I'm part of a mid-size audio rental company, we rent for productions and will-call gear. One day a new client called and said, "I need to rent a mic." We said OK, and rented them a SM58. About two hours later the client called and asked us if we were trying to kill her husband.
Confused, I asked her, "Uh, how?" She said that they had plugged the mic in, and it shocked him. "Plugged it into what?" I asked.
Her answer? "Well, the wall!"
So, thinking the in-house P.A. system's phantom power had a bad ground, I sent a tech out with a new mic and cable to check it out. The tech arrived on-site and found the client holding the mic and the cable–which they had cut and wired with an AC end, and then plugged into the wall. While the tech stood there in shock, she innocently said "You plug it in to the wall and sound comes out, right?"
Bruce Collins
JK Sound
