I’m getting weird interference type noise - you know the sort of noise when you have your phone next to your amp and get a text, or when the cable is plugged into nothing and the amp is running.
It seems to happen quite badly when I’m fiddling around with the cable next to the jack that plugs into my guitar.
I suspect it’s a loose connection inside the cheap £3 cable that came with my set when I bought it. Does this sound right? Or does this sound more related to a connection inside the guitar?
Try different cable as the first step. You don’t have to buy the most expensive one, but there is a noticable difference between cheap and quality leads.
I know these well. Typically these have a rhythm to them though. Does your noise?
Good chance here it is the cable. Budget cabling is rarely terminated properly. Left to wiggle around inside the jack housing, the solder joint breaks. I have had to repair a couple. It is very simple to check - most jacks will unscrew. You will be able to see if the cable is loose and possibly frayed on some cables. Others will have a heat-shrinkable tubing around them and you’d need to carefully cut it back a little to see. If you do cut it back, be very careful to not expose anything that will short against the outer housing that you unscrewed.
cheaper cable on top, better on bottom. Sometimes the metal at the back of the connector won’t be lightly crimped to hold the cable. This reduces breaks at the solder joint when the cable cannot move around.
There is also a good chance that your jack on the guitar has flexed loose with the insertions. This is not too bad to fix if you are capable with disassembly and soldering.
To try to see if the problem is in the cable or the jack, you want to hold one interface solid and wiggle the other. You should be able to get one to be the obvious problem.
Last option is it could be the switch, but your wiggling the cable would suggest it is the above two places instead.
When I got my first electric guitar, I bought cheap cables. I thought: a cable is so simple, how could they screw it up? After 2 or 3 cable issues, I bought a couple of Fender cables (not too expensive, like $12 instead of $5) and have never had a problem since.
@sequences unfortunately this one doesn’t unscrew, so I can’t check the inside, but I did swap it around so the faulty end goes in the amp and had a little wiggle around and it’s clearly the cable now.
@jjw right? How hard can it be to make a cheap cable thats what I thought too. Serves me right I guess. I’ll pick up a Roland or Fender cable or something else more premium.
Don’t get caught up with paying more means getting better. There are inexpensive and good cables out there that don’t have household names, even when its a guitarist house hold.
I have bought many Stagg cables without problems and will still buy Piranha based on the fact that their 6m cables I bought back in the late 90s are still working fine.
