"Static pops" in EJ Strat

[ken]

One of my friends just bought a new EJ Strat. He says he can make the guitar
make static-like popping sounds when he's playing it through his amp by rubbing the pickguard.

Is this a grounding issue, or is there some other reason why this happens?

Thank you,
Ken

[spud1950]

It is a static discharge from the players body,caused by the usual things such as rubbing your feet on a carpet or an being in an environment where there's a lot of static buildup in the air. It can be a real annoying pain,as every time you touch the guard it translates into a loud pop out of the amp. One way to get rid of it,believe it or not,is to wipe down the pickguard with one of those anti static cling sheets that you put in the dryer. That's more of a temporary solution.The permanent solution is to shield the pickguard,which is connected to ground. Sort of the lightening rod effect.The static discharge just gets sent to ground and doesn't cause the popping out of the amp.

[pjgetz]

My strat does the same thing. I sheilded the pickguard and tied it to ground. It was still happening. I realized it was the pickup screws causing the discharge. I coated screw heads with clear nail polish and solved the problem.

[roundmidnight]

pjgetz - Do you have a theory as to how the screws were acting as the conductive path for the static? These are very interesting problems and I would like to have more bombproof solutions for solving them when they arise.

RM

[mojah]

I had the same popping on one of my strats. Tried shielding, dryer sheet trick with no luck.
It ended up being the volume pot. I changed it out and hated my tone. (no big mids) Upon futher inspection of the pot I found an 8k series resistance was added and across the outer lugs to ground it drifted to 1meg. I had a gig the next day, no time to re eq my entire rig, so I put in a 1meg pot and soldered a 10k resister from the wiper to the switch. Sounded the same sans the static. Funny how things can get set up around a bad component...

[flyingmelon]

Originally Posted by pjgetz

My strat does the same thing. I sheilded the pickguard and tied it to ground. It was still happening. I realized it was the pickup screws causing the discharge. I coated screw heads with clear nail polish and solved the problem.

Marked, looks like the answer...