1

Can I ask whether all replacement output jacks are standard?

I have a cheap Bass guitar which has a poor connection the jack contacts just seem to bend out of shape and not make proper contact with the lead.

I have seen a replacement jack that is full contact, will this be compatible?

Any caveats to fitting this?

cheers.

Pure Tone Full Contact 1/4 Output Jack, Gold - Strings Direct =

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(brianwhelton) 2

Not standard, you have two different type, one with two connections, one with Three. One is mono, the other stereo. The Stereo on can also deliver power (my Line 6 Variax guitars need a stereo cable to send power to power them).

Look at the existing jack, in theory, if it only has two connections, it will work with either. if you require the third connection, it may not (some active guitars etc)

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3

Ah, OK I will have a look at the existing jack and find out tonight cheers.

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4

Your existing jack is, in all likelihood a mono jack. The mounts are relatively standard unless you’re using a specialty product like a Neutrik locking jack. A stereo jack will fit in a mono slot and vice versa. Funnily enough, the 1/4" phono plug is a widely used device for all sorts of things and can lead to a lot of confusion. I had a guy want to try and plug his powered speaker into a powered 1/4" floor jack because “it fits, it should work right?” I had to try really hard not to make a crass joke but ended up convincing him it was a bad idea if he wanted to keep his speaker.

But yes, the jack you linked to actually looks like a really great idea. It’ll be more difficult to get your cable in and out of there, but you’ll have better contact and less wear.

Should you ever upgrade to active electronics, you’ll need a stereo jack. The “ring” portion completes the circuit to activate the preamp.

You can also use stereo TRS 1/4" cables as an instrument cable in a pinch if there is nothing else available but those tend to be shorter runs. Just don’t use speaker cable. They’re unshielded and make a huge racket.

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5

It’s likely a mono jack since you said it’s a cheap bass and most likely not an active bass. It’s a relatively easy fix with the parts as long as you have decent soldering skills. And absolutely agree with Anung, make sure you’re not using a speaker cable as they are noisy af.

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6

Here is a photo of the existing jack socket.

Its off a Washburn XB120 and is an Active Bass

3f83b11b-3701-470d-81b0-8bd863b7bd8b-Washburn_Bass_Lead_Socket.jpg
3f83b11b-3701-470d-81b0-8bd863b7bd8b-Washburn_Bass_Lead_Socket.jpg800×1063 232 KB
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7

Ok. The jack you linked to won’t work. Switchcraft makes pretty solid ones. Also, really all you should need to do is clean it and gently bend those contacts back towards the plug.

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8

Also, those wires protrude a good distance from the lugs. Try trimming them back. There’s an outside chance they could be causing problems.

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9

I was thinking that too looking at the photo.

I also just bought a new stereo lead off Amazon to see if it is better than the one I had been using.

10

OK the new stereo lead came but I get nothing out at all. I bend the contacts in to ensure they touch but nothing.

Tried lead with my Blueridge LP and it works fine.

11

Forgive me - I want to make sure I’m understanding terms correctly. By lead, are you referring to the cable you use to plug your guitar in? In that case either active or passive both will use regular instrument cable. The stereo cable will function the same, just cost way more. Those are meant for PA equipment - specifically auxiliary sends returns and such from a sound board.

If you replace your output jack and it doesn’t work, then just start working your way up the chain. Batteries of course would be easiest but there’s also the battery box to consider as well as the pots, preamp and pickups themselves. I’m not sure which would be the most expensive here. Trim that extra stuff on the lugs, give everything a good cleaning and a fresh battery and let’s see where we end up.

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12

Instrument lead = cable if you prefer.

Going by Brian Whelton’s diagram above my jack plug would seem to be the stereo type and looking at my existing guitar cables they are mono so I bought an inexpensive braided stereo cable to try and I made sure both contacts on my bass jack were making contact with the 2 contacts on the new cable, I also inserted a new battery - I got no sound through the amp from the bass.

Possible wiring issue here. I will have another look and snip off excess solder lugs as mentioned.

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13

Yeah I don’t know what I was smoking earlier when I thought it was mono. I only have older Dunhill pipe tobacco left but that stuff can be pretty stout and leave one a bit light headed if they’re not careful.

Anyway, this is how the whole stereo plug thing works for active instruments. The tip of the plug makes contact with the lug that protrudes the furthest from the base of the jack. The “ring” part of the plug as well as the sleeve will contact the sleeve of the mono instrument cable. The tip carries the audio signal. The sleeve contact is the ground. That second lug completes the circuit for the active electronics to function and doesn’t carry any audio signal, so in this instance a stereo plug isn’t necessary for this stereo jack to function. All that extra lug does (well, I say “all it does” - it’s pretty critical) is turn on the preamp. It doesn’t care if your cable is stereo (balanced) or mono (unbalanced).

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14

Oh! You know what @briser ​ that stereo cable might actually be the cause! That second lug has to short to ground to complete the active circuit!

Good golly I’m losing my mind.

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15

OK, here’s the latest on this, I noticed the black cable had come away so removed the backplate and joined it, then tried making both contacts connect to the cable, nada.

So I bent back the highest contact so it was not touching and just went with the lower one (still using the stereo cable) and I can play the bass fine with lower of the three knobs in the pulled out position, but silent when pushed in (I am not sure what this does but am assuming either pickup selector switch or active preamp on/off?).

Progress though.

16

On my bass, pulled out is passive. Pushed in is active. You should be able to test by removing the battery and pulling out knobs.

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17

So that would suggest the active part of the circuit is not working as it should.

18

Maybe. You’ll want to ditch the stereo cable for this experiment though because the ring and sleeve contacts of the jack have to make a complete circuit and they won’t on a stereo cable. It will work in passive mode with a stereo cable though so that’s sort of a red herring variable if you will.

So basically here are the steps I’d take (all with a mono cable):

Clean everything. Clean jack contacts with contact cleaner and very light, very high grit sand paper.
Tighten tip and ring contacts on the jack
Replace jack
Clean all pots
Replace active/passive push pull pot

Once you get past this, you’ll have to decide how much you like the bass because replacing the preamp could get costly and going through each individual wire could be a real PITA depending on how many are in there. My Bartolini kit cost I want to say $600 but that was over the top high end. So worth it though…

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19

Cheers, will start back with standard mono jack and go from there

20

OK so Bass now plays in both Active and passive with my original mono lead so it would appear the black cable parting inside the body may have been the main cause, along with the 2 contacts connecting and possibly the long tags at the end of the solder, who knows.

The Active is quite a dirty/louder sound so possibly not perfect but at least I can play the thing again.

I think I should get some contact cleaner at some point.

Cheers for all the help!

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