Les Paul crackling - Weird and baffling

HerrMetal

I think you need to play it naked. This will eliminate clothing, things in pockets etc. Any funny noises remaining will be the neighbours.

freebirduk

HerrMetal said:

I think you need to play it naked. This will eliminate clothing, things in pockets etc. Any funny noises remaining will be the neighbours.

Hmmm. You might have something there. Somewhere to strap my anti-static wrist strap other than on my wrist.

freebirduk

Chris_J said:

Do you have coated strings on? 

Running your finger along a coated wound string might explain the crackle if the coating was patchy?

It still has the Gibsons it arrived with. Can't be the strings though as it would have been crackly for my friend.

Again the logic says it to do with me, the guitar and the location.  Likely I'm a static ladened type of person in this particular environment and the construction of the Les Paul happens to react badly to this.

So the solutions are a) play elsewhere, b) get rid of my static or c) do something to the guitar so that it doesn't react. I'm going to try b) as soon as my anti-static band arrives. Grabbing a nearby radiator solves the problem so a grounding strap should be successful I think.

usedtobe

Get all your clothes made out of Bounce tumble drier sheets!

Fez

Is the room carpeted. Carpet with a high nylon content can be very prone to creating static. When I was at school they put nylon carpet in our form bases, we very quickly learned that if you shuffled your feet along while holding a metal rule or comb and touched someone's face the resultant static discharge left a lovely red mark.
Where I work a lot of the workshop area's have anti static flooring and operatives handling electronic components and circuits have to wear anti static shoes.

Fretwired

Is this the sort of noise ...

freebirduk

Fez said:

Is the room carpeted. Carpet with a high nylon content can be very prone to creating static. When I was at school they put nylon carpet in our form bases, we very quickly learned that if you shuffled your feet along while holding a metal rule or comb and touched someone's face the resultant static discharge left a lovely red mark.
Where I work a lot of the workshop area's have anti static flooring and operatives handling electronic components and circuits have to wear anti static shoes.

I think it's a wool and synthetic mix so could cause some static yes. However it didn't cause it for my friend. We both did the test barefoot (and now he thinks I'm strange).

freebirduk

Fretwired said:

Is this the sort of noise ...

Pretty much, yes. I don't have quite as much hum as that but the screws on the back cause crackle when you rub them. More significantly though, from a playing point of view, the strings crackle - He didn't try that.

Clearly, yes, this is surgery I can try if my efforts with the (still not delivered) wrist band don't succeed. But I'm not an electronics kind of a guy so it's risky.

So my learning is... pay top dollar and choose the best that the finest United States craftspersons can make. Then get your soldering iron and tape out. No, don't say it's Gibson's fault. The guitar is fine, it's you. You're to blame.

Sigh.

Kittyfrisk

I think we haven't factored in your day job...

ICBM

freebirduk said:

So my learning is... pay top dollar and choose the best that the finest United States craftspersons can make.

If you bought a Gibson you didn’t buy the finest that USA craftspersons can make... not even close - that would be something like a PRS, Suhr, MusicMan, Anderson, or Collings.

I would take a Gibson over any of those, any time, though - even with the nitro finish and all its problems.

(Well, maybe not a PRS... I do like a few of those, but generally the cheap ones.)

skunkwerx

ICBM said:

freebirduk said:

So my learning is... pay top dollar and choose the best that the finest United States craftspersons can make.

If you bought a Gibson you didn’t buy the finest that USA craftspersons can make... not even close - that would be something like a PRS, Suhr, MusicMan, Anderson, or Collings.

I would take a Gibson over any of those, any time, though - even with the nitro finish and all its problems.

(Well, maybe not a PRS... I do like a few of those, but generally the cheap ones.)

I was gonna say this too heh. 

I love my Les Paul Junior, and yeah they’re expensive guitars Gibsons, but they’re mostly archaic, so come with decades old problems too. 

Break angle,g-string, volute or lack of etc and the nitro.

Other guitars suffer similar issues mind, sometimes its a one off etc. 

Can you get to a store to play another Gibson? 

Ideally take yours, plug it in make sure its going static, then try another Gibson with the same finish, then try a random whatever brand poly just to make sure lol.. 

That will probably tell you if its the guitar or you. 

Dont be naked or barefoot in the store though.