Static Pickguard Problem...

WiLL75

Hello all,

On my tele and my strat, whenever I touch (if I rub, it's more noticable) the pickguard there's a crackling sound. I was told it was a grounding issue and was wondering if there was a somewhat easy D.I.Y. fix for this problem? Any ideas?

who's_pearljam?

I kind of remember another thread like this a while back.

If you're just touching your plastic pickguard and getting crackling, then it might just be static electricity from the dryness of this endless winter. Rubbing the pickguard actually is creating more static electricity. Ever rub a balloon in your hair, and stick it to the ceiling? Same effect.

Try rubbing your pickguard with one of those no cling dryer sheets and see what happens. That can work!

The next step would be shielding and grounding your guitar. Shielding the pickup cavities and control cavities,,,, and the back of the pickguard may help, because you could be building up a bit of charge from the pickups and low voltage electrical going on in there, but sometimes you'll still get that crackling from static.
Do you get sparks in your house just by walking around on the carpet and touching other metal things? Dry houses get that, especially with fuzzy carpet. That makes it more likely with your guitar. If you're playing in a carpeted room and moving around that'll do it.

WiLL75

who's_pearljam? wrote:

I kind of remember another thread like this a while back.

If you're just touching your plastic pickguard and getting crackling, then it might just be static electricity from the dryness of this endless winter. Rubbing the pickguard actually is creating more static electricity. Ever rub a balloon in your hair, and stick it to the ceiling? Same effect.

Try rubbing your pickguard with one of those no cling dryer sheets and see what happens. That can work!

The next step would be shielding and grounding your guitar. Shielding the pickup cavities and control cavities,,,, and the back of the pickguard may help, because you could be building up a bit of charge from the pickups and low voltage electrical going on in there, but sometimes you'll still get that crackling from static.
Do you get sparks in your house just by walking around on the carpet and touching other metal things? Dry houses get that, especially with fuzzy carpet. That makes it more likely with your guitar. If you're playing in a carpeted room and moving around that'll do it.

I think that was me who wrote about this problem, but stupid me never checked back. The crackling happens on carpeted areas AND non-carpeted areas. The tele is a reissue '72 Custom and the strat is a '54 Reissue, if that makes a difference. I'll try the dryer sheet trick and see how long it lasts or if it fixes things totally.

What do I need to shield things? How hard is it to do?

who's_pearljam?

You can shield things with paint or copper foil tape. You take the pickguard off and line the cavities with the tape,,, or paint it, and you tape the back of the pickguard with the copper.
Then you run the ground to the shielding.
THere are a couple of good ways to do it, and a couple of good sites I've seen. I'll see if I can drum some up when I get back here.
Also, check:
I'll come back and edit with the right link.
http://stewmac.com

Edit:
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Supplies:_Shielding.html

who's_pearljam?

Haha, we're famous!

I did a search for a site I remember seeing once that has a pretty good grounding method, and this came up on Google!

http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=226922&highlight=static

WiLL75

Damn...thanks for all the help and ideas. I need to be less lazy and get this done instead of just asking the questions and then forgetting about it for a year or two at a time...lol.