[HAM] 2 prong to 3 prong (grounded) power cord

[Stainless Brown]

I can attest (1st person) to the effect of mis-wired/modernized receptacles.  It was ALL I COULD DO to throw roughly $3K of guitars to the floor. One was plugged into an amplifier, the other (an acoustic) into a PA... and the two outlets had the hot/neutral reversed..... I had put one guitar down and before letting go of it, grabbed the acoustic... voltage across the shoulders... stopped the rehearsal for about half an hour. Next day I bought an $12  outlet tester and corrected the problem....  had it been two different circuits on different legs of power the 220 VAC might have killed me!
   
  whether you live in a new or old house, buy a tester and check out all the receptacles... mistakes happen...

Charles Buckingham <tonewheelorgan at rogers.com> wrote:
  
That's a very important _if_. I recently moved into a house built in 
1947. Some of the outlets are original unpolarized 2 prong. The 
majority of the remaining 3 prong outlets were installed by somebody who 
didn't have a clue about home wiring. I've been finding open grounds 
and reversed hot & neutrals all over the place. One potentially (yes, 
pun intended) dangerous outlet was an ungrounded three prong outlet in 
the basement where the washing machine was plugged in.

Circuit testers are cheap. Lives, not so much.