Mic Shock

[Half Way To 0]

Ok well my band just played it's first show tonight and it was pretty darn awesome. I had just one problem though, everytime my lips would touch the mic, I would get shocked. When we practice in our guitarist's basment I never have this problem. I know there's some way to fix it, I just don't remember what it is. Does anyone know?

[moaner]

Mic Kisser...

You should buy a better mic, for 2 reasons.

You shouldn't have to be singing that close to the mic
You shouldn't be electrocuted by the mic.

Might've had something to do with you sweating ino the mic i guess.

[theabstract]

some ppl are more open to electric shocks through microphones, one famouse case was stevie ray vaughn. He fixed the problem by wrapping rubber around his mic stand, a little bit drastic maybe but effective. It might have also been the venue. And to the poster above, theres no problem singing with your mouth touching the mic, because theres still a centimeter between your mouth and the diaphram because of the pop filter.

[moaner]

res no problem singing with your mouth touching the mic, because theres still a centimeter between your mouth and the diaphram because of the pop filter.

too right, forgot about that.

You'd have to sweat A LOT.

[EZ!]

were you playing in bare socks on a carpeted floor? that might be the cause...

[Screamin_Demon_Auz]

The grounding was probably messed up at the venue. If everything isn't eartherd(plugged in and connected to power correctly) you get shocked

[Half Way To 0]

Yeah I guess it could have been something with the grounding. It was this crappy roller rink so who knows. And no I wasn't sweating a lot, it happened right away when we were setting up and I just said something into the mic to make sure it was working fine. And nope I wasn't standing on carpet or in my socks. O well I don't ever really have my lips on the mic so it was all good I suppose.

[Pluperfect_Arson]

If you play an instrument and sing into a mic you are at risk of electrical shock. I sang one song for my band at one of our gigs over the summer, and I was shocked by the mic three times. I don't normally put my lips onto the mic, but I was extremely nervous, and kept pressing my lips to the mic. My drummer's dad [guitarist for like 20 some odd years...maybe more] said that it was because of my bass. I wore my bass rather high at the time, and he said that with the mic and bass where they were at it caused the mic to shock me.

[H to the ickle]

If there is a two-way toggle on the power of your PA system, flip it the opposite way. I had a problem with this once and it turns out I had reversed the polarity of the signal and switching it the other direction worked out just fine.

[Half Way To 0]

Well I was talking to one of my friends and we thought maybe it was because the power amp and mixer were sitting on the carpet that the drums were on.

[sleepy1212]

This happens to the other singer in my band all the time. Rarely ever happens to me though. He sweats a lot.