Snap, Crackle, Pop, your guitar giving you static?

[wankdeplank]

This is something I originally thought was more an issue on budget type guitars. I've had a lot of experience with non-MIA Strats where generally just shielding the pickguard took care of the problem. Now I'm discovering that it is much more prevalent than I originally realized and particularly with Gibsons. Mine is a 2000 Custom Lite and though it's not really bad or problematic, I can create some static noise by just running my fretting hand up the fret board. Out of eleven electrics, I actually have three (including the Gibson) that have a small level of static electric charge occasionally. The other two are an old hot-rodded 60's vintage Harmony H-19 (only when I use the bigsby) and a 98 MIM Fender Squier Series Strat (think it's the bottom wrung GFS pickups). I know about the used static cling sheet thing and that's a good temporary solution. Like I say, my static issues are minor and totally controllable, but I'd hate to have a problem like this guy:

 

[video=youtube;snuY3h5wyuM]

 

or this guy:

 

[video=youtube;oig9lFEx2aU]

[knotty]

Wow, nasty, never heard anything like those. Thank goodness. Interesting. I look forward to peoples comments on this one.

[wankdeplank]

I know right? Unfortunately, I've discovered that with gain my Les Paul generates about the same amount of neck static as the second video. I don't remember having the problem to this extent before I installed the new pickups. I've read that covered (nickel plated) humbuckers (originally installed) control the noise better than open coil hummers do. The quandary is that I really like the sound of the new pickups but am annoyed by this extraneous noise. Incidentally, I bought the same pickups for my Hamer Special (awesome sound) and there is no static whatsoever coming from that guitar. I love the playability, tone etc. of my Gibson but why do they use a lacquer that produces static electricity? Of all the electrics in my stable, Gibson is the worst in the static department.

 

PS Sorry Gibson, longtime fan of your guitars otherwise.

[billybilly]

That's outrageous, never had a problem like that.

 

Some humbuckers are noisier than others, my PRS SE's were very noisey, uncovered, thought there was a grounding problem but no. My BG Bucker darks are the quietest.

[wankdeplank]

Surprising how it only seems to effect certain Gibson models. I know that you and Knotty both own Gibsons and yet you have no problems eh? Just wondering if you guys have covered buckers in your guitars.

[billybilly]

For sure, my quieter ones are covered, as is my Gibson though there are times when uncovered ones vary in noise... This could be for a variety of reasons relating to the electronics, not specific to the pickups.

[1001gear]

Could be the composition of the finish?

[knotty]

I have 57 classic and Burstbucker pro, both covered.

[wankdeplank]

Wow that was fast. Very cool, I just don't remember having this static issue with the covered 490R/498T set in there and yet they weren't near as dynamic sounding as this new set either. I think I'm going to change out the bridge for an open coil JB I have on hand first as I do most of my crunchy stuff out of the bridge anyway, just see how that works out. Fall back on the original set as a last resort. It's not like they were terrible, though I do remember thinking that the original bridge might be microphonic. Thanks for the help fellas.

[wankdeplank]

Could be the composition of the finish?

 

Oh yeah it definitely is in the Gibson formula lacquer to have this predisposition to static. Not like I knew this before, but I've researched the internet and it's a pretty well known fact apparently. I guess the secret is finding the quietest hummers around which basically cancels out anything scatter wound with mismatched coils. Live and learn.

[WRGKMC]

The removal of the hand from the strings and the quieting of the hum when you touch the strings is normal, especially when a guitar is gained up to amplify noise. Strings are grounded and when you touch the strings you body being mostly salt water acts like a faraday cage, a shield to help block any hum that's getting to the wires.

 

 

You can reduce this in many ways. #1 most budget guitar cables may look good and were soft on your wallet but inside is the key. Many only have 70% shielding which is good enough to block hum with clean tones dialed up. When you gain a guitar up, you hear what that cord misses blocking.

 

Get yourself cords that have 90% or better shielding from the guitar to the amp and you'll hear a great reduction in this hum.

 

Foot pedals. Not all have good shielding. Some that have stainless steel or plastic housing may allow hum to get through. Some just aren't designed very well and amplify any noise coming oin off the cord. If need be get a gate/hush or noise eliminator that clamps the volume down when you aren't playing.

 

Some guitars may need additional grounded shielding around the pots and switches. Gibson does use some good wire and usually has adequate shielding for most environments. I'd focus on other items in the chain first and you'll likely find the guitars shielding is adequate. If you've replaced the pickups and the wiring to those pickups isn't the nice Gibson wire with the exposed mesh then maybe those plastic coated cables lack shielding. Adding additional copper foil or screen mesh can quiet down an amp immensely.

 

Lastly the amp itself may not have good chassis shielding. I have a SS Fender head that had some aluminum foil stuck to the head cab wood where the head mounts to act as a shield. Aluminum is a lousy shield. You need about 1/4" of it to match what thin copper foil does. I went to the hardware store and bought some copper screen, stapled it over the aluminum foil and remounted the head. That ones dead quiet now and I hear no hum when I let go of the strings.

 

You appear to be in a basement and I believe you may have more AC static issues because of this. You may have allot of AC wiring above your head which is making the problem more prevalent. so beefing up your shielding is the best way to go. When I used to run a ham radio in my basement I covered all the walls and ceiling with foil to cut down on hum and static so I could dial in weak stations without static. That's an extreme measure but commonly used in radio. Beefing up your guitar chain starting with better guitar cords is where I'd start.

 

As an added note, any guitar cord, even the best quality ones can be damaged when used as a speaker cord. The insulation heats up and melts letting oxygen in and it tarnishes the copper shielding making it noisy, microphonic and unable to block hum adequately. Never use guitar cords as speaker cords. It may take 6 months or a year for the symptoms to appear but that cable is going to die with the wrong voltage applied.

 

 

 

The static your other issue which is cause by dry air in the room. Buy yourself a cheap humidity meter and check the room humidity. Since you're wearing a sweat shirt I suspect you're using dry air heat which burns up all the air moisture. I get it here in TX every winter and along with that I get nasty sinus problems from the dry air heat.

 

There's only a few possible fixes. The best is to buy yourself a humidifier and get that humidity up to around 70% and the static problem will disappear completely. Having it at around 70% is allot better for your instruments too. For a temp fix, get an electric teapot that boils water. Fill it up, and boil the water in the room for awhile. The steam will humidify the room and the static will disappear quickly.

 

You can also use some silicone based static sprays. I use some stuff called Brillinize. Its an industrial static eliminator used for business equipment. I have a good supply from working in that business. I put it in a spray bottle and sprat the carpet in front of mics and gear and all static problems disappear. In your case that couch and sweat shirt could be sprayed . Cotton is a major static generator as is wool. Wearing something synthetic may help reduce static immensely.

 

You can try using liquid fabric softener in water and spray the couch and floor. This usually works for short periods of time. Water will do just as well because static will travel to ground immediately vs building up on your hands and discharging through the guitar.

 

You can always so like Electronics workers so and wear a grounded wrist band. The technicians I work with have to wear them when working on different pieces of electronic gear so they don't blow the chips in boards or wipe out data.

 

The other thing that's used in these situations is a grounded matt. thy sell them for business especially for people who work in companies computer rooms where they have servers and such. The rooms have the temp and humidity highly regulated and they put these carbonized matts down to ground out any static electricity. Without them someone just walking past a piece of gear can wind up taking down and entire company wiping out data or blowing a board.

 

I used to have customers call in with complaints their copier machine was haunted. They're walk by it and it would start making copies on its own. I'd walk up to the machine, rub my feet on the carpet and wave my hands over the keyboard and sure enough it would start running.

 

I'd sprat the carpet with anti static spray and the problem instantly disappeared. usually the problem only lasted a few months during the coldest months when the air froze and hot air heat was running. After that when the summer came around or it rained, there was no symptoms at all.

[knotty]

The removal of the hand from the strings and the quieting of the hum when you touch the strings is normal, especially when a guitar is gained up to amplify noise. Strings are grounded and when you touch the strings you body being mostly salt water acts like a faraday cage, a shield to help block any hum that's getting to the wires.

 

 

You can reduce this in many ways. #1 most budget guitar cables may look good and were soft on your wallet but inside is the key. Many only have 70% shielding which is good enough to block hum with clean tones dialed up. When you gain a guitar up, you hear what that cord misses blocking.

 

Get yourself cords that have 90% or better shielding from the guitar to the amp and you'll hear a great reduction in this hum.

 

Foot pedals. Not all have good shielding. Some that have stainless steel or plastic housing may allow hum to get through. Some just aren't designed very well and amplify any noise coming oin off the cord. If need be get a gate/hush or noise eliminator that clamps the volume down when you aren't playing.

 

Some guitars may need additional grounded shielding around the pots and switches. Gibson does use some good wire and usually has adequate shielding for most environments. I'd focus on other items in the chain first and you'll likely find the guitars shielding is adequate. If you've replaced the pickups and the wiring to those pickups isn't the nice Gibson wire with the exposed mesh then maybe those plastic coated cables lack shielding. Adding additional copper foil or screen mesh can quiet down an amp immensely.

 

Lastly the amp itself may not have good chassis shielding. I have a SS Fender head that had some aluminum foil stuck to the head cab wood where the head mounts to act as a shield. Aluminum is a lousy shield. You need about 1/4" of it to match what thin copper foil does. I went to the hardware store and bought some copper screen, stapled it over the aluminum foil and remounted the head. That ones dead quiet now and I hear no hum when I let go of the strings.

 

You appear to be in a basement and I believe you may have more AC static issues because of this. You may have allot of AC wiring above your head which is making the problem more prevalent. so beefing up your shielding is the best way to go. When I used to run a ham radio in my basement I covered all the walls and ceiling with foil to cut down on hum and static so I could dial in weak stations without static. That's an extreme measure but commonly used in radio. Beefing up your guitar chain starting with better guitar cords is where I'd start.

 

As an added note, any guitar cord, even the best quality ones can be damaged when used as a speaker cord. The insulation heats up and melts letting oxygen in and it tarnishes the copper shielding making it noisy, microphonic and unable to block hum adequately. Never use guitar cords as speaker cords. It may take 6 months or a year for the symptoms to appear but that cable is going to die with the wrong voltage applied.

 

 

 

The static your other issue which is cause by dry air in the room. Buy yourself a cheap humidity meter and check the room humidity. Since you're wearing a sweat shirt I suspect you're using dry air heat which burns up all the air moisture. I get it here in TX every winter and along with that I get nasty sinus problems from the dry air heat.

 

There's only a few possible fixes. The best is to buy yourself a humidifier and get that humidity up to around 70% and the static problem will disappear completely. Having it at around 70% is allot better for your instruments too. For a temp fix, get an electric teapot that boils water. Fill it up, and boil the water in the room for awhile. The steam will humidify the room and the static will disappear quickly.

 

You can also use some silicone based static sprays. I use some stuff called Brillinize. Its an industrial static eliminator used for business equipment. I have a good supply from working in that business. I put it in a spray bottle and sprat the carpet in front of mics and gear and all static problems disappear. In your case that couch and sweat shirt could be sprayed . Cotton is a major static generator as is wool. Wearing something synthetic may help reduce static immensely.

 

You can try using liquid fabric softener in water and spray the couch and floor. This usually works for short periods of time. Water will do just as well because static will travel to ground immediately vs building up on your hands and discharging through the guitar.

 

You can always so like Electronics workers so and wear a grounded wrist band. The technicians I work with have to wear them when working on different pieces of electronic gear so they don't blow the chips in boards or wipe out data.

 

The other thing that's used in these situations is a grounded matt. thy sell them for business especially for people who work in companies computer rooms where they have servers and such. The rooms have the temp and humidity highly regulated and they put these carbonized matts down to ground out any static electricity. Without them someone just walking past a piece of gear can wind up taking down and entire company wiping out data or blowing a board.

 

I used to have customers call in with complaints their copier machine was haunted. They're walk by it and it would start making copies on its own. I'd walk up to the machine, rub my feet on the carpet and wave my hands over the keyboard and sure enough it would start running.

 

I'd sprat the carpet with anti static spray and the problem instantly disappeared. usually the problem only lasted a few months during the coldest months when the air froze and hot air heat was running. After that when the summer came around or it rained, there was no symptoms at all.

 

Cotton is not a major static generator and synthetic clothing will probably make it worse, not better.

[Grant Harding]

That's wild. I never noticed it when I lived in Canada (very dry), but I may have never noticed.

 

Here it's never really bone dry - you can almost never give someone a static shock by touching them.

[billybilly]

That's wild. I never noticed it when I lived in Canada (very dry), but I may have never noticed.

 

Here it's never really bone dry - you can almost never give someone a static shock by touching them.

 

Having just moved to Canada, I find it shocking!

[wankdeplank]

Good advice as usual WRG, but none of that accounts for the Gibson lacquer issue which is unlike any other in that it is a very good conductor of static electricity. Don't believe me, just check out the comments under the youtube vids that I posted. It's all over the internet but something I don't believe we've ever addressed here. I actually feel a little funny about it now as Gibson is now our sponsor and benefactor, but it can be an issue nonetheless.

[gardo]

 

Having just moved to Canada, I find it shocking!

 

[wankdeplank]

OK, thanks to Knotty and Billy, I decided to pull the open-coil boutiques out of my LP and reinstall the covered 490R/498T set that came stock. As I stated I hadn't noticed the problem until the pickup swap and after Knotty and Billy confirmed that they had no such issues with covered buckers, I decided to check it out. And the verdict is an unqualified success. Before the swap I actually had neck static with gain just as bad as the second video, and also had audible static running my hand up and down the neck with a clean setting. Now it's not like your guitar is crackling away as you're playing, just the odd pop and sizzle occasionally (generally during a big jump up the neck). But what happened with me is that I was distracted and listening for these pops rather than devoting my attention where it belonged. After the swap, no appreciable static with or without gain (can still hear a little sizzle with gain running my hand up the neck). Even after the swap, when I flipped the guitar over to adjust something (bridge, strings etc.) I could hear a pop (can't trace where it's coming from). This is not an issue for me though as it doesn't affect my playing in any way. I love this guitar again and have no plans to ever let it go for something so trivial.

 

There is an issue with this special sauce lacquer Gibson uses and people need to know about it before spending big money on replacement pickups. In my case I didn't get hurt too bad because I was able to shift the bridge pickup to another guitar (Hamer Special). These are not noisy pickups either, in fact the 490R with gain is noisier than any of them and yet doesn't produce the neck static issue.

 

So, here's what I've learned: 1) Gibson guitars use a lacquer on the finish of their guitars which can produce static noise 2) Hamer USA also used a nitro finish on their guitars but their finish with the same offending pickups produces no static noise whatsoever (the tradeoff there is Hameritus, Gibsons don't get it) 3) People should be very careful about changing out pickups on Gibson guitars for this reason 4) The Gibson 490R/498T are actually really nice sounding pickups (sound as good as the boutiques in their own way) 5) and this is just more speculation than anything - covered pickups reduce the static phenomenon and I would assume that scatter wound, mismatched open coils add to it.

[knotty]

Glad you got sorted.

Hameritus?

[wankdeplank]

Thanks knotty. Head scratcher why I pulled these pickups in the first place. All I remember is that the bridge (498T) was causing unwanted feedback in my PA (home practice space), so I pulled it out and installed a covered JB I'd pulled from my Hamer Mirage II. This solved the problem but now I had a mismatched chrome covered pickup in a guitar with gold hardware. So then I looked for a matched set. Anyway they sound great now though I did have to prop the bridge pickup up quite a bit higher than the neck pickup to even the output. Not a problem though. And as I indicated above, the guitar is now virtually static free (not an issue playing).

 

Hameritus? Discoloration, separation of the finish over time. Here's a thread from Hamer, http://www.hamerfanclub.com/forums/topic/50047-what-is-hameritus/ and another from here, http://www.harmonycentral.com/forum/forum/guitar/acapella-41/1105193-