stupid jacks

[bolero]

the signal was intermittent on my millie...opened it up had never seen a screw-on jack like this one

 

 

as you screw it into the gtr ( or remove it, for that matter ) the wire twists around ( a lot!! ) which I'm sure lead to it's premature failure.....the black ground wire had twisted off. at least it was the jack-end, so easy to get at!!

 

 

 

 

so i soldered it back on, and gingerly re installed it....actually I even pre-twisted the wires together the opposite direction, so hopefully it would just unravel inside as I screwed it in. rather than twisting together & snapping again. I could see from the shielding on the wires they were already stressed

 

 

well you guessed it....plugged in and NO SIGNAL......pulled it apart again, and this time the RED wire had snapped off

 

 

 

 

what a dumb idea!!

 

 

I can barely get to it with a soldering iron...but am considering just changing to a regular LP style input jack...even if I fix this the wires will get twisted like *** again, certainly not a good design for a durable repair

[bolero]

[tulk1]

Ha. Fooled me. I used to be killer on Jacks in Grade School.

 

 

 

My older Millie had that style jack. But had enough wire left inside that it didn't twist off. Think the design was to get thru thicker rims with some authority. But if the wires are short ... thats just trouble.

[Steiner]

Why not go through the control access in the back?

 

Of course you don't see it. You have to make it. That's what table saws are for.

[H]

That's what table saws are for.

I thought they were for making tables...

[DetroitBlues]

That's different....

[peterbright]

At least she's fixed.

[Steiner]

I thought they were for making tables...

 

You're just being cocky 'cause you recently had a good Birthday.

 

Everybody knows you make tables with calculators.

 

My personal favorite is the goesinta. You know, 3 goesinta 9 by 3, 8 goesinta 16 by 2...

[yuominae]

Man, that jack is weird.

Couldn't you get a jack life they use on a tele? Might be less intrusive that fitting a jack plate on it.

[hinesarchtop]

Chris,

 

I really don't like that type of jack either. When they fail you're left with more work than a standard style unit. If you decide to go with a standard L.P. style don't use a Forstner bit since there's already a hole and the bit has nothing to anchor itself to. It would jump around and mess your guitar up in a hurry. I would use a template to mark a perfect circle then use a dremel to carefully open it up. If you have an old pick guard you could use it to cut your jack plate. Copy one from your other Heritage guitars. If you don't have one already, go get a countersink bit for the 4 holes.Good luck.

[JohnCovach]

Those barrel jacks were a bad idea, but a lot of guitar companies used them. They lose their tension over time and short out intermittently. It's almost impossible to get in there and bend them back into shape without drilling holes. I have two guitars that are suffering from this. I plan to install a stock jack on standard LP jack plates.

[MartyGrass]

There is no access panel on the back of his Millie. It's an Eagle 2000.

 

The barrel jacks are notoriously unreliable. But it's an easy job to put a gold plate on with a Switchcraft jack.

 

[bolero]

yep I think Marty's suggestion is the way to go!

 

thx guys

[PunkKitty]

I would replace that with a jack plate and a standard jack like Marty suggested. Barrel jacks are nasty.

[hinesarchtop]

If you decide to use a hand drill you'll need a stepped 1" bit that will chuck up in your drill. You should have plenty of room between the binding since the Millies are supposed to be 1.75 thick at the rim.

[Hfan]

 

You're just being cocky 'cause you recently had a good Birthday.

 

Everybody knows you make tables with calculators.

 

My personal favorite is the goesinta. You know, 3 goesinta 9 by 3, 8 goesinta 16 by 2...

Ha good one..

[Billgelder]

 

You're just being cocky 'cause you recently had a good Birthday.

 

Everybody knows you make tables with calculators.

 

My personal favorite is the goesinta. You know, 3 goesinta 9 by 3, 8 goesinta 16 by 2...

Like yeast goesinta flour

[Steiner]

Like yeast goesinta flour

 

That's when you're making the big dough and dealing with those stupid jacks...

[Millennium Maestro]

I would REPAIR what is there, a little 1/2 inch shrink sleeve around the solder joints AND about a half inch above the jack around both wires for stability and I would think the problem solved without changing a part or the originality. Use the clamp at the top of the barrel jack by pinching it snug around the wires.

 

My opinion

[bolero]

I'll give that a try

 

I repeat, it is a STUPID design...it might work well in a LP or non hollowbody, where you can solder the wires on *after* installing it

 

look at the threads, you need to turn it ~15 times to thread into the body....with those wires soldered on. and wire is not like thread, where it freely spools around....this stuff randomly binds up and gets caught on itself

 

 

I may look for some special wire that is designed to be twisted around

 

I also suspect the jack is bad, as the whole reason I pulled it apart was intermittent connection

[Millennium Maestro]

The raw basics of the design and original installation may be that, It may have been installed first in the body with the 2 wires attached and connected by attaching then grounded to the tone pot and connected to the hot lead of the toggle. followed by the installation of the rest of the wiring which makes it much more simple in theory.

[Millennium Maestro]

By the way, I believe yours is #2 produced, still in the very early stages of development and production

[cobrafast1]

I think the best way to deal with the screw in type jack is to solder the lead (red and black) onto the jack while not mounted. Then feed the wires through the hole and screw in the jack. Then sold the red and black wires to the proper points inside the guitar's cavity. Once screwed in, there is not need to take it out unless it fails. Then just reverse the process. Unsolder the leads on the ground and where the red wire is connected and unscrew. Just seems to me to be the best way to deal with it.

[big bob]

If you must use an end pin jack you could always use an RCA connection between the jack and the controls, that's what they do with the 575s

[tbonesullivan]

weird! i'd much rather have a jack plate than that. which reminds me, I've gotta do something about the kahuna's input jack. the "arm" runs into the side of the hole when I plug in a cable, so it takes a lot of effort.