Guitar Noise?

[Metallicus]

Right from the first moment I picked up an electric guitar, I got this trouble.
The guitar produce massive noise, which can be temporarily removed by touching the bridge/strings. I find it quite annoying, because it just doesn't fit my style to hold on the neck all the time.
I have seen quite a few people fixed this problem on some stratocaster-like guitars by soldering a copper cord from the bridge to a part inside the guitar, but I have a Les-Paul like guitar, which the bridge is fixed, and there is no way through the body so that I can solder it with the parts inside. So I decided to solder them out and decorate it.
But I am not sure which part I will solder them. So please answer these question if you can:
- Is my plan possible? How much % of success rate?
- If it is, which part should I solder it?
- Should I use copper cord? If not, which material of cord should I use?
- Does soldering like that makes the guitar any way worse?
Thanks for taking time.
Also, it doesn't just happen with distortion effect, it also affect the clean sound as well.
And it's certainly not because the cables. I double checked them and even bought a new one.

[Benoni]

why not use a gate or a volume pedal? Or are you talking about another kind of buzz

[Metallicus]

I do have a guitar noise gate. But the point is that the buzz sound appears even when I hitting the notes.
That's the main reason. It's so frustrated when the guitar keeps buzzing when I try to do some clean melodies.

[drokken2]

Yup that is definitely a grounding issue.

Take off your bridge and remove the saddle the bridge screws into [the one nearest to the volume and tone pots] (you can stick needle noise inside, spread the needle noise to grip and then pull)

once the saddle or bolt (whatever you want to call it) is out, take a long medium-small drill bit and drill towards your electronics cavity

then take a piece of wire (coated) and run it through

strip off both ends and solder the end in the electronics cavity to one of you pre-existing ground solder joints (on the back of you volume or tone pot)

on the bridge end, pull the wire back to where only the exposed striped wire is showing, now take a small screw driver and push the bare wire down so that the saddle/bolt can slide back into place and that when the saddle is back into its normal position, it will crush the wire under it, keeping the wires snug up against it and keeping the wire from sliding back into the hole that was drilled.

if all of you other electronics are grounded and soldered to each other then your problem will be solved

{no need to solder the wire to the bridge, just let pressure do the work for you}

ground wire install shouldn't take more than an hour if you got the right tools, i would recommend a 22 gauge wire, stranded (keep it small)

good luck :)

[Benoni]

Originally Posted by Metallicus

I do have a guitar noise gate. But the point is that the buzz sound appears even when I hitting the notes.
That's the main reason. It's so frustrated when the guitar keeps buzzing when I try to do some clean melodies.

You can always take it into a local guitar shop and have a tech fix it up right for you.

[moff]

Yes it's a grounding problem, but if the buzz goes away when you touch the bridge\strings, it's already grounded to that point; in fact, the strings and bridge are the only thing that IS providing a ground (through you). So, there's no need to pull your bridge off and drill. You can do it if you want, but it won't help.

Open the control cavity (where all the knobs are), and check for ground issues there. The back of each pot should be connected electrically, most commonly with a "ground bus" wire attached to the back of each pot, and then attached to the negative/ground connector on the output jack. Also, check the wiring to the pickup selector switch. There will be a "hot" from each pickup\volume pot, a common "hot" that goes to the jack, and a braided wire that is a shield. That shield should be grounded inside the control cavity as well.

[madgt621]

the real question is if the power outlets he's plugged into even goes to ground. I'm not even gonna pretend to know the electricity situation in Hanoi.

[moff]

The building power doesn't matter in this case. Generally speaking, the "electrical ground" and the "audio ground" are separate. Yes, the guitar signal is an electrical circuit, but that's not what I mean...

For example, you can still use a amp in North America with a 2-prong plug, and it won't affect the guitar signal (much). There can be a buzz, but it's usually recified by pulling the plug and turning it around. The advantage of the three-prong electrical outlet is safety, in case there is a surge or short. It has no bearing on the guitar signal.