Re: Electric Guitar - fix for static noise?

[Douglas Baldwin <coyotelk@optonline.net>]

Greetings, Per, from the Long Island that sprouts from the bottom of New
York-
    I encountered this problem (static discharge from a pickguard) exactly
once before in my recent memory. It was on a G&L Strat, brought to me by a
client for repair. It took quite a few minutes for me to even figure out
what was making it happen. Once I sussed it out, I called G&L to see if 
they
had any advice. They offered to take the guitar back and replace the entire
pickguard/pickup harness, which they did.

    I almost wish I had tried to fix it myself, as it was such an unusual
problem. My guess is that either the plastic of the pickguard is somewhat
unusual and generates some kind of discharge, or that there is some
interaction between the ground/earth in the circuit and the pickguard.
Unfortunately, I would forsee this requiring a lot of
disassembly/testing/reassembly to eliminate. I trust you know your way
around your axe, Per, and you could just dive in, take it slow and logical,
and see if you can either eliminate it somehow.... or just replace the
pickguard. Sorry I can't give any more advice, but at least I can confirm
that the problem has occurred elsewhere.

    Please let us all know how you solve it!
Best,
Douglas Baldwin, coyote-at-large
www.thecoyote.org
coyotelk@optonline.net

"Life! Life!
Clouds and clowns!
You don't have to come down!"
- Sly and the Family Stone



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Per Boysen" <perboysen@gmail.com>
To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 4:13 AM
Subject: OT: Electric Guitar - fix for static noise?


> I have a wonderful Stratocaster, but whenever I briefly touch the
> pick guard with my right hands pinky (which happens all the time when
> you play) a small amount of static power is built up and creates an
> unpleasant audio artifact. This must be a well known issue for all
> you guitar craft savvy people on this list? How can it be fixed?
>
> This Strat has a great sound except for that static power noise. I
> have brought it when doing studio musician labor and my  producers
> have always picked this guitar before any other. But at such
> important recordings I have been forced to play in an uncomfortable
> way, making sure I never touch the pick guard by mistake, or putting
> loads of Gaffa Tape on the pick guard, making the Strat look like a
> piece of junk (which it actually is, because I partly built it
> myself). Now I've finally set my mind on fixing this noise issue one
> time for all, since I'm going to use this guitar for looping at a
> public guitar show later this spring. Don't want those "little noise
> sprouts" to get multiplied in my loops.
>
> Greetings from Sweden
>
> Per Boysen
> www.boysen.se (Swedish)
> www.looproom.com (international)
> http://tinyurl.com/fauvm (podcast)
> http://www.myspace.com/looproom
>