Noisy Eastman - loose wire?

[IPYF]

I recently acquired a second-hand Eastman 810CE Archtop for the purposes of acoustic guitar merriment and general recording purposes.

I've noticed however on plugging into my recording interface that the electronics on the instrument are really really noisy. It's actually burring to the point where it's unrecordable.

I've noted that if I place my finger on the pickup or the tailpiece where the jack goes in the crackle is greatly reduced leading me to believe that there's a chance that the instrument's electronics are not grounding properly??

I'm not electronically minded myself and I surely will not fiddle with such a lovely guitar without some form of direction but I want to ask if anyone thinks that there might be an electrical fault with the pickup system? Or are Eastman archtops just uncharacteristically noisy? Is this something I should have expected??

[Sam VanLaningham]

Originally Posted by IPYF

I recently acquired a second-hand Eastman 810CE Archtop for the purposes of acoustic guitar merriment and general recording purposes.

I've noticed however on plugging into my recording interface that the electronics on the instrument are really really noisy. It's actually burring to the point where it's unrecordable.

I've noted that if I place my finger on the pickup or the tailpiece where the jack goes in the crackle is greatly reduced leading me to believe that there's a chance that the instrument's electronics are not grounding properly??

I'm not electronically minded myself and I surely will not fiddle with such a lovely guitar without some form of direction but I want to ask if anyone thinks that there might be an electrical fault with the pickup system? Or are Eastman archtops just uncharacteristically noisy? Is this something I should have expected??

Could be a few different things.

- maybe the ground got disconnected (look inside to see if any wires are disconnected).
- maybe cables got chaffed through time and now you have exposed metal touching another wire or something metal?
- maybe it's always been improperly wired which then require better shielding and better grounding.

Those are my first thoughts but I'm no expert. I've wired a few guitars, swapped out pickups, and built 1 tube amp.

But my number 1 rule is to inspect. 9 times out of 10 you will "see" the problem.