If your guitar has intermittent or continuous electrical issues it’s not always easy to work out what’s causing the problem.

It could be:

The amp
Your pedals
Any of the cables you’re using
Guitar jack socket
Guitar wiring
Guitar pots
Guitar switch
Guitar pickups

So it’s important to eliminate as many of these as we can, one by one.

Plug your guitar directly into your amp with your usual pedals etc. Is the issue there? Try a different cable. Try a different amp. Try a different guitar. Remove the pedals from the chain and go direct from guitar to amp. You’ll now know where the problem is – the guitar, the cable, the pedals or the amp. This is what Sherlock Holmes calls the Process of Elimination – removing/swapping elements one by one to locate the issue.

If it’s the cable, buy a new one and throw the faulty one away. If it’s the amp, get it fixed. If it’s the pedal chain, check your patch cables and power supples. If it’s the guitar – read on.

There are a few main causes with electrical issues on your guitar.

1 Jack Socket

If the guitar is making loud buzzing noises, or the signal drops in and out when you waggle the jack plug, the socket could be at fault. It usually needs the soldering re-doing (the wires can come off when the jack socket comes loose and rotates internally). It’s also possible that the contact inside the socket is bent and isn’t making contact with the jack plug. Finally, it may just have become oxidised over time and need cleaning. These are all relatively inexpensive problems to fix.

2 The Switch

The signal from the pickups first goes through the pickup selector switch. If the switch is faulty or dirty, the signal may be intermittent, or may drop out when particular pickups are selected. Nine times out of ten, the switch just needs cleaning with a good contact cleaner – see what I use HERE. On occasion, the switch may be broken and a new one may need to be installed.

3 The Pots

The pots (short for “potentiometers”) are variable resistors that are used on guitars as volume, tone or blend knobs, among other things. If the volume jumps up or down randomly as you turn them, crackles, or disappears altogether, the pots may be the culprit. They can get dirt inside or the internal conducting surfaces can become oxidised (similar to rust really). Like switches, a good blast of cleaner usually sorts them out, but in some cases, replacement is needed.

4 The Wiring

Often times I open up a guitar to look at the wiring and I can tell that someone has been in there already. This is usually because pickups have been swapped out, but people do also seem to enjoy mucking about with wiring and unfortunately don’t always do a great job. Wires can become loose so you can get intermittent connections, or they can touch each other in places where they shouldn’t. Wiring can also just be plain wrong – someone’s wired it up incorrectly and the guitar controls aren’t working as they should do. Wiring is usually pretty simple to fix, providing you can work out where the problem is, and locating the issue is the bit that takes the time. Electrical gremlins can be hard to track down!

5 The Pickups

Clients often think that the pickups may be faulty or broken but this is very rare. However, it DOES happen. A blown pickup can produce no sound whatsoever, or can just end up sounding quieter and thinner than id did when it was working correctly. Pickups can be rewound, but this is usually more money than a new one costs. Replacement us typically the only answer.