Verified answer

You've either got a loose wire or solder connection to one of the controls. The bypass capacitor for the tone control may be shorting against a signal wire as well.

It doesn't sound like anything major, but if you don't know how to solder you can do more damage than good. Take it to a qualified guitar tech. It sounds like a 15 minute job to fix.

Good luck.

Greetings from Austin, TX

Ken

It could be the intonation. It depends on what kind of bridge you have on your guitar but you can adjust it. You need to make sure when the guitars in tune that the open string (lets say E) is exactly the same pitch as when you hold the E down on the 12th fret. The 12th fret is halfway from bridge to nut. So if you have a Strat, thers little screws on the end of the bridge that screw to the saddle to move it back and forth. So keep making sure its in tune and adjust it and until 12th fret notes match the open notes. On any guitar these screw will most likey be horizonal. If you have a stoptail or the kind on cheap BC Rich guitars, all you can do is adjust the horizontal screws that go against the posts holding the bridge. and yea you do need a string change, too long is too bad man. hope this helped