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A few years ago, when my Tele started crackling and popping, someone here suggested rubbing a dryer anti-static sheet over my strings. It worked then, and I remembered it when the Tele started crackling again today.
Just an example of the great practical advice I've gotten on this forum. So cheers to allow of you who have taken the time to give me tips. I've been on here nine years,and I can't remember ever being steered wrong.
in all the years I've played I've never had a guitar do that before. Where you playing standing up while walking around on a rug? I'm not picking on you but maybe this is why so many people notice this?
No, I was standing dead still. As soon as I rubbed that dryer sheet on it, the crackling stopped. It was just static electricity. I've since seen posts on other fora about it. Maybe my hand was staticky, but I'm pretty sure it was the guitar that had built it up. Maybe the Tele is prone to thunder and lightning, ha ha ha.
Willie, not the strings, the pick guard. You won't get static electricity on a conductor that's grounded. You will on the guard though, as it's an insulator.
Chuck
I sometimes have this issue with my Strat in the winter, but never my Tele and never in the summer. I believe it's the vinyl guard on the Strat and low humidity.
Could have been the pickguard, but rubbing the sheet over the strings did the trick. Humidity's probably low in the house, but man is it high outside.
One of those with that suggestion year ago was me, and glad the idea was helpful, although I too am really curious about it in this case. I get that all the time on my single coil guitars (usually just Teles, for whatever reason) when there is like ZERO humidity in the dead of Ohio wintertime. Like Chuck says, I rub the sheet on the pickguard and the light crackling goes away immediately as the static from walking on rugs, etc., is dissipated.
Weird that it is happening in high humidity, unless your air conditioning in the house is so effective as to reduce it to zero indoors. Like I said though, either way, glad it helped. I too have learned a zillion killer things from reading what other players write here.
HVAC systems strip both heat and humidity from the air, and some systems are even designed to dry it out further. It's why there's a condensation line for the cooling coil, and why your car leaks when you run the AC
See, I even learned something about my air-conditioner here. Ha ha.
I used to work in HVAC, could install them but was the warehouse manager. This is also why people get nosebleeds when they stay inside with the air on.