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Post subject: John Mayer Signature Stratocaster - Grounding
Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 5:43 pm
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I have a question about the John Mayer signature stratocaster.

I recently bought Olympic White JM guitar. The guitar is beautiful, and feels amazing, sounds amazing as well. But when I originally got the guitar it had some grounding issues. Which brings me to my first couple of questions:

1. The guitar was buzzing exceptionally loud and only would subsided when I touch any metal parts of my guitar. So I took the guitar to guitar center and the guitar tech took off the guitar input jack and there three wires... one white and 2 black. One of the black grounding wires wasn't connected, so the guitar tech soldered it on for me. So my first question; most guitars typically only have one black grounding wire going to the jack... is it normal to have two; I asked because its something I have never seen nor heard of before?
After connecting the second black ground wire, the buzz in the guitar dropped dramatically.

2. So now my second question. At first the guitar was pretty silent, but I have noticed that the buzz is starting to come back with the same issues... albeit not as loud or bad. So I decided to look take off the jack again and make sure that the wire did come loose. Now all guitar wires, from my understanding have a copper core, with metal wrapped around it. What I noticed when taking of the jack was that the metal wires seemed to be unraveling, allowing me to see the exposed copper core. Is this normal, and can it create the grounding buzz?

3. In the past I've owned only humbucker guitars, so I'm new to the single coil world. I know that single coils do produce some noise, such as the 60 cycle hum. So is it normal for a stratocaster to pop every time I touch any metal, such as the strings, any part of the tuners, bridge, or input jack? Also is it normal to have a bit of buzz that goes away when touching the metal pieces ? from my understanding it is near impossible to perfectly ground a guitar 100 percent

I do have pictures and a video that I can post if you guys need some visuals.

Thanks everyone !!!


By the way, here is a pretty good video that kinda shows problems similar to what I am experiencing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSxXra9UN-0


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Post subject: Re: John Mayer Signature Stratocaster - Grounding
Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 5:59 pm
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Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2010 2:39 pm
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Hi there not sure about that particular model but just check that the wire from the spring claw on the back of the strat connects to ground somewhere.
Most wires in the strat are either cloth or plastic coated so there are generally no shields on the wires unlike the braided stuff you see in some other guitars.
Also check that other strats are fine thru the amp and if the buzz changes as the orientation of the strat changes it may be picking up interference from other sources e.g fluro lights.
Most single coil pickups are prone to some degree to this type. :D


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Post subject: Re: John Mayer Signature Stratocaster - Grounding
Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2014 2:57 pm
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To preface, I'm inexperienced when it comes to wiring.

1) However, in the few Strats I've had, there were only two wires that went to the output, if I remember correctly.
2) No input on this one (sorry!).
3) Also, in those same Strats, the buzz usually diminishes a lot when I touch metal parts of the guitar, so I assume it's normal. I've never gotten a shock, and I'm touching metal parts on the guitar 95% of the time, so it hasn't been a huge deal for me.


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