how important is the ground wire on a guitar amp?

[joceraz]

what are the positive effects of having it connected to earth? many thanks,regards.

[surfnorthwest]

Noise/hum, that and you don't want your amp
to bite you from not being grounded.

[txslowhand]

Hi Joceraz,

A couple of things come to mind with respect to amp grounding. First is safety both for the amp and the user. Should you experience some sort of electrical spike through your AC power line, the spike would at least have some sort of path to discharge. This of course would not guarantee the amp would be not damaged. Just allows for somewhere for the spike to travel. The type of grounding is also important. What one should avoid is the dreaded ground loop. In other words, you should only have one point of contact for your ground. This is commonly referred to as "star grounding". In other words, all grounding runs/lines lead to a single grounding point. Star grounding (or using a single grounding point) helps eliminate the potential for ground hum which is more prevelant in the US because of the 60Hz thing with AC current.