Yardbirds singer died in 1976, electrocuted by his guitar.

Rich Cohen

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2015
Messages
3,145
Reaction score
2,273
Location
Charlottesville, VA
These episodes reminds me of an incident while I was a Peace Corps volunteer in India in 1970. I had come into Kota (city) from my village for a little R&R with my Peace Corps buddies. I had just taken a shower in my buddy's house. My feet were wet. With towel wrapped around me, I entered the bedroom to change and flipped on the fan switch. I was thrown across the room by the 240 DC voltage. In those days, India's electrical grid was DC.
 

bobouz

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2015
Messages
2,228
Reaction score
1,827
I was a big fan of the Yardbirds with Clapton on board - but oh my, when Jeff Beck replaced him, they were really something special.

Time to dial up Roger the Engineer & a bit of Jeff’s Boogie, or maybe that floating note he holds for about 24hrs on The Nazz Are Blue. Hmm..... might as well play the whole album!
 
Last edited:

DeArmond Hammer

Member
Gold Supporting
Joined
Oct 29, 2019
Messages
604
Reaction score
774
Location
Maryland, US
So, how about a veer for this zombie? I remember an old Hawaii Five-O episode in which a guitarist, who was known for playing barefoot and nicknamed something like Barefoot Billy, was electrocuted when he stepped in a puddle of water. (An accident? Probably not!) That's my memory and I'm sure some of it is faulty. I just went through IMDB's descriptions of 12 seasons of H5O episodes and couldn't find any about a guitarist. Google gave me some cool Ventures links. Does anyone remember this episode? Was it H5O or a different series?
To resolve this issue for those of me who care:
1. It wasn't Hawaii Five-O, it was Ironside, season 7, aired 1974-1-17.
2. It wasn't Barefoot Billy, it was Barefoot Joey.
3. He didn't step in a puddle, he stepped on a pedal, specifically a wah with a loose(ned) wire.
Warning: graphic content below, discretion advised for barefoot wah users.

 

DrumBob

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2014
Messages
1,114
Reaction score
1,138
Location
northwest NJ
You're just finding out about Keith Relf now? Where have you been for the last 45 years? ;)

You should also know that guitarist Les Harvey of Stone The Crows was electrocuted onstage and died in 1972.
 

swiveltung

Member
Joined
Feb 5, 2014
Messages
425
Reaction score
79
Location
Pac NW
These episodes reminds me of an incident while I was a Peace Corps volunteer in India in 1970. I had come into Kota (city) from my village for a little R&R with my Peace Corps buddies. I had just taken a shower in my buddy's house. My feet were wet. With towel wrapped around me, I entered the bedroom to change and flipped on the fan switch. I was thrown across the room by the 240 DC voltage. In those days, India's electrical grid was DC.
India....What could go possibly wrong? :ROFLMAO:
 

Default

Super Moderator
Platinum Supporting
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
13,595
Reaction score
3,008
Location
Philly, or thereabouts
Guild Total
11
Just as a reminder when life was cheap and death was free, Here's a guy that had a Canadian Pepco practice amp with no transformer at all. He converted it to a three prong plug, which made it somewhat safer, but only slightly. It still needs an isolation transformer, and, some of these actually did have a power transformer. A feller on the Facebook amp group has one of the safe ones, and I was surprised at how many amp guys commented without looking at the pics or the enclosed schematic.

 

Default

Super Moderator
Platinum Supporting
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
13,595
Reaction score
3,008
Location
Philly, or thereabouts
Guild Total
11
Here's the power transformer version, but the guy playing it is doing his best Keith Relf impression. That is exactly the behavior that killed him.

 

Nuuska

Enlightened Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2016
Messages
7,668
Reaction score
6,028
Location
Finland
Guild Total
9
India....What could go possibly wrong? :ROFLMAO:

Reminds me of when I was in Tokyo spring 1981 - bought a Nikon camera - walked around taking pictures - I still have a similar picture that I took - coming from Scandinavia that just looked so unreal. 😂
 

Teleguy61

Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2021
Messages
840
Reaction score
928
Guild Total
2
More than once, a competent equipment guy has checked polarity and found that the feed for the amps on stage and the sound offstage were on opposite legs of 240.
Very scary stuff.
 

Nuuska

Enlightened Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2016
Messages
7,668
Reaction score
6,028
Location
Finland
Guild Total
9
Opposite legs of outlets is nothing to worry about as long phase and/or zero are not connected to ground - and most importantly - the ground is the same in every outlet.

EDIT - naturally the zero IS CONNECTED to ground - but only in supply center.

With some old amps there are still some life-dangerous things like the capacitor between one side of primary to ground. Such things have nothing to do with secure amps for at least 50 years.

All this based on how electric network functions in Finland - and likely in most of Europe.
 
Top