Bites and chimes

Banditman

Quick brainpick re: my Strat and Les Paul for the clued-up ones:

The Strat's a standard Mex. Deluxe Roadhouse (no changes to it from the factory yet: vintage-type Strat trem bridge). I've noticed an odd chiming when playing single hard-strummed chords, especially with the amp turned up or with any kind of overdrive. Think of a tuning fork sound backtracked - goes from soft to loud - but it doesn't last for long. My suspicion is vibration in the 3 bridge springs somehow being picked up. Solution?

The Les Paul: is either being a prima donna, or wants more attention. I've started noticing little shocks/tingles through the strings from time to time: almost as if a small charge is building up and then grounding itself. Played a show recently and it was much more noticeable with all the juice running around the stage and through the system. This is only happening with the LP, regardless of the amp and pedals it's plugged into. It doesn't happen with the Strat plugged into my amp & rig. Earthing problem? Loose earth connection on the bridge?

Guidance gratefully received.

guidothepimmp

???

say what?

Springs are easy to check, squeeze a sponge in and see if there is any improvement.

Les paul, ???

Dont know what youre on about mate.. :-[

Banditman

Good suggestion on the sponge as a way of seeing if that I.D.'s the problem, but I'd be looking for a proper final solution. As for the Les Paul - I've started getting occasional little electric shocks / tingles through my left hand when fretting notes. Plug my other guitars into the same amp and setup and nada.

Add to that, a constant background sizzle which damps down 50% if you touch the strings and (even more effective) the pickup selector switch.

I ain't no electrician, mate. :-[

AlanRatcliffe

Banditman wrote My suspicion is vibration in the 3 bridge springs somehow being picked up. Solution?

Surgical tubing inside the springs is the best solution I've found. But if your pickups are hearing a lot of the noise, they might also be microphonic.

Earthing problem? Loose earth connection on the bridge?

Earthing problem. Usual suspect is the jack socket, a cable or more worryingly the amp... Shocks are due to ground not being able to be made in the usual fashion and a voltage potential from somewhere.

guidothepimmp

ah ok..

Well the les paul sounds like a bad case of a grounding issue. Has the fiddle ever been opened upand tinkered with? Maybe an old joint on a grounding wire?

Alternatively, any pedals or mic's near by? or computers for that matteR?

Sounds like a ground issue though.

For the strat, if it is the springs, I find a piece of foam underneath the spring usually helps because it someow "absorbs" the "extra" reverberation that some springs emit. (if that makes any sense :-[)

*edit: Alan beat me to it

Banditman

Thanks guys, much appreciated.

I'll give the foam trick a try first (no surgical tubing to hand right now). Pickups are the Texas Specials she came with.

The amp's just come back from a service by J.P. (Demolition Amps) and has a clean bill of health. My suspicion's on the guitar as I can plug my Strat or Sheraton in via the same lead, and nothing happens then.

You're probably right on an old dry or cracked soldering joint, guido. She's done a lot of work over the last 5 years and is in need of a good check over. Nothing's been tampered with & I look after my gear, but she's still worked hard. Was going to wait until I'd ordered an RS Guitar Works kit & new pickups, but I'd prefer to not do a Keith Richards against a mic stand.

Banditman

Quick feedback (no pun intended):

Haven't had the time to pick up some surgical tubing so the Strat's unchanged at present.

The LP's problem stemmed from a break in the bridge earth connection to the ground plate inside the wiring cavity: old solder joint had broken loose. Quick dab with the soldering iron and presto: no more noise. Took a look at the amp's power cord in case the earth connection had worked loose. Noticed the neutral cable had a tear to it and was halfway broken through, while earth and live were intact but looking a bit cruched and crimped. Short work with a new plug and a bit of trimming back to fresh wire, will test drive tomorrow.

Thanks Al and guido for steering me in the right direction.

Moral of the story? It's easy to be complacent about things that are working. Complacent enough that you don't notice a gradual deterioration at first. No matter how well you look after your gear the inevitable wear and tear will require checking and tweaking to keep things tip-top. I'd gotten so convinced that the noise I was getting was the fault of my power supply (it partly was) that it masked other issues.

Acquiring a Fuel Tank plus an amp service got rid of a lot of noise and allowed me to hear & zoom in on the other problems.