Huge Hands

I received mine last week - have only tested them so far but all seems good. Forgot to take them to rehearsal last night - hopefully will remember next Monday!

John made me a passive Vol-Blend-Tone loom for my 5 string Precision build. Dead easy to install (even if John was super-fast in delivering it and you've lost the wiring diagram in the weeks it took for the pickups to arrive) and sounds great. Thanks again John!

That is one sentence we can definitely agree on. I do remember working with a pantomime dame who insisted on using his own costumes he had built up over the years. He had a Christmas tree dress that would be lit up when he walked on stage, then turn off. I assumed it was some sort of battery thing until half of the lights stopped working and he asked me to take a look at it. There were fully mains 240V bulbs wrapped around him on 2 circuits. He would walk out with himself connected to mains, then he would disconnect it by pulling an in-line 2 prong connector apart with one hand and getting the crew to pull the cable back off stage. The two prong plug looked like it was made of bakelite and the socket side could have easily been bridged with a finger when pulling them apart. When I started going through the dress cabling, I could see where bulb holders had been removed, the wires twisted back together and wrapped (badly) in dried out electrician's tape. He was a heavy smoker, so a coughing fit and slapping his chest would have probably killed him! I condemned it there and then and forbid him from using it, which he wasn't very happy about, but I slept better during the run!

Hi Tim, I think we are kind of agreeing in different ways. If the amp was faulty, or causing a PD to its own earth, then yes it would need looking at before it caused itself or the guitarist any damage. Remember, it is the current that kills, not the voltage, so in some schools of electrical thought, what you read on your meter may have been inside some sort of tolerance (although I doubt it). Did you get it fixed, or just leave it as was? What I did with the mic cable in my case isolated the guitarist/amp from the PA. so I think, especially as we had a rubber floor on our stage, isolated him enough to stop it hurting his lips or grounding himself in any other way. I only guessed it was his amp as we didn't have that problem again in the same venue. However, as I said I vaguely remember him coming the next year with the same amp, so assume he either had it fixed or wasn't faulty either.

My point is, I am not a qualified electrician but am qualified in audio tech and have worked with it and single/3-phase electricity enough over the years to have the experience to know it is not direct mains electricity flowing through these people. If it was, they would definitely know about it and would have probably bitten their tongue off at the very least! However, I agree that precautions are obviously best and having socket testers/inline RCDs is good for peace of mind. What these people experience is a static and sometimes impressive looking small blue flash like you would get from Nylon trousers, or poor shoes, or a balloon.. It is caused by small static or potential build up on a ground plane, because for whatever reason any inducted voltage caused by nearby noise or whatever, thinks your mouth is a faster route to earth than its current connection. It is not caused by a fault causing the live mains to somehow connect to the casing of the microphone. It is also worth noting that with the example I quoted, the guitarist did the whole gig with no problems. He then turned up the next year with the same setup and never mentioned his amp killing him in that time. I have also seen this issue with RCDs in place and they don't blow as it is not seen as a leakage to earth from another conductor.

Hi @TimR, most DI boxes I have opened up over the years just have a simple switch that causes a break in the connection to pin 1 of the XLR, there is no resistor. I think it would have to be of a pretty high resistance to give the same noise cancelling effect, which would be the same as a break in the connection. Mic cable shielding is not designed as a safety earth plane. It just happens to connect to earth in the mixer to aid with signal shielding if there isn't inherent noise being inducted it on the run. I have seen installations with all shields removed at 1 end on multi-channel snakes in noisy environments before. It wouldn't be my choice as it limits your options for noise issues, but I have seen it done.

Hi @LawrenceH - I don't know if that was aimed at me, but I was not suggesting moving physical earths from PAs or equipment. I was suggesting disconnecting the signal shield from the microphone. This would avoid a "bridge" between varying earth planes (existing or not) in various equipment plugged into various sockets in the building. A signal "ground lift" is a common option in DI boxes to isolate this to stop hum and no different to what I am suggesting here. I totally agree with the safety precaution of carrying a socket RCD and have one in my gig bag too. However, I think people need to understand the difference between serious electrical faults like mains voltage/current shorting to earth and small potential differences caused by less resistive paths to earth, which can happen due to bad connections, or some poor wiring in venues. Still not great and should be looked at by the venue and resolved, but if a microphone genuinely had mains voltage flowing through the casing, your mouth would have to be peeled away with a wooden pole once you'd burnt to a crisp (assuming a RCD hadn't tripped and saved you). These shocks are generally like static from your shoes or when you used to rub a balloon on your jumper. I am not belittling them by the way, I know they can bloody hurt, I have had a few myself in the odd venue over the years.

I saw bits of it, so didn't see the start or any context of what it was fully about. I agree that Beverly Knight was her usual amazing. For me. it lost a little in some of the arrangements and song choices, as though some were trying too hard to embellish or change the feel of the original songs. I also agree some of the vocalists seemed a little off. I recently saw a video on Youtube of a house band including Will Lee on bass playing a Curtis Mayfield tribute with the WDR orchestra and Ledisi/Bilal singing. Much more well done and true to the feel of the originals IMHO

Hi TIm, Agreed. I think you're arguing the same points as me, but probably in a more succinct way. The problem with potential differences between ground planes on different sockets in a room is usually that they are not commonly earthed, or the connection for one is not as good as the other or is not there at all. In my example you quoted, I assumed it was his amp/guitar setup as we had a multitude of guitarists using the same setup in that venue without issue. We kept the doctored cable marked up on a peg in our office, but don't think we ever used it again (probably until he came back the next year).

Hi Tim, The point of what I suggested is that you isolate the ground to the mic itself. I assume in the example you quoted, someone has lifted the ground elsewhere, so the mic is still connected to the PA ground via the cable shield, and therefore any potential in the PA earth plane is earthed through your mouth and guitar/amp. I think this is more likely than it travelling from your guitar earth to the PA earth if you're saying the ground was removed? If you remove the shield from the mic, the casing of the mic should not be connected to earth and therefore stop you getting belts. Maybe I have misunderstood what you meant.

In my experience as a former sound engineer, these shocks are caused by potential differences in the earths between your mixer and your PA, backline amps etc. If it is a small system, and everything is plugged into the same socket, it is usually fine. The problem comes when you have your on-stage gear plugged into one socket/ring main, and your mixer out front in another and they don't have a fully shared resistance free common earth. Any potential difference then takes the fastest route to earth via you and your mouth when you get close enough to the mic, especially if you're holding a guitar. The best way is to take a marked up XLR cable for the mic with the ground (pin 1) disconnected at one end. This will act as a ground lift (like the switch on a DI box) and should stop the belts in the mouth. Obviously this may cause the mic feed to be noisier in certain venues as you've removed the ground, but that could be the better of the two evils. I remember doing this about 25 years ago with the band Nine Below Zero at the venue I worked at. The venue was desperate to open but the lead singer was still soundchecking, strumming his guitar and getting shocks. I got one of the crew to open up his XLR, cut the connection to pin one, tape it up and put it back together in front of him. He stood there and watched in disbelief thinking we were idiots. He put the lead back together just as the venue manager decided to close the curtains and let everyone in. As the crowd ran in to get their positions, the lead singer strummed behind the curtains with just the monitors on (that were still loud in the venue) and went "Hey mate - either that was lucky guess or you're a f***ing genius!" We kept that lead but hardly ever had complaints that would mean we needed to use it again - I assume it may have been something to do with his amp, perhaps earthing him faster through the mic, rather than the other way round.

I have 2 of the very P5s that @synthaside mentions, both mine are/were Sherwood Green too! I am in the middle of modding one for the 2nd time (with a different colour), so the measurements are fairly fresh in my head. It has one of the widest necks and nuts out there, so not sure if all Fender 5s are guaranteed 19mm? Although not a Fender/Squier product, the Sire 5 string V7 I have is 18mm and won't appear to fit wider spacing on the neck. I think string choice could also factor your experience - I have found different strings give different results, I have always assumed due to tension? In summary though, I have played some more high end basses and the B string does feel tighter and less flubby and loose on them than my Squiers - but I mainly want mine to rumble the floorboards when I hit the lowest notes, so it doesn't bother me too much. I just love the cricket bat necks! Not enough to buy another one at that price in the link though!

Thanks @tauzero - I've had a punt....

...er, what did you guys do there.....? BBC News - Brewdog to close 10 pubs across UK, some 'within days' https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgmw0mmxpjlo

Drove down to meet @GisserD (Darren) today and buy his spare Sire V7 bare wood body. Had a nice chat with him about bass building and car paint colours and he put up with me waffling even though he was suffering a bit from the night before! Great seller and all as described. Deal with confidence! All the best, Stew (Huge Hands)