Posted: 7/28/2006 5:05:49 AM EDT
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I have a Clapton signature Strat with the active electronics and Lace Sensors. It has been a while since I played it, but the other night I plugged it in and found that whenever I would touch the pickguard area I would get static on the amp, and it would also happen when I would remove whatever part of my hand was touching the pick guard. It almost behaves like a short. I have replaced the guitar cable thinking it was initilally the culprit, but it didn't give a problem on my Heritage 535. A brand new cable didn't improve the problem. I removed the back cover and checked out the area around the 9 volt battery that powers the active electronics, and it is just fine. No bare wires, no obvious defects. Any ideas what this could be? |
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It's actually static discharge. Like walking across a rug and touching a door knob. My Strat does it sometimes. Since I starting playing on a wood floor, it seems to have stopped. BTW www.guitarnuts.com/index.php is a good site. They have a whole section on taking the hum out of Strats as well as the situation you describe. |
Would it still be static discharge if it happens every time you touch the guitar even for an extended period of time? Because EVERY time I touched or released the pickguard it would do it. I ask because until very recently the guitar never had this problem. Thanks for the link. I will check it out. |
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I own two of the early 90's Clapton Strats (Blackie and pewter) w/ active electronics. IMO, they are the best sounding and playing (once you replace Vintage frets w/ jumbo)Strat ever made. I have found that the guitar jack need frequent cleaning to keep the contact surface area clean. This is due to the battery switch in the jack. Just remove the two wood screws that hold the jack body to the wood and then use a q-tip soaked in contact cleaner (or WD40) to clean all of the contact points of the jack. Here's my three Eric Claptons. The Sunbust is also a Eric Clapton Fender Custom Shop that I had built, but it has the 50's reissue vintage pickups (no active electronics). .jpg) .jpg)
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Fender lace sensors were just a hum cancelling single coil... nothing to terribly fancy... I think the Clapton Strat has "Gold" lace sensors it also has a mid boost... basically just a little solid state amp... if you are getting static when you touch the plastic pickguard it is most likely a static electric issue... Plastic is a static electric generator... As well as a SE storage battery... try jumpering the pick guard to ground just use a regular jumper wire and clip it to the bridge and then set the remaining clip on the face of the plastic pickguard and see if the problem is still there... another thing you could try is take a standard static discharge strap and put it on your wrist then clip the lead to the bridge... if the "Static" sound goes away then there you have it... if all of this works then the simple issue may be to put some sheilding foil on the pickguard and tie it to the ground of the instrument... before you mess with any of this especially the static strap make damn sure your amp is properly grounded... as in the third lead on the plug not in a ground lift adapter... actually wired in and tied to the earth ground... would hate to hear that your heart stopped due to electric shock... That said my strat has had a light hum since I have owned it... but it does go away when I use two pickups... would not know what to do if it didn't hum!!! |
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You have a ground problem in either the amp, the guitar wiring, or your outlet. Use the process of elimination start first by using a known grounded outlet that is wired to a box with a proper ground instaled in it to plug the amp into. I would bet this will solve it. I assume you also get a hum when you are not toughing the guitar and it goes away when you do? Understand that dimmer switches, flourecent lights and neon signs all cause that damned hum. I don't know if the Lace Sensors p/u's are noise cancelling but standard single coils are notorious for being noisy. Change the location of the amp also. Tube amps are prone to RF interference also. I used to get an AM radio station once in a while.. |
I am used to the single coil hum. I get rid of it by selecting one of the intermediate switch positions when I don't need to actually be playing, essentially turning the two single coils into a hum-bucker. This is something altogether different than the normal single coil issues I have been used to. Whenever any part of my hand touches the pickguard I get that staticky scratchy sound and ditto when I take my hand off of it. |
+10 Have run into this problem many times over the years with Strats and usually fixing the ground or switching polarity on the amp solved it. This summer I was getting the piss shocked-out of me every time my lips touch the mic at a gig. I flat-out had to stop singing cause it was making me jump. Switch polarity, and everything's fine. Think it had to do with the juice that the establishment we were playing at was giving us. |