WGD build, Adamas picks and a crackle

[erock]

Hello everyone,
this is my first post here. evidently I registered 3 years ago, but never posted anything nor remembered that I registered. I would have started posting a while ago had I known/remembered that I register but.... you know

I have been lurking here for a while.

So over the past year I built a WGD jerrycaster, It took quite a while due to many things, and I got it done just before Christmas. I am now stumped by an issue I am having with the guitar, I have been through the electronics probably 5 times trying to solve this, and I have finally narrowed down my problem, but don't know what to do about it. It seems that if I touch my strings with my adamas pick (or anything else grounded for that matter) I get a crackle. If I switch to a plastic pick, no crackle. I have tried other Adamas picks just in case there was a problem with that one pick, and the same thing.

Anyone have any ideas?

If this is like any other forum I have been on, I am betting you want pics. let me know and I can oblige. I also have pics of every step in the build process, so I can give ya a blow by blow if you really wish.

any help would be great. I really don't want to switch picks for this one.

[drewfx]

Did you ground the bridge?

drewfx

[erock]

Did you ground the bridge?

drewfx

yep, bridge is grounded, I can get continuity out of the strings to any other ground.

seriously, I have checked the grounds, and re-done the tone pots 3 or 4 times now. I am just confused as to why it is just when I use these picks. I can't get continuity out of the picks, but now that I think of it, is it possible they could act as a resister since they are graphite?

[RiverRat]

.

[erock]

Graphite IS electrically conductive...

until I narrowed it down to the pick, I was thinking it was static. So is this a grounding issue? if so, it doesn't make sense to only be that type of pick. One thing I have yet to try that I thought of last night when I was going to sleep, was to try a coin or something, and just see if i could get that crackle out of it

[SarnoMusicSolutions]

Graphite is electrically conductive, so that's part of it. Often in the dry winter months, static build up is an issue, and the Adamas may be enhancing it. Just for shits, try this, it truly works when static popping is an issue. If your guitar has a plastic pickguard, take a bounce or similar dryer sheet and wipe it around where your finger tips touch the pickguard. See what happens. It totally works on Strats and Tele's in the dry wintertime. Something about their anti-static helps it happen.

Also, make sure your amp and setup is properly grounded, if your amp has a ground switch like some old amps do, make sure it's correct.

Brad

[erock]

no pickguard, and I did try a dryer sheet over the plastic on the back, as well as over and all around the pick with no luck.

grounding on the amps *probably* isn't an issue. I have tried it trough a vox ad30vt and a little battery powered amp I built. with the Vox it is possible the outlet isn't properly wired as i live in a 100 year old house, but I can try plugging it into an outlet I wired, and know is wired properly.

ok here's a pick... don't mind the mess, I was a little buzzed and excited that I was about to string her up for the first time.

My bench is now clean and clear

[mijknahs]

I get a tiny amount of "crackle" with my Adamas pics as well. Not very loud. I can hear it though if I'm not playing anything when I move the pick around the pickups.

Jim

[erock]

could I just be hyper sensitive to it then, and maybe it is just something that happens with these picks?

anyone else notice this?

[tcsned]

It has happened to me too with the Adamas picks, I've got a Warmoth WGD too - hadn't ever noticed it with my Les Paul, Strat, PRS, or custom Tele. Though I am not getting the static from the strings it seems to happen if the pick contacts the pickups If I'm digging in a little too much. Plus, it only seems to happen when I'm using the Twin not my Boogie or the Marshall. Doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. Has happened in summer as well as the winter and it gets pretty humid in the summer a dry in the winter here so I don't think humidity is the issue. I guess it won't be an issue forever since they don't seem to be making those picks anymore. I have pretty much switched over to Wegen gypsy-jazz picks and I don't have that issue with them nor do I with a tortoise shell pick - though I only have two of them and they are pretty pricey so I don't take them out to bar gigs. Speaking of pricey I noticed that the Adamas picks are selling for big $$ on eBay. Thankfully, I still have 50 or so left over from the music store days.

[mijknahs]

By the way, nice lookin guitar. Is that a mahogany body?

Jim

[tcsned]

By the way, nice lookin guitar. Is that a mahogany body?

Jim

agreed!

[erock]

By the way, nice lookin guitar. Is that a mahogany body?

Jim

thanks, and yes, i stained it a it darker brown too. the neck is by soulmates, and that thing is just beautiful

[tcsned]

nice neck - I've got a neck-thu neck from them that I am verrrrry sloooooowly putting together

[erock]

nice neck - I've got a neck-thu neck from them that I am verrrrry sloooooowly putting together

hahah this thing almost took me a year, and cost me my appendix in the process (yea i know it had nothing to do with the guitar, but i still have to blame something)

just take your time, you only have one shot to get it all right.