I've seen it so many times before. You buy a new guitar and happily strum away on it for a few days, before the jack socket becomes so loose you have to do something about it.
Every guitar I've had, every guitar any of my mates have had. It's always the same. You get your tools out, turn it 'till it's tight again, then some time later, it's come undone again. And so it goes on, until one day the guitar goes dead.
What's happening is that, every time you tighten the nut holding the socket on, you're also tightening anything that's connected to the back of it, i.e. the signal wires from the pickups. You carry on tightening it, and before long one of the wires that carries the signal, is twisted right off the socket, and so your electric guitar produces no sound. However, you don't need to be an electronics wizz to fix this once and for all, as it's quite easy to mend.
First off. When you buy a new guitar, take the jack plate off. There will be a nut on either side keeping the socket fixed, but as there's no locking mechanism on the nuts, they soon work loose. To stop this, a dab of superglue, varnish, threadlock or something else suitable on the edge of the inside nut will stop it moving.
It's a good idea to do it on the external nut too, but a lot of people don't bother, as they don't want it ruining the looks of their guitar, which is fair enough.
If the guitar is dead, this is just the first part of the process. It's likely that one of the signal wires, as mentioned previously, has come off the back of the socket.
I was lucky enough to be lent a beautiful guitar recently. Well I say lucky. When he handed it over he mentioned nothing on it worked, and he knew I was good with electronics, so I'm not really sure he was lending it to me out of the goodness of his heart. Anyway, after a little investigation, it turns out the wire's come off the jack socket, exactly like I've just described.
I cut the socket off and stripped back the wire again. Careful if you do this, as there's never much spare here, then re-soldered the wires back on again. Voila! Working guitar. :-)
Every guitar I've had, every guitar any of my mates have had. It's always the same. You get your tools out, turn it 'till it's tight again, then some time later, it's come undone again. And so it goes on, until one day the guitar goes dead.
What's happening is that, every time you tighten the nut holding the socket on, you're also tightening anything that's connected to the back of it, i.e. the signal wires from the pickups. You carry on tightening it, and before long one of the wires that carries the signal, is twisted right off the socket, and so your electric guitar produces no sound. However, you don't need to be an electronics wizz to fix this once and for all, as it's quite easy to mend.
First off. When you buy a new guitar, take the jack plate off. There will be a nut on either side keeping the socket fixed, but as there's no locking mechanism on the nuts, they soon work loose. To stop this, a dab of superglue, varnish, threadlock or something else suitable on the edge of the inside nut will stop it moving.
It's a good idea to do it on the external nut too, but a lot of people don't bother, as they don't want it ruining the looks of their guitar, which is fair enough.
If the guitar is dead, this is just the first part of the process. It's likely that one of the signal wires, as mentioned previously, has come off the back of the socket.
I was lucky enough to be lent a beautiful guitar recently. Well I say lucky. When he handed it over he mentioned nothing on it worked, and he knew I was good with electronics, so I'm not really sure he was lending it to me out of the goodness of his heart. Anyway, after a little investigation, it turns out the wire's come off the jack socket, exactly like I've just described.
I cut the socket off and stripped back the wire again. Careful if you do this, as there's never much spare here, then re-soldered the wires back on again. Voila! Working guitar. :-)
About the Author:
M Withers is author of the electric guitar blog. He is a keen enthusiast and has been learning the electric guitar for over 25 years.
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