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Posted by: RobM Dec 27 2007, 05:46 AM

I've been away from playing for a few weeks due to an injury and recently plugged my guitar into my amp and got all of these wierd noises like bump. bump bump bump, and loud shrieking and krackling, popping etc. I changed different amp models and presets etc and it made a wierd noise on each one. I then unplugged and tried another amp and the same thing happened.

I moved everything to another plug in another room because that one has a lot of computer equipment plugged into it and the same thing happened on both amps, then I figured it had to be the guitar so I went and got my other one, same problem.. Then I shut everything down and turned it back on a few times and the problem went away.

This was this past Monday and I have not been able to play since(can't find the time).

Any idea what the problem was? The equipment has litterally been siting idle (guitars in their cases and the amps in their room exactly as I had left them weeks ago when I got hurt). What if it happens again what should I do to try and figure out what the problem is that effects two different guitars on two different amps? It has me baffled and I'm not afraid to admit it.

Posted by: Milenkovic Ivan Dec 27 2007, 12:02 PM

Well, it is definitely something to do with your guitar or cables. Try to see if your other guitar has the same problem, if it does, than it's the cables. If it doesn't it's the first guitar then. I don't think it is a serious matter, if the problem persist on the guitar just take it to repairman or something. Maybe some dust in electronics and that's all. No worries you didn't broke your guitar's neck or anything. That would be a problem!

Posted by: blindwillie Dec 27 2007, 12:07 PM

My guess would be the cabling or the input/output jacks. Try other cables if you have any. Check the soldering for the jacks on the cable first, then the jack and pot's in the guitar.

Posted by: RobM Dec 27 2007, 08:21 PM

As I said in the original posting the problem happened on two different guitars and two different amps, and two different cables(I forgot to mention I also tried a new cable). I'm sure I didn't make this point clear enough in my original post.

No matter which combination of amp, guitar and cable I tried I had the noise problem (strange huh?). Only after turning the amps on/off a few times did the problem then go away. When it went away it was gone on all amps and both guitars & cables.

Any guesses? My guess is that there might have been some kind of problem with the electricity in my house? Maybe something that had an electrical problem was plugged in upstairs in my tenants apartment? Maybe someone in the neighborhood got an overly powerful CB Radio for X-Mas? No idea really I'm just clutching at straws?

Posted by: Cuchulain Dec 28 2007, 05:44 PM

Well, if it were upstairs that would probably be in a different electrical group so you wouldn't actually notice that. That goes double for things in the neighborhood ofcourse

The sound you're describing sounds an awful lot like a broken cable, are you sure they're not both broken? (if you store them both in the same way they're actually quite likely to go bad simultaniously)

Posted by: Bogdan Dec 28 2007, 07:36 PM

Well this sounds indeed like broken cable...But if that isn't the case must be something with electricity..Maybe broken extension cable...or something..

Posted by: RobM Dec 30 2007, 07:05 AM

Nope sorry not a cable. amp or guitar? Everything is back to normal and working like it should be. wierdest thing I've ever seen, for about 45 mins it just wouldn't work no matter what I tried(Guitar(s), Cables(s) or Amp(s), regardless fo what combination of the three I used all I got was noise, squealing & popping instead of what I refer to as me making music, lol. Oh well, at least it's working again and I can now get back to trying to become a good guitarist.

Posted by: swingline Dec 30 2007, 07:11 AM

Thats pretty strange especially how it just all of the sudden worked. At least it worked out.