Should be a simple job, a crackly Strat’.  Always an annoying problem but sometimes difficult to locate.

At first I couldn’t really see (or hear) anything wrong, but that’s not really the answer so I opened it up to see what’s inside.  The strings are a little worn and there’s always the chance of snapping one, plus of course its pretty much impossible to re-thread them through a Strat’ tremolo once the ends are all curly!  I taped them out the way to avoid scratching the body.

Once opened it revealed quite a complicated set of wiring, the humbucker is center-tapped with a push/pull volume control.  It’s also had the pickup pockets screened to further complicate the issue.

Some of the solder joints were a little untidy but basically sound.  The one thing I did find was the jack socket was rather crackly and intermittent.  I’ve seen worse but they are a bit of a nuisance to clean so the best option is to change it.  A good quality item is only about £3.50 anyway.

Just to make sure there’s no chance of the contacts shorting out I use “shrink wrap” cable covering to keep it neat and tidy.  While I had it apart I also cleaned all the pots and switch to make sure.  The bottom tone was a little crackly between 8-10 on the scale but sound OK now.

Put it all back together and give it a quick polish.