First see if the problem is the cable or the input jack on your guitar. Try a different guitar cable. If you still get the crackle, it's the guitar. This probably means a loose or possibly dirty connection. If you know how to solder, take the input jack out of the guitar and re-solder the connections. Also, buy some deoxit. This stuff does wonders for dirty connections, pots, etc. If you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself, a guitar repair shop can take care of the problem for you. Good Luck!

Wes

hey thanks a lot man i fixed it there was a short

just a tip for future reference. good heads up for when buying a guitar.

on guitars with the jack in the pick guard (fenders..), they are at higher risk for the jack shorting out. i think any guitar is at risk if the jack is not securely tightened. get some pliers and tighten it pretty tight, but be sure not to crack or split the pickguard/body. a lot of times the jack is not secure enough and will move/rotate inside the guitar and cause shorts.

my friend bought a new amp and thought the amp had a short, so he got a diff one but same problem. i thought 'ah haha his jack is probably screwed' so i took it apart, and lo and behold, the ground wire had gotten pulled off.

if you are not confident in your soldering skills or are not familiar with the internals of a guitar, get a shop to fix it. else you can fix it for 0-15$ (free if the jack is fine) yourself (plus solder/iron is another 15-20$). unscrew the pickguard and resolder the wire onto the jack. its best to have as little solder as possible while doing it. just enough to secure the wire, but having too much is messy and might not secure to the connector right. its hard to explain. just pull lightly on it and if the solder stays firm it shoudl be fine.

for guitars with strange guts or for higher end guitars i would suggest let a pro do it, you NEED to know what youre doing working on guitars.

if its a 300$ guitar, and you arent afraid of screwing your axe up, well, its how i learned about the internals of the guitar. the worse that will probably (worse could go wrong.. but likely wont) is you will mess up the jack and a guitar shop will have to redo it for like 20$.

cables are easy to fix as long as you solder them right. just make sure you get GOOD jacks if you dont use your existing ones (radio shack has some higher priced jacks that work pretty well, especially their 'solder free ones' that use screws. use those + solder and youll have a permanent hold). as long as you give the right amount of chord to allow for cable movement but not so much as to cause additional stress youre fine.

using L jacks is also a good idea, as they allow you to route them through the strap with less stress on the cable. idealy i try andh ave an L on my guitar and a straight going into the pedals. its especially important for me as i have an SG and the jack is on the face of the body.

get some pliers and tighten it pretty tight,

I'd steer clear of pliers. Use a socket or nut driver instead. Pliers will knaw up the nut and have a high risk of scratching the body of your guitar.

Also, while soldering, be sure to heat the wire you are trying to attach, using the wire to melt the solder. Don't heat the solder and glob it on the connection.

Wes

my nut is fine, but yeah if you have a nut that big (i didnt) then it would be a good idea as well. since i tightened mine (screwed up the paint doing it) it has not come the least bit loose.

and yeah, youre suppose to heat the wire. im always lazy though and when the iron is barely hot enough i just tap a drop onto it hah (dont do it my way). it holds though and still makes the right connection.

it holds though and still makes the right connection.

Not really. That's a great way to do it if you want your stuff to not work. The whole integrity of the connection hinges on a quality solder connection that occurs when the wire, solder, and post are all heated.

You should really limit your posts to things you actually know how to do correctly. The people searching these forums are looking for the right way to something from people who know how to do it. There is no need to reply to every post unless you have something valid to add to it.

Wes

Just because an initial solder connection "works" doesn't mean it's any good. Heating the solder via the iron directly as opposed to heating the WIRE and let that melt the solder will 99.99% yield a "cold solder joint" that WILL FAIL!!! Maybe not right away, but probably when you least need it to. If you are going to take the time to do a minor repair, you need to do it right the first time! It's no fun pulling the axe apart, figuring out the problem, doing a crappy solder job, put the thing back together, all to have it fail again 3 months (at best) later. And while you don't have to have a chest full of tools, you do need to have the RIGHT ones to do the job or you'll end up with a gouged-up POS...
I see a lot of posts from people asking how to wire stuff up, from geetars to studio monitors. It is apparent from their questions that they don't have the proper background or training to do this. Good soldering techniques are a prerequisite to doing any repairs or cable fabrications!!
And while I am ranting and raving, there is only one 1/4" female jack worth putting into any guitar...and that is a Switchcraft...no Radio Shack! The RS's rust, they are cheap "pot metal" that will not let the solder adhere properly for a long term connection...PEACE!

i said it was the wrong way, i knwo it is, thats why i said dont do it that way. i guess im lucky because ive never had a soldered wire fail (the only time my solders have messed up is because the wire snapped on an instrument cable). a long time back i completely redid a squire guitar. all the electronics replaced. well, something was right because it lasted up until the point when i smashed it (really, dont ask, it was a bad time in my life).

yeah i would never buy a guitar jack from RS, only stuff i buy from there is for routing (cables, various boxes). i got my friends jack from the better local guitar shop.

for reference..

im always lazy though and when the iron is barely hot enough i just tap a drop onto it hah (dont do it my way).

I read your post earlier and I realize you said not to do it that way; I'm just asking why you posted the wrong way to do it? What's the point? Why take up server space describing how not to solder?

Wes

yet you post that im wasting space.

lets all just stop k? question answered its just turning into fighting.

Ha ha! Well then, thank you Rider for letting everyone know how not to repair a guitar. Hearts in a good place, right?

Now, unfortunately, most everything I've ever learned was by doing things the wrong way...school of hard knocks ya know? :?

Anyway, great replies all.
To recap...

Cold solder joints: bad

Scratching paint while tightening nut : questionable
(unless you're creating a relic)

Filling R.O. servers with content: Priceless! (y)

Peace. 8-)

P.S. Tragedyman, whats in a name? :P

thanks guys ps what

what do you mean whats in the name