surfguy13 Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 Hi Guys I seem to have developed a problem in a strat which is puzzling me and I wonder if anyone had any thoughts? I need to explain that this is a '54 anniversary strat made by fender's custom shop to [i]exact [/i]specs of a '54 guitar, even down to manufacturing bridge saddles stamped pat. pending. Yeah, I know, well over the top but it is the best strat I've ever played. However, I wondered weather the process of copying the original that closely has resulted in noise problems that old guitars commonly had? Anyway, I have a couple of old 50s fender amps and whenever I plug the strat into either of these I get a kind of static crackling which is not particularly in your face and which I assumed was an issue with the amp at first but it's not as it happens in both amps. It's almost as if the guitar was not earthed correctly. It does fade in and out a bit too and is just slightly irritating. It gets louder as the volume is increased. I was recording the other evening and for the first time I could hear it on playback. Pickup height is fine, more or less to fender specs, and there is nothing that I can think of that might be adding to or causing the problem. I've checked the earth wire is firmly soldered to the trem plate and it is. Everything else seems to be OK with no obvious problems. I was wondering if maybe the cavities needs to be lined with copper or..............? Any thoughts would be appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiOgon Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 If you lift the scratch plate - can you put up a picture of what's in there? Any shielding on the underside of scratchplate? Are the cavities painted with conductive paint already? Is it just the pots crackling? Or the jack? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfguy13 Posted March 15, 2015 Author Share Posted March 15, 2015 [quote name='KiOgon' timestamp='1426439151' post='2718047'] If you lift the scratch plate - can you put up a picture of what's in there? Any shielding on the underside of scratchplate? Are the cavities painted with conductive paint already? Is it just the pots crackling? Or the jack? [/quote] No, no shielding on the back of the scratchplate and no conductive paint in the cavities. This is what I was getting at......I think it's maybe been made [i]too [/i]close to the original and is subsequently 'warts and all'. I cannot remember which option I choose to drop a photo into a post so have included a link to my photobucket album. Page 1 shows the body cavities and page 3 shows the scratchplate. Hope this helps. http://s956.photobucket.com/user/guymerchant/library/Dennis%20Galuszka%2054%20anniversary%20strat The crackling is weird and it's not like an earthing problem like when you touch the neck the buzzing ceases. It's a very mild crackling and a bit intermittent. It's not like a dodgy jack socket or a bad lead (I've tried 3 leads). It's more like interference almost. It [i]could [/i]be the pickups I guess? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristinaelias Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 (edited) Hang on John, I can help there! I just changed the strings on my 60th anniversary American vintage 54 strat and took a look, & some pics of under the hood. Teriffic guitar. Hope these may help. No problems with mine so far. Sorry, different strat, you didn't mention the Galzuka CS bit in your first post!! Edited March 15, 2015 by kristinaelias Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icastle Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 How about the pickup selector switch? They sometimes go a bit intermittent as they're an open 'skeleton' construction which pick up a lot of crud and gunge (technical term ). Next time you get the crackle, try moving the switch back and forth vigorously and see if that makes a difference. If it does then you might fix it with a squirt of switch cleaner, or if worse comes to worse, a replacement switch isn't too expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfguy13 Posted March 15, 2015 Author Share Posted March 15, 2015 [quote name='icastle' timestamp='1426447376' post='2718155'] How about the pickup selector switch? They sometimes go a bit intermittent as they're an open 'skeleton' construction which pick up a lot of crud and gunge (technical term ). Next time you get the crackle, try moving the switch back and forth vigorously and see if that makes a difference. If it does then you might fix it with a squirt of switch cleaner, or if worse comes to worse, a replacement switch isn't too expensive. [/quote] Doesn't seem to be the pickup selector switch...I'd already lubed the pots and switch just in case. The switch is pretty clean to be honest, no dirt to speak of. Interesting though, I have just put the strat through an early 60s AC30 and no crackle so..........?! Tried all 3 channels and focused on the 'brilliant' channel and yet no crackle at all. I rarely if ever use the strat through this amp, normally use the princeton and the twin, '57 and '54 respectively, and it is with these amps that I'm getting the crackling. It's worth noting that the circuit in both these amps is 100% original, not a single component changed, and they both run like a dream, no noise at all. However, I wonder if there is some sort of strange interaction going on between the components in guitar and amps? Long shot I know. By the way, when posting a photo is it: IMG or Direct? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icastle Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 [quote name='surfguy13' timestamp='1426450553' post='2718188'] Interesting though, I have just put the strat through an early 60s AC30 and no crackle so..........?! Tried all 3 channels and focused on the 'brilliant' channel and yet no crackle at all. I rarely if ever use the strat through this amp, normally use the princeton and the twin, '57 and '54 respectively, and it is with these amps that I'm getting the crackling. It's worth noting that the circuit in both these amps is 100% original, not a single component changed, and they both run like a dream, no noise at all. However, I wonder if there is some sort of strange interaction going on between the components in guitar and amps? Long shot I know. [/quote] If it was just one of the amps exhibiting this then it's a possibility, but for two of them to have a strange interaction going on kinda pushes the boundaries a bit. I'm still thinking its a guitar issue but that doesn't really get you any further forward without some more guesses as to what it could be. How about taking the amp and guitar upstairs (or vice versa) and trying it there - you can sometimes get some pretty nasty noise on a ring main and changing floors will rule that out. I usually use the IMG tags for posting photos - just upload them to a hosting site and paste the url. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfguy13 Posted March 15, 2015 Author Share Posted March 15, 2015 [quote name='icastle' timestamp='1426452219' post='2718207'] If it was just one of the amps exhibiting this then it's a possibility, but for two of them to have a strange interaction going on kinda pushes the boundaries a bit. I'm still thinking its a guitar issue but that doesn't really get you any further forward without some more guesses as to what it could be. How about taking the amp and guitar upstairs (or vice versa) and trying it there - you can sometimes get some pretty nasty noise on a ring main and changing floors will rule that out. I usually use the IMG tags for posting photos - just upload them to a hosting site and paste the url. [/quote] I agree, it seems like it's guitar related but the only thing that comes to mind is shielding the cavities however, the fact that there was no noise using the AC30 chucks a large spanner in the works. The AC30 and the Twin live side by side but I think your idea of trying the guitar through the amp in another area makes [i]perfect [/i]sense and I will do that tomorrow. It's encouraging that the guitar was fine through the Vox so that at least offers a bit of hope that the issue can be fixed. I might go ahead and shield the scratchplate and the cavities just to rule that out. I was considering doing it anyway. I'll report back tomorrow once I've tested the amps! Thanks a million for your help and suggestions so far! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfguy13 Posted March 15, 2015 Author Share Posted March 15, 2015 Photos of the body cavities and scratchplate: [URL=http://s956.photobucket.com/user/guymerchant/media/Dennis%20Galuszka%2054%20anniversary%20strat/start%20cavities%20and%20bulgin%20socket%20003_zpsc8k2fdoi.jpg.html][IMG]http://i956.photobucket.com/albums/ae45/guymerchant/Dennis%20Galuszka%2054%20anniversary%20strat/start%20cavities%20and%20bulgin%20socket%20003_zpsc8k2fdoi.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://s956.photobucket.com/user/guymerchant/media/Dennis%20Galuszka%2054%20anniversary%20strat/54strat001_zps80e727ad.jpg.html][IMG]http://i956.photobucket.com/albums/ae45/guymerchant/Dennis%20Galuszka%2054%20anniversary%20strat/54strat001_zps80e727ad.jpg[/IMG][/URL] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfguy13 Posted March 16, 2015 Author Share Posted March 16, 2015 OK, I have now tested the princeton with the strat all over the place and.........no crackling! However, when I went back into the room where the guitar/amp was noisy yesterday..........no crackling!!!! Just can't understand it. Everything was the same.....plugged into the same socket, same lead etc etc and as much as I tried I couldn't replicate the noise. So, I will do the same thing with the Twin tomorrow, and it did seem worse on the Twin, and see how I get on. Very very weird though, doesn't make any sense at all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icastle Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Damn. It'd be so much easier if the blasted fault would stay still. Do you have a dimmer switches in your house? Those can make a hell of a racket and they don't even need to be in the same room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skybone Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 When you say you've "lubed the pots", what did you use for that? I'd recommend that you go out and buy yourself a can of Servisol (or other brand of electrical contact cleaner), and spray not only the selector switch, but the pots as well (into the little square "cut out" on the tab side of the pots). When you've sprayed the contact cleaner, make sure to "work it in", for the switch, spray the cleaner on, waggle the switch around a few times, spray a bit more, waggle again, for the pots, spray some in, roll the pots back & forth, spray a bit more, roll back & forth again, etc. I used to have a Gibson LP that would regularly stop working or go crackly for no reason until it had been given a good squirt of Servisol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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