Just wanted to see if any one could help with a receint problem. I have only had my Strat for a few months. The last few times when hooking it up to my amp, (a Fender Frontman 15 G amp)I get some unwanted noise but when I mess with the cable sometimes it goes away. I tried replacing the cable with a known good one and the noise is still there. Any ideas?

Does it only go away when you mess with it on the guitar side or the amp side? It could be the leads on the inside of your guitar or amp jacks that are giving you the unwanted noise.

Also, considering that you have a Strat, I can tell you that you are going to get some noise just because it has single coils instead of humbuckers (hum-cancelling magnetic pickups).

You're probably going to have to tweak with it and eliminate each choice one by one. Boss has the NS-2 Noise Suppressor, should nothing else work and you decide it's the pickups.

Firstly, though, I recommend trying your amp with another guitar to see if you get the same sound, as well as trying that guitar with another amp to see if you get the same noise, as well as experimenting with how jiggling the patch cable adds to or lessens the noise.

Let me know if any of that helps!

I agree with Shackman about the pickup possibility.

I was going to recommend changing the pickup selector and see if the noise goes away after that. Try one of the middle spots between the 1st, middle and end settings, and see if that helps...

Good point Gearhed. Then it would act as a "provisional humbucker" of sorts. Still, there are three other positions that would be unusable in this scenario. Hopefully there's a way around that too, which is why I suggested the noise supressor. I know Robert Cray, Satriani, Vai, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, and alot of those cats all have one in their chain.

Thanks Gearhead and Shackman,

I tested the Amp and it is cool. The noise goes away sometimes when I put my hand over the cable on the jack at the guitar. I guess replacing the jack is a good choice then?

Just get it looked at by a luthier in your area. That's the best choice. He'll know exactly what to do from there now that we're pretty sure it's the guitar.

Great thanks for the help.

OK after doing some checking I found out that I need a noise supressor and I have some shielding problems. I talked to some one that had the same problem and he gave me a web site that has some good info on it. http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/index.php
Any way I haven't decided what I am going to do about it yet. I am replacing the strings tomorrow I was told they are worn out. So $$$$$$

That's a great website. I've gone out there before for various tips and tricks so I can vouch that they give relatively quality information.

Yea I ended up doing the full body cavity shielding replaced some of the wiring and was able to do everyting myself. It was an easy project overall. I also replaced my strings, cleaned the volume pots, tightened tuning pegs and set the bridge intonation. It is sounding real sweet now. One of the sites I was referred to tells you step by step how to give your guitar a tune up.
http://www.ehow.com/video_4396409_tuning-pegs-fender-strat-setup.html
Great free vidio instruction.

Thanks for the info....

Another approach is to use a noise suppression pedal. Single-coil guitars are notorious for buzzes, and sometimes shielding doesn't help. A noise suppression pedal (noise gate) will not eliminate the buzzing, but it will "slam the door" on the noise when the guitar isn't being played -- like between songs.