popping? clicking? clipping?

[skweeks]

whenever i record a track on my tascam424mkIII there is an annoying click every once and a while (at least once every 10 seconds, enough so that it basically ruins the recording)... it happens whether i'm micing my guitar stack or pluggin my guitar in straight to the preamp... also nothings going above 0db and it's still happening... it happens when my guitar (or whatever is being recorded) is silent even. is this just dirty heads or what? it's causing some major problems...

also today i put in a new tape and pressed play and listened really close in the monitors and then in headphones and no "clicking" was present so i guess it's not the monitors or cables... and i've tried multiple guitar and mic cords...

HELP!

[The Green Hornet]

Yo Squeeky One:

I don't know if this will help, but I used to use a Tascam MKII dual tape deck, which was highly touted. The deck was a living asylum of pops, clicks, snaps and NOISE! Everytime I pushed the ON tab, CLICK; everytime I pushed the off tab, CLICK; I mean loud and perhaps ungrounded clicks, snaps, pop, and crackle. So, I retired the box and bought a Sony ES dual tape deck; results? About 97 percent less CEREAL NOISE.

Don't know what your problema is but if it's Tascam, they may have run off a run of ungrounded and noisy products.

Cheers,
Green Hornet