Re: Crackling noise and intermittently cutting out

On 10/4/2010 6:12 AM, Pete Zahut wrote:
You may remember from a previous post of mine that I'm new to the guitar - I
won't say 'beginner' for fear of setting Lumpy off in a ranting tangent
again :-)

Right, I've only got access to one guitar, two leads (but swapping them
makes no difference) and one amp so can't substitue any item for known good
ones but I'm having a problem with crackling noises and intermittently
cutting out altogether, so how do I tell which item is at fault?

It's a Marshall MG30DFX amp, secondhand and three years old but hardly used
by the original owner (probably less than two dozen times), so I'm thinking
that it really shouldn't be that - but is there anything I can do to confirm
that?

My money is on the guitar itself because it's only a cheapo 'beginner's'
guitar, again bought secondhand but from a less careful owner this time. So,
any tips as to what to look out for? One thing I can say is that it probably
isn't the volume/tone pots as you can twiddle them with no scratchiness or
crackles. It's when you pick a string that it happens. Pickups? What to do
with them if it is?

Cheers guys



Try these, report back:

Wiggle the guitar cord at the guitar jack. Does it crackle?

Wiggle the guitar cord at the amp.

Don't reef on the plug, but wiggle it around.

Others mentioned corrosion on the jacks. The center contact of a jack can also get fatigued and loose.

If it's not either of those, I gotta tell you: There's way more that can go wrong inside of an amp than inside of a guitar.


.

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