Odd chorus effect from pickup/strings

[phaeton]

 

Hey guys...  I finally got around to playing a bit with one of my Squire Affinities.  It's my latest nab from Craigslist, and came with the usual story-  Some guy thought about picking up the guitar, bought a Squier, fuddled around for a little bit, then put it in the closet till his wife told him to do something about it.

 

Original Fender Bullet strings from 2004, a little tarnished looking but still crisp sounding.  I figured I'd play the old strings for a bit so they can wear the tarnish off the frets.  I got about 20 or 30 minutes into noodling and I notice that there is this 'chorus' effect going on.  I'm going guitar->cord->amp into an old Laney with no effects onboard.  It sounds more like a 12-string type chorus than an electronics type, as it's a stable detune effect with no warbling or oscillation.  At first I thought something was up with the amp, as I vaguely remember something about bad tubes doing something like this.  Grabbed a different guitar, gone.  Grabbed the first one, back again.  Switched amps, still there.  The guitar only does it when the middle pickup is involved, i.e. very prominent in position 3, and still there but lesser in 2 and 4.

Weird!

Any of y'all have this happen? 

[mrbrown49]

Sounds like a bit of stratitus.  Try lowering the pickups a little.  

[Disgruntled]

Replacing the nine year old strings should be the first thing you do.

[Into Nation]

Just a tad of residual echo from the wife.  Should go away.