US KPA in Spain making high pitched sound

    Hi everyone,


    I recently moved to Spain and my KPA head is making a high pitched sound when plugged in. It happens both while playing and while the guitar is unplugged, with two different cables (however, only if touching the cable tips and generating sound. Issue is worse on high gain.

    I've tried a few different outlets with different configurations of US -> EU plug adapters. Grounding lifts in the back don't affect the issue. If I mute the strings or touch any metal parts of the guitar the sound almost goes away.

    My understanding is that the KPA should automatically switch between 110 and 220 voltage, so that shouldn't be an issue (we have some other big appliances plugged into big voltage converter boxes). I am wondering if the issue might be caused one of the following issues:

    • Adapters cannot handle such a big appliance and I should get an EU C13 cable
    • Other appliances in the house are creating disturbances (we have a few high-voltage converters for American appliances plugged in other places)
    • There is a grounding/wiring issue in the building
    • My amplifier has a wiring issue (this seems unlikely since it was working awesome 2 weeks ago in USA)

    If anyone has experience with this I'd love some advice on safe next steps for testing, since a couple of my parents US appliances have already exploded from being plugged in without a voltage converter! Note: we also noticed my brother's laptop (metal case) had a similar issue while plugged in and he had headphones on (same case of touching the metal mitigating the sound).

    there is no difference between EU and US units, except for the mains-lead.


    you should be able to just use a regular EU IEC/EU mains-lead and plug it directly into 230V/50hz without any transformer.


    the use of a 230V -> 110V transformer is contra-productive and should be avoided in this case.

    Quote from kpahuitsing

    there is no difference between EU and US units, except for the mains-lead.


    you should be able to just use a regular EU IEC/EU mains-lead and plug it directly into 230V/50hz without any transformer.


    the use of a 230V -> 110V transformer is contra-productive and should be avoided in this case.

    Thanks kpahuitsing. I tried it with a transformer and without it and it still makes a very high-pitched sound when plugged in. Strangely it doesn't even need to be turned on or have any inputs plugged into it for it to make this sound. To me this indicates a potential grounding issue in the apartment, but I would have to investigate further.