What causes this interference?

[marklcfc]

I've had it for years and its really getting me down. I have a few telecasters currently and the same happens with both.

I get crackling noises during playing when I take my hands off the strings or play open strings. The noise only stops when I put my left hand back on strings to play a chord.

Just moving my hands gently across the strings as show in the video below makes such loud crackling noises. I've attached a video for better example if anyone can suggest whats wrong here.

(link removed)

 

[Peegoo]

Sounds like stray RF in the room, probably from the amp, or lighting, or a power supply, or a monitor, or a ceiling fan, or...


You have a meter? Test your guitar to make sure there's a string ground: set the meter to continuity beep and test across the bridge and the output jack plate. You should get a beep if you have a string ground. If no beep, fix that and things should quiet down.

Some rooms are just noisy--especially when running a gain stage (boost/overdrive/etc.) between the guitar and amp.

Take your entire rig to the other end of the house and try it there to see if you get any change in the noise floor. If you do--it's something in that room causing the racket.

 

[marklcfc]

Sounds like stray RF in the room, probably from the amp, or lighting, or a power supply, or a monitor, or a ceiling fan, or...


You have a meter? Test your guitar to make sure there's a string ground: set the meter to continuity beep and test across the bridge and the output jack plate. You should get a beep if you have a string ground. If no beep, fix that and things should quiet down.

Some rooms are just noisy--especially when running a gain stage (boost/overdrive/etc.) between the guitar and amp.

Take your entire rig to the other end of the house and try it there to see if you get any change in the noise floor. If you do--it's something in that room causing the racket.

Sorry I should have mentioned I don't think its the amp as going direct into my audio interface gives the same result.

The was no gain in the video, I was guitar direct into the amp.

I've gone round the house testing it and although it did sound a bit quieter downstairs compared to upstairs, it was still there.

 

[voskarp]

Interface not grounded?

 

[wabashslim]

Maybe a badly grounded outlet, or even the whole house. How about another guitar cord?

 

[schmee]

It's quite common.... it's the pickguard material and other things. You need to surface the pickguard underside with copper or aluminum and ground it to the tailpiece/ground. People try dryer sheets rubbed on the pickguard but it doesnt last long.
Fender even sells aluminum plates for Tele and Strats to go under the pickguard, although nobody uses them any more.
I have "fixed" several Tele's grounding this way before. For some reason aftermarket or cheap Tele types do this a lot, I think it's the type of plastic used.

 

[lepaulo]

Here's a sample from my brand spanking new Telecaster Ultra doing something similar (supposedly "noiseless" pups). Mine makes pinging and popping noises as well.

www.soundcloud.com/user-807442933/fender-ultra-noise/s-3tDw1CJ9CiS

My old, cheap Harley Benton was dead quiet when hooked up in an A-B test I was running to isolate the problem. Those Ultras are already shielded with paint so not sure what's going on there. The latest HBs are too.

The scratchy crackle is my tone pot. I'm not even turning it - just wiggling it. Bridge and pups are properly grounded.

Again, all pretty unusual (or is it???). I wasn't expecting to have to do a solder and shielding job on a top-of-the-line guitar that is meant to be properly soldered and shielded...?

 

[schmee]

Here's a sample from my brand spanking new Telecaster Ultra doing something similar (supposedly "noiseless" pups). Mine makes pinging and popping noises as well.

www.soundcloud.com/user-807442933/fender-ultra-noise/s-3tDw1CJ9CiS

My old, cheap Harley Benton was dead quiet when hooked up in an A-B test I was running to isolate the problem. Those Ultras are already shielded with paint so not sure what's going on there. The latest HBs are too.

The scratchy crackle is my tone pot. I'm not even turning it - just wiggling it. Bridge and pups are properly grounded.

Again, all pretty unusual (or is it???). I wasn't expecting to have to do a solder and shielding job on a top-of-the-line guitar that is meant to be properly soldered and shielded...?

The static-y noise may be needing a good shield and ground for the pickguard. Not sure if that was the pot you mentioned or the other noise...

 

[moosie]

Open 'er up and make absolutely certain that every bit of metal or conductive material in there, is grounded. I'd say "ground all shields", but you might not consider it shielding. Doesn't matter. Even the conductive mylar inside modern 4-wire humbucker insulation. If that's not grounded at one end...

It can make this issue, and many others. Like a ghost in the machine. Static on the neck. Humming if you hold your hand 6" above the body. Always different, always very, very hard to diagnose.

I'm fortunate enough to have had this issue twice. One was a Tele, one a Les Paul. With the LP, it was that bit of mylar. It's supposed to be grounded by contact with the bare wire running inside, but it was buried in the other four leads, and never made contact. Took 6 hours on the bench, and much dissection. The Tele, I was relying on the conductive adhesive of the copper shielding. I used the good stuff, but it was over three years old, and I've noticed that it loses it's conductivity after a while. So now I always add a drop of solder at each connection. That took weeks to figure out.

Good luck.

 

[fuzzmullah]

Sounds like noise from static electricity. The problem is likely to get worse during winter months with dry air, affecting both general humidity in the house as well as your hands. If your hands are dry, try using some moisturizing cream and check if that helps on the static noise problem.

I've had similar problems with a couple of guitars, and the type of finish will also have an impact: Gibson's nitro lacquer has a tendency of getting static (as do other variants of nitro finish), whereas poly finishes are not affected. The pickguard material will also contribute, and on one of my guitars it helped to lightly roughen the pickguard with fine grit sandpaper.

Shielding the cavities might help, but is probably not the most important aspect. Try rubbing the strings with and without moisturized hands and check if there is a difference. If it is, then my guess is that you need to increase humidity in the house.

 

[lepaulo]

Here's a sample from my brand spanking new Telecaster Ultra doing something similar (supposedly "noiseless" pups). Mine makes pinging and popping noises as well.

Just a quick update on mine because no decent guitar should sound that bad, certainly not a top-of-the-line model: Fender agreed after investigating that my Tele Ultra is faulty and it's being swapped out for a replacement.