Les Paul crackling-please help!

P

Purple-Tortoise

New member
My guitar is making a noise that we didn't notice until we began recording seriously.
I definitely narrowed it down to the guitar.
It is a soft,constant underlying crackling while I play. VERY annoying. Is it the pickups? They are the stock pickups for the Gibson Les Paul Standard, which are usually great. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
 
Check your cables first. Are they decent quality?
If that is not the culprit, open up the guitar and make sure all the wire connections are secure.
When you say crackling, my first guess is your cables. I used to use Conquest cables back in the day and would get similar problems after a while. When I first started recording, I was still of the mindset that a cable is a cable. I couldn't have been more wrong. "You get what you pay for" is so true for cables and wire (I hear you can save some dough making your own).
 
Check your potentiometers, they can also cause crackling, see if the noise changes after rotating back & forth a few times
 
Since no one mentioned it, and I've seen this happen in and out of the studio...Check your input plug on the Les Paul, make sure the wires are connected and it's working properly. Also you might want to check your volume and tone knobs, they could be dirty or you may have a short.

If all else fails take it to a pro and have them look it over. As much as Les Pauls cost (I know, I have one) you don't want to take any chances!

Good Luck,
Joe
 
Is this crackling present when recording direct, or when plugged into your amp. Is it possible it's the amp?

I just rewired my tele because it had some major buzzing problems. I would suggest doing this if your handy with a soldering gun. New pots, new wire, new switch. It's unikely your pickups are the source of the problem but anything is possible.
 
Thanks everyone for the replies, but what I did was lower the pick-ups a little bit. And it did the trick! Like I said,I definitely narrowed it down to the guitar - I tested cords, different amps, etc., and the wiring is solid. Weird, but it's gone. And like I mentioned before, it was very subtle.
 
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