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Post subject: Help: Electric Guitar Buzzing Problem
Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2011 9:17 am
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so here's the problem... my electric guitar is buzzing pretty badly and I'm sure it's not the cable nor the amp that's making this annoying buzzing noise.. cz I've tried using the exact same amp and plugging into another electric guitar using the exact same cable, and it doesn't make a single buzz/noise at all, even when I turned both the electric guitar and amp volume to the max 10. The electric guitar that's making the buzzing sound is a Fender reissue strat I just bought, but it's second-handed. However, it didn't make those buzzing noise so badly until just now... I'm thinking maybe it's the wire inside that's got loosen up.. what do you guys think? and interestingly, the buzzing sound seems to increase & decrease as I turn the guitar up side down or facing another angle.. I'm guessing I have to open up the guitar and check if the wires inside are loosen..? but that's something I've never done before, I'm afraid instead of fixing it I might break the guitar I just bought? or is this something that's easy to fix even if I've never open up a guitar before..? Any Help Would Be Highly Appreciated. THANK YOU. =D

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Post subject: Re: Help: Electric Guitar Buzzing Problem
Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2011 9:32 am
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Is your buzzing only sounding from the guitar, or is it coming through the amp? If it's just the guitar, it could be your action, or nut, or bridge, most likely. If it's going through the amp, can you hear it with every pickup? Can you hear a crackling noise when you turn the volume/tone controls? That could be the electrics wearing out-these are not too difficult to replace. And what kind of noise can you hear when you are not playing? Same again, but with the volume turned down to zero?

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Post subject: Re: Help: Electric Guitar Buzzing Problem
Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2011 9:45 am
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"cz I've tried using the exact same amp and plugging into another electric guitar using the exact same cable, and it doesn't make a single buzz/noise at all"

What model was the other guitar? Some guitars have humbuckers/noiseless pickups that cancel or reject noise. Humbuckers/noiseless pickups will be dead silent in environments where single-coils are very noisy.

Vintage style Strat pickups are single coils that act as antennas for noise. Besides picking up the string vibrations they pick up RF and EMF noise. Noise sources are things like fluorescent lights, neon lights, dimmer switches, transformers, CRT TV's & computer monitors (old style TV's and monitors). The pickupss are somewhat directional -- it's typical for the received noise to change when you change the angle/position of the guitar.

Strong noise sources can be very far away and still wreak havoc with single-coils. Your Strat may have suddenly gotten noisy because there's something turned on that was turned off before, and the noise source could be in another room of your house or even outside your house. An old TV in the guestroom, a dimmer switch in the dining room, a street lamp, a construction crew with a big generator. In my old house I could tell when my kids were watching TV upstairs by the increase in noise picked up by my Strat.

The only wire in your Strat that can come loose and increase noise without causing other obvious malfunctions is the string ground wire. If the noise decreases a bit when you touch the strings and increases a bit when you're not touching the strings, then the ground wire is connected and working properly (if the noise source is strong, you can have so much buzzing that you won't hear a difference whether you're touching the strings or not even if the string ground is connected).


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Post subject: Re: Help: Electric Guitar Buzzing Problem
Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2011 9:48 am
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teledeluxe72 wrote:
Is your buzzing only sounding from the guitar, or is it coming through the amp? If it's just the guitar, it could be your action, or nut, or bridge, most likely. If it's going through the amp, can you hear it with every pickup? Can you hear a crackling noise when you turn the volume/tone controls? That could be the electrics wearing out-these are not too difficult to replace. And what kind of noise can you hear when you are not playing? Same again, but with the volume turned down to zero?


Hi teledeluxe72,

I just tried it out with volume on both amp and electric guitar turned to MAX 10. And as I went through the five-way switch selection.. Position 1 & Position 3 & Position 5 makes extremely loud buzzing, and the buzzing continues even when I'm playing or not. Position 2 & 4 still makes buzzing sound but much more less comparing to the other 3 Positions, and with position 2 & 4 when I put my hand on the strings the buzzing noise is gone, however it makes the sound "click" everytime I touch the strings. ALSO, this problem didn't exist when I first bought the guitar few days ago until just now, I did clean the guitar since it's second-handed, but I don't think that's what cause this problem..?

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Post subject: Re: Help: Electric Guitar Buzzing Problem
Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2011 9:59 am
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i think some of your symptoms are quite normal for a single coil guitar. However, any buzzing should not be extremely loud. How loud is the buzzing when not playing, on positions 1 2 and 3, compared to when you are playing? And what does the amp do when you turn the guitar down to 0 volume? Does the guitar buzz acoustically, when not plugged in? And is the buzzing a crackling type of buzz, or more a constant background tingle type of buzz?

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Post subject: Re: Help: Electric Guitar Buzzing Problem
Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2011 10:03 am
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strayedstrater wrote:
"cz I've tried using the exact same amp and plugging into another electric guitar using the exact same cable, and it doesn't make a single buzz/noise at all"

What model was the other guitar? Some guitars have humbuckers/noiseless pickups that cancel or reject noise. Humbuckers/noiseless pickups will be dead silent in environments where single-coils are very noisy.

Vintage style Strat pickups are single coils that act as antennas for noise. Besides picking up the string vibrations they pick up RF and EMF noise. Noise sources are things like fluorescent lights, neon lights, dimmer switches, transformers, CRT TV's & computer monitors (old style TV's and monitors). The pickupss are somewhat directional -- it's typical for the received noise to change when you change the angle/position of the guitar.

Strong noise sources can be very far away and still wreak havoc with single-coils. Your Strat may have suddenly gotten noisy because there's something turned on that was turned off before, and the noise source could be in another room of your house or even outside your house. An old TV in the guestroom, a dimmer switch in the dining room, a street lamp, a construction crew with a big generator. In my old house I could tell when my kids were watching TV upstairs by the increase in noise picked up by my Strat.

The only wire in your Strat that can come loose and increase noise without causing other obvious malfunctions is the string ground wire. If the noise decreases a bit when you touch the strings and increases a bit when you're not touching the strings, then the ground wire is connected and working properly (if the noise source is strong, you can have so much buzzing that you won't hear a difference whether you're touching the strings or not even if the string ground is connected).


the other electric guitar I'm using to test is actually my old "no brand" guitar.. and this would be a pic of my current model.. Image

Position 2 & 4 works when I touch the strings and the noise decreases but makes a "click" sound everytime I touch it. Position 1 & 3 & 5 has extremely loud buzzing noise and stays the same no matter what I do.. except moving the guitar around pointing at different angle.. the sound seems to decrease / increase...

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Post subject: Re: Help: Electric Guitar Buzzing Problem
Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2011 10:11 am
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teledeluxe72 wrote:
i think some of your symptoms are quite normal for a single coil guitar. However, any buzzing should not be extremely loud. How loud is the buzzing when not playing, on positions 1 2 and 3, compared to when you are playing? And what does the amp do when you turn the guitar down to 0 volume? Does the guitar buzz acoustically, when not plugged in? And is the buzzing a crackling type of buzz, or more a constant background tingle type of buzz?


erm.. on positions 1 3 and 5 ( not position 2?), the buzzing sound is truly loud, in fact it's almost the same loudness as my playing... or even louder? unlike the little buzz on position 2 and 4... there's no sound at all "silence" when my guitar is turned down to 0 volume. I'm not sure which type of buzz it is.. but it's really really annoying.. I can't even hear my playing..... I could a few hours back then, but now it got so loud all of the sudden.. I have no idea why.... it's a mystery LOL.

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Post subject: Re: Help: Electric Guitar Buzzing Problem
Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2011 10:34 am
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I also just tried bringing my amp and electric guitar into another empty room with no tv/computer/anything electronic.. however.. the amount of buzzing is EXACTLY the same.. not even a bit more less... the buzzing doesn't change decrease/increase at all unless I turn the guitar around in different angles.. which might allow the loosen wire inside to be more connected and decreased the buzzing? I'm guessing in this case it's the loosen wire inside...? I hope not.. cz I've never open up an electric guitar before : s

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Post subject: Re: Help: Electric Guitar Buzzing Problem
Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2011 10:50 am
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dude, yoiu have a loose ground wire. Just open her up, it should be a BLACK wire. resolder and problem solved.


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Post subject: Re: Help: Electric Guitar Buzzing Problem
Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2011 10:18 pm
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Is it difficult to fix the grounding issue by myself? I believe it's the jack that's loosen up outside (probably wires in the jack are loosen too) and it's acting weird in a way that I could easily plug in the cable but requires a lot of force to pull it back out. and that is what's causing the buzzing sound... should I unscrew the two screw on the jack and pull it out to check what's going on inside? but I have no idea what I'm looking for inside.. I hope it's simple.. I got no experience.. don't wanna make it worst..

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Post subject: Re: Help: Electric Guitar Buzzing Problem
Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 5:03 am
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BOBROX24 wrote:
dude, you have a loose ground wire. Just open her up, it should be a BLACK wire. resolder and problem solved.

I agree. It's not difficult to open up a guitar, as you suggested with the jack plate it's just a case of removing the two screws, lift it out and check the two wires (normally black & white) are connected. Remove the screws securing the plate covering the tremolo springs on the back, check the black ground wire on the spring claw. To remove the pickguard itself either loosten the strings or remove them, unscrew the pickguard screws, check for a loose black wire, if you find one resolder it. This service diagram of the standard Strat (second page) will give you an idea what should be connected to where.
http://support.fender.com/service_diagrams/stratocaster/010-7400_02C_SISD.pdf


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