RTP-area local music and culture

[grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>]

Some questions:

1) does it act more or less the same regardless of which pickup you're 
switched to?

2) how does the position of your right hand w/r/t the bridge change when 
you're playing chords with the pick vs single notes or fingerpicking?

3) What exactly does this circuit look like (I haven't had a guitar open 
in 22+ years, and that one was a real POS anyway)? Specifically, if you 
took it DI through a transformer DI with a ground lift, could you cut 
this ground wire entirely & still get signal, so as to confirm/deny that 
the wire is the issue? Or could you readily reconfigure the circuit so 
as to make that happen? I'm asking because you honestly don't know for 
sure that it isn't one of the pickups, or something funky in one of the 
pots. It seems mechanical, but . . .

These are all by way of trying to isolate the problem, vs. suggestions 
for an actual permanent fix, but you gotta do one before you can do the 
other.

Chris Rossi wrote:
> 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
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