervened for fear of "messing with the process?"

Justin

[bob p]

i was reading a thread at a players forum where end users were fussing about grounding wooden tailpieces on archtops. evidently some high end luthiers do this. they embed a conductor into their carved wooden trapeze and wire that in continuity with the guitar bridge. i didn't see the need to embed a wooden tailpiece with a conductor and wire that to the bridge. to me, grounding the bridge should be sufficient. but because I like to avoid getting in conversations where i'm some nobody who comments about a master luthier's practices, i kept my mouth shut.

there are many good reasons to avoid getting into tech discussions on player sites, but the disinformation in this thread was so pervasive that it led to outright dangerous recommendations, so i had to say something. the discussion had people talking about how grounding the bridge was an anti-electrocution measure. others talked about smart guy friends who would put capacitors and resistors between their bridge and ground on their jacks to prevent electrocution. eventually one person spoke up saying that the industry was entirely wrong to ground the guitar and not the player, because that ends up treating the player as a capacitor, just like the electric chair. he recommended that the amp should use the player as ground.

yikes.

at that point I had to chime in, and clarify a few points: the electric chair uses wet grounding electrodes so that the victim is treated as a conductor not as a capacitor; guitarists' bodies tend not be fully conductive even when touching the grounded strings because of the high impedance of skin; if you intentionally grounded a guitarist with a skin-conductive electrode (like an ECG electrode) then you'd end up providing a low resistance path to ground through the player; the bridge is grounded for noise reduction, not primarily for electrical safety; little caps and resistors at the bridge aren't a valid recipe for electrical safety; don't ever play on a metal stage -- especially not in the rain; always were non-conductive rubber soled shoes; never touch anything on-stage; get a wireless.

it went over like a lead zeppelin.

[bob p]

My guitarist once melted his E string in half when it touched his microphone.

I had an interesting experience when I was replacing a carbonized starter contact on a Harley. After replacing the contact I hooked up the battery to test the starter, but I put off putting that little rubber contact insulation boot back on the starter, thinking I'd do it after I tested the starter...

fumblefingers that I am, I dropped the wrench as I was tightening the battery terminal. Just my luck -- it came to rest with one end on the chrome transmission case top cover and the the other end on the hot starter terminal. Doh! The wrench completed the circuit, sparks started flying and in an instant the wrench was arc-welded to the transmission cover. Amperes!

This is why every vehicle's service manual tells you to always disconnect the battery before doing any work on the vehicle, and not to re-connect it until the job is done.