Keyboards and Phantom Power

Monday evening I was playing my Roland E16 Keyboard in our church hall, and there were some annoying sounds inbetween my proper keyboard playing; almost as if there were someone pressing random notes on the keyboard.  I immediately suspected the power, because I was sharing a plug with the portable amplifier we were using.

On Wedsenday evening I used another wall power socket, but the sounds were still there during practice!  I unplugged the audio cable which carried the kayboard sound to the amp, and everything was fine. We swapped audio cables, but the random notes came back.

Our guitarist then noticed that the Phantom power on the amp was switched on! We switched it off and everything was fine.  Fortunately there is no permanent damage to the keyboard.

The scary part is that we were using the instrument input on the amp for the keyboard, so there shouldn't have been any phantom power on that line anyway.

So if you ever hear "Phantom" Keystrokes on your keyboard, and you are using an amp, check the Phantom Power.