Warning · Shock
If you feel a tingle or shock from the strings or bridge, stop playing, switch the amp off at the wall and don't use either until they've been checked. That's an earthing fault, usually in the amp, and it isn't something to troubleshoot.
If your guitar has a battery, change it before anything else. Then start at the amp end and work back towards the pickups. Stop when you’ve found it.
1. Rule out the amp and cable
Plug straight into the amp with a cable you know works, no pedals in between. If you can, try another guitar in the same setup. If the other guitar is fine, the problem is in yours.
2. The output jack
The jack is the most common failure on an electric guitar. Play a note and gently move the plug in the socket.
- If the sound cuts in and out, the jack’s contact has probably lost tension or a wire has come loose.
- If the whole socket turns when you plug in, the nut holding it has worked loose. Don’t keep twisting it, because the wires inside break. Unplug the guitar, take off the jack plate or cup so you can hold the socket still from behind, and tighten the nut with a spanner or socket. Pliers will mark the plate. If you’d rather not, bring it in.
3. Controls and switches
Turn each volume and tone knob through its full travel while you play, then flick the pickup selector through every position.
- Scratching or crackling as a knob turns usually means a dirty pot. A squirt of electrical contact cleaner into the pot, then turning it end to end 20 times, often fixes it. Don’t use WD-40: it leaves a residue. Getting to the pots means opening the control cavity or lifting the pickguard, so unplug the guitar first.
- A position on the selector that goes quiet or cuts out points to a dirty or worn switch.
- Check for push-pull knobs, coil splits or kill switches left in a position you didn’t mean.
4. Active pickups
If your guitar has active pickups (EMG and similar, or anything with a battery compartment), a lead left in the output jack keeps the battery switched on, so unplug when you’re done. A flat battery is the usual reason these guitars cut out or distort.
Bring it in if
It’s still cutting out after the above, a pickup has gone completely silent, or there’s a hum that gets much louder when you touch the strings or the bridge. (Single coils hum less when you touch the strings. That’s normal.) When you get in touch, tell me which pickup position or control it happens on.