Anybody play guitar?

[r3h0ld3r]

If so, I have a question for you.

I've had a fender 48th street custom strat for about 7 years and I've been pleased. I've used it with a variety of amps, pedals, and settings and still the result is the same...

Whenever I have either a distortion pedal or my amp in overdrive and my strat picking up on the bridge humbucker I get a TON of noise before I even touch a string. I'm assuming this is not suppose to happen, as it's almost obnoxious. Does anyone have any ideas on how to reduce/stop this or why it's happening?

[Frets]

A real strat doesn't have humbuckers.

If you have active pickups it's time to change the batteries.

[r3h0ld3r]

Yes i know that strats usually don't, but that's why i bought this one. I don't have active pickups either...I'm also noticing that when i'm using the humbucker and the mid single coil i get noise as well, although not as much.

[Frets]

Isolate it.

Is your tremelo arm grounded? Take off the back plate and look at the assembly. you should have a wire connected to the saddle block.

Next check your amp and work backwards. Do not plug a cable in just crank your amp with the overdrive. Do you hear something? Most amps aren't properly hardwired these days it's fairly easy to have a ground issue. Try reversing the polarity.

Next turn down the volume all the way and plug your cable in. Turn the volume back up.
Do not touch the tip of the cable. or let it touch anything. Hold the cable in the air away from electronc devices. Crank the volume. Do you hear anything now? Guitar cables are not shielded. They can in some instances act like an antenna. Bring it close to something electronic that is on. If you hear the noise getting louder it's a combination of either your input jack or cable. Repeat with any other cables you use.

Take off the pickguard and look at the wiring. Make sure there are no loose or exposed wires

[r3h0ld3r]

Thanks dude. Will do this weekend and report back.

[r3h0ld3r]

Hey frets.

So I checked out my tremelo and it seemed to be grounded. I proceeded to check both my amps like you said and there was no noise what so ever. So then I went and checked my cables. I only have three but I tried them all in each amp and they are extremely noisy. Do you think that's the problem?

I didn't bother looking under my pick guard because I just really didn't want to have to restring because I recently did so, but I was so surprised by how loud the cables were that I figured that must be it.

I usually just buy the cheapest cables at guitar center, so maybe that's not the way to go obviously. Do you have any suggestions? What do you use?

[Frets]

Are they stereo, trs or are they mono?

Were you touching the tip to anything?
Don't touch the tip don't let the tip of the cable touch anything hold the cable below the tip.

Never send a stereo cable into a mono amp.

[r3h0ld3r]

No I wasn't touching the tip. I know not to.

However I have no idea if they are stereo, mono or trs. I'm assuming they're mono. They were just regular guitar cables...at least I thought. Didn't know this was that complicated.

[Frets]

If they are stereo or trs then they have three separate areas like stereo headphones.
If they are mono they have two.


Generally guitar cables are mono, There are cable manufacturers for of numerous reasons produce stereo or trs (Balanced) cables. Yes there are guitars with stereo outs. It maybe one of these possibilities.
1 You have a noisy amp, Tube amps are noisy. Some solid states are as well.
In an amp you have a preamp section and a main section. The preamp section drives the main section. If you push the preamp to a higher level then intended from the preamp to the main amp you have....Overdrive or distortion. It is very rare when the main amp is pushed so hard it will overdrive/distort on it's own. Unless your playing a Marshall head into two four speaker cabs.
2. You have a bad input jack. If you hear crackle usually it means you need to clean your contact points. Pick up a can of duster and blast the dust from your pots and into the jack.
3. If the noise is present at any volume without a cable it's likely you have a bad ground.


Other things to try. Try moving your amp to another room away from any electronics and plugging it in. Try switching the polarity. don't cut off the ground on your power cable go out and get an adapter, then reverse the direction when plugging it in.

Finally take it to a small guitar shop (NOT GUITAR CENTER) Let them test it out.Most guitar techs are not strangers to working on amps. They usually know thier limitations If it's an easy fix they can do it on the spot. If it's a hard fix they usually outsource to an electronics technician.

[not_frets]

ok, frets is making it a little harder than it may seem.

if you're only getting distortion when you have your pickup switch in one position, get the connection checked on the pickup switch to make sure the wires haven't lost the connection, or the switch isn't burned out.

if you're not good with a soldering iron, i wouldn't suggest this your self. Like frets said, take it to a small guitar shop. They'll be able to fix you up in minutes.

Oh, and if it happens to be a cable problem, (which i don't think it is), DON"T by Monster cables. Way over priced give no better results. Go with a mid-range priced cable.

This is not_frets telling you to buy local. Guitar Center sucks. So does Sam Ash. Their employees don't give a crap about you and won't take care of you like a small shop would.

[Frets]

I think you need to re read the entire conversation.

1. It's not the guitar.
2. It could be the cable if the cable is stereo or balanced. Cheap or expensive cables don't make that much difference in the sound. Although some higher end cables have less resistence which results in a only slightly brighter tone. Cheap cables tend to break easier. However If you don't abuse your cables they will last for years even cheap ones.

Electronic devices transmit signals. If you have a music keyboard,,, turn it over you'll see the fcc logo. Same for computers and many other electronic devices. Given the proper circumstances an amplifier will act/react like a receiver, it doesn't need a pickup to do so. That's why I advised taking the amp to another room.
No sense going into a guitar shop and saying it's making a noise only for them not to be able to reproduce it.



3. Chances are it's the amp.
Even a cheap mono cable will not cause noise to occur unless you've stripped the wires bare.

[david petley]

not_frets ...now that is an interesting name. How'd you ever think that one up?

Are you like some evil twin, or nemisis?

davidp