It's the same story over and over again. Person gets new guitar, plays it for a week and then the jack socket starts to work itself loose.
It's happened on every guitar I've had, and just about every one else's I know too. You tighten it up and it works loose again. Then later on, the guitar stops working altogether - bummer.
What happens - After repeatedly tightening the outside nut up, the wire inside becomes twisted and under stress, so eventually one of the wires attached to the socket comes off and you're left with a dead guitar. As many guitarists don't have much electronics knowledge, (they just wanna play, man!) they don't know what to do, but it's really simple to fix, and it's really simple to prevent.
When you buy a new electric guitar, the first thing you should do, is stop that socket moving. Take the whole thing off by removing the mounting plate. You'll see that the socket is sandwiched on either side by a nut to hold it in place. Make sure the inner nut is tight then stop it moving permanently with a dab of glue, varnish or something else suitable to lock it in place.
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.
Next, if you find you're already having problems and the guitar is completely dead, it's almost certainly one of the wires has come loose as described above.
I borrowed a friend's guitar recently, and he advised me there was an electrical glitch with it, and was there anything I could do? Nothing on the guitar worked, and there was absolutely no sound coming out of it, so naturally he was really worried about it. My first thought was, one of the signal wires is broken, I'll check the jack socket, and after removing the plate, that's exactly what it was.
All I had to do was strip back the wire, re-attach it with a little solder, and tighten and treat the nuts as described. Put it all back together, and lo and behold, it works beautifully.
It's happened on every guitar I've had, and just about every one else's I know too. You tighten it up and it works loose again. Then later on, the guitar stops working altogether - bummer.
What happens - After repeatedly tightening the outside nut up, the wire inside becomes twisted and under stress, so eventually one of the wires attached to the socket comes off and you're left with a dead guitar. As many guitarists don't have much electronics knowledge, (they just wanna play, man!) they don't know what to do, but it's really simple to fix, and it's really simple to prevent.
When you buy a new electric guitar, the first thing you should do, is stop that socket moving. Take the whole thing off by removing the mounting plate. You'll see that the socket is sandwiched on either side by a nut to hold it in place. Make sure the inner nut is tight then stop it moving permanently with a dab of glue, varnish or something else suitable to lock it in place.
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.
Next, if you find you're already having problems and the guitar is completely dead, it's almost certainly one of the wires has come loose as described above.
I borrowed a friend's guitar recently, and he advised me there was an electrical glitch with it, and was there anything I could do? Nothing on the guitar worked, and there was absolutely no sound coming out of it, so naturally he was really worried about it. My first thought was, one of the signal wires is broken, I'll check the jack socket, and after removing the plate, that's exactly what it was.
All I had to do was strip back the wire, re-attach it with a little solder, and tighten and treat the nuts as described. Put it all back together, and lo and behold, it works beautifully.
About the Author:
M Withers is writer of the electric guitar blog. He is a keen enthusiast and has been playing the electric guitar for over 25 years.
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