Post by jayquackenbush on Sept 2, 2007 13:09:21 GMT -5
Hi Everyone, my name is Jason and I'm a newbie to the forum. I wanted to ask some of the more knowledgable folks a couple of questions. I'm an electronics hobbyist and I know probably just enough not to be a danger to myself by fooling around with things I know nothing about, but there are still a number of big grey areas i was hoping people could clear up:
1.) On the issue of Safety: I have a lot of friends that do the underground punk rock basement tour circuit and i do some occasional sound reinforcement work, so the electrocution risk is something that I think about a lot. I've personally bought most of my friends outlet testers and I won't plug anything into a PA if it doesn't have an inline GFCI. I'm wondering though, with those precautions are the caps still necessary to protect against a short in an amp? As the local guy who's handy with a soldering iron, if it's still a good idea, then i'll probably be making those mods to my friends' guitars as christmas presents or something this year. But if GFCIs take care of the problem, then I'd rather organize a group to buy a bunch of those in bulk instead. Or are both a good idea, one protecting from crappy inhouse AC and one protecting from a DC voltage from a short circuited amp?
Also, usually there's a warning about isolating the strings that metal knobs and the jack plate will still be hot. I have a frankenstrat with a pickup wiring scheme similar to the S-Tastic mod on the guitar nuts site that uses metal knobs that I like a lot. I was wondering if anyone had thought much about insulation for these parts. Some thoughts I'd had were useing a liquid latex or quick drying epoxy to insulate metal knobs or jackplates? I've tried a couple of ways to wrap electrical tape around the shafts with very little luck.
Also, why is it a capacitor that's used to block dangerous voltages from the ground? my understanding is that capacitors only block DC. Would it be possibl/better to wire in an inductor in series with the capacitor to help deal with AC shock? or would the inductor have to be too large to block ac at 50/60 Hz? I think I'd be willing to do a little extra routing if it meant playing safe.
Also, why use these sorts of reactance to block the deadly voltage? Why can't you just wire a very small fuse between the signal return on the output jack and everything else to act as a circuit breaker? Do fuses not blow fast enough to keep you safe? Also, this raises another question, why wire in the isolating cap between the signal ground and the chassis ground the way it is in the Quieting the beast Mod? Why can't you wire it immediately after the signal return at the jack and thereby isolating the whole of the shielding, pots, pickguard screws, metal knobs and all?
Thanks in advance, and I look forward to talking more to all of you as i hang around here...
-J
1.) On the issue of Safety: I have a lot of friends that do the underground punk rock basement tour circuit and i do some occasional sound reinforcement work, so the electrocution risk is something that I think about a lot. I've personally bought most of my friends outlet testers and I won't plug anything into a PA if it doesn't have an inline GFCI. I'm wondering though, with those precautions are the caps still necessary to protect against a short in an amp? As the local guy who's handy with a soldering iron, if it's still a good idea, then i'll probably be making those mods to my friends' guitars as christmas presents or something this year. But if GFCIs take care of the problem, then I'd rather organize a group to buy a bunch of those in bulk instead. Or are both a good idea, one protecting from crappy inhouse AC and one protecting from a DC voltage from a short circuited amp?
Also, usually there's a warning about isolating the strings that metal knobs and the jack plate will still be hot. I have a frankenstrat with a pickup wiring scheme similar to the S-Tastic mod on the guitar nuts site that uses metal knobs that I like a lot. I was wondering if anyone had thought much about insulation for these parts. Some thoughts I'd had were useing a liquid latex or quick drying epoxy to insulate metal knobs or jackplates? I've tried a couple of ways to wrap electrical tape around the shafts with very little luck.
Also, why is it a capacitor that's used to block dangerous voltages from the ground? my understanding is that capacitors only block DC. Would it be possibl/better to wire in an inductor in series with the capacitor to help deal with AC shock? or would the inductor have to be too large to block ac at 50/60 Hz? I think I'd be willing to do a little extra routing if it meant playing safe.
Also, why use these sorts of reactance to block the deadly voltage? Why can't you just wire a very small fuse between the signal return on the output jack and everything else to act as a circuit breaker? Do fuses not blow fast enough to keep you safe? Also, this raises another question, why wire in the isolating cap between the signal ground and the chassis ground the way it is in the Quieting the beast Mod? Why can't you wire it immediately after the signal return at the jack and thereby isolating the whole of the shielding, pots, pickguard screws, metal knobs and all?
Thanks in advance, and I look forward to talking more to all of you as i hang around here...
-J