Need Help! Strange problem with my 91 Dinky

[Yonzai]

Lately I've been noticing that my guitar is making some strange warbling noise. Best way to describe it is that if I hit a note and let it ring, the tone goes up and down slightly (like moving the trem a tiny bit). I have the trem blocked tightly, put new strings on, checked for anything moving (headstock, trem, etc) and can't find anything wrong. I'm tempted to think it may be an electronics problem. I have the mid-boost active circuit. Anybody have this happen to them? Maybe I have a capacitor drying out or something?

I recorded a clip of it here: (second one)

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=634606

If anyone has any clues, I'd sure appreciate it! This is driving me nuts!

[Tashtego]

Quick test to see if guitar elect. are the culprit would be another amp. Sounds like an amplitude modulation from 2 slightly out of phase signals. Maybe your mid-boost is smearing the signal.

http://hep.physics.indiana.edu/~rickv/Beats.html

[Yonzai]

Quick test to see if guitar elect. are the culprit would be another amp. Sounds like an amplitude modulation from 2 slightly out of phase signals. Maybe your mid-boost is smearing the signal.

http://hep.physics.indiana.edu/~rickv/Beats.html

One thing I didn't try was another amp... I tried 2 other guitars with my current amp, and they both sound fine. They way you describe it is perfect, it does sound like two slightly out of tune signals are beating against each other. I've tried different volumes, tried downtuning, turning mid-gain and tone, all 3 pickups, clean/distorted, etc. Nothing seems to improve the situation. Tried different locations (different room) to rule out interference, and I'm at a loss. Maybe its a good excuse to try some different pickups. I dunno, I kinda like the stock tone from this guitar, but maybe it's time to ditch the active electronics. I really get the feeling that it's a capacitor or 2 not holding its charge. I'll try a different amp to rule that out, but after everything I've tried, I'm not holding my breath.

[Tashtego]

I've never had a guitar with active electronics, is it possible to bypass the mid-gain circuitry?

[Yonzai]

The pickups are low impedenceand I don't think they would work or sound correct without the electronics. There's no bypass switch or anything with the circuitry to test with either

[OnlineStageGear]

Might be a pickup is just at a funny height. Maybe you could lower or raise them just a tad and see what it does.

Matt

[Yonzai]

I lowered the pickups as low as they could go (they used to be pretty close, but the problem remains. Funny thing is, the tone and pickup sensitivity didn't change at all with the pickups 1/4 inch away from the strings. Maybe I'll change out all the caps in the circuit and maybe the tone pot cap too. I guess it couldn't hurt with them being 15 years old.