RTP-area local music and culture

[Chris Rossi <nospam AT spacelabstudio.com>]

This is a cry for help.  Dry, technical talk follows.  This is for 
people who know something about working on guitars.

So, this has been perplexing me for some time. What would make a guitar 
do this?

http://spacelabstudio.com/badguitar.mp3

This is a new Korean made strat-like guitar from a well respected 
manufacturer.

When I received the guitar I immediately wanted to restring with heavier 
gauge strings: .011s. This required adding a third spring to the bridge 
to compensate the increased tension. Inexplicably, the ground wire had 
been soldered at the factory to the hook on the back plate where this 
spring should go so I was immediately required to resolder the ground 
wire to a new spot on the backplate. I did not notice this problem 
before this modification, but I played the guitar so little before this 
that it could have escaped my attention.

I initially attributed this problem to a cold solder joint with the 
ground wire and I ended up resoldering the ground wire a total of 5 or 
so times, the last time using the biggest soldering gun that Radio Shack 
sells after having sanded off part of the chrome plating on the back 
plate so I could solder it to the exposed bare copper. None of this had 
any impact on this problem.

I sent the guitar to the manufacturer, who agreed to make a warranty 
repair despite my "modification."  They claimed to not be able to 
reproduce the problem and sent it back to me having done basically 
nothing for the month or so they had it.

I obviously can neither sell nor return this guitar at this point. I 
like the guitar a lot except for this problem.

This problem seems to happen only when using a flatpick and mainly when 
played percussively. It is more likely to happen with chords than with 
single notes. It never happens when fingerpicking and never happens when 
the guitar is not being played.

The crackling sound itself is seemingly delayed from the event that 
triggers it. In the audio sample you can hear me playing off of it 
rhythmically.

I own three electric guitars, one an American made model from the same 
manufacturer as this one. No other electric guitar I own has this 
problem. This problem is reproduceable playing through any amp, with any 
cable, taking it di, whatever. All attempts to isolate the problem to 
something other than the guitar have failed. It is the guitar.

Occasionally the guitar doesn't do this at all, or the crackling is 
quiet enough to tolerate. Many days, like today, unfortunately, it is 
quite loud and persistent.

I have no idea what would cause this problem or how to fix it.

This is driving me nuts!

If anybody has experienced something like this before and has some idea 
what the cause could be, please help! I might have to drown this guitar 
in the bathtub if I can't get it to behave!

Thank you,
Chris