It happens time after time. A person buys a guitar, plays it for a while and then finds the jack socket is 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.
You can do it to the outside nut as well, but many people leave this as they'd rather keep blobs of glue etc. on the inside of their brand new, shiny guitar.
Now if there's no signal coming from the guitar, and you've been suffering from the loose socket thing for a while, it's almost a dead cert that one of the wires has come off.
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.
So to cut a long tale short, I pared back the loose wire, soldered it up again, and tightened everything up, along with a dab of glue. Surprise, surprise - it lives again!
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.
You can do it to the outside nut as well, but many people leave this as they'd rather keep blobs of glue etc. on the inside of their brand new, shiny guitar.
Now if there's no signal coming from the guitar, and you've been suffering from the loose socket thing for a while, it's almost a dead cert that one of the wires has come off.
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.
So to cut a long tale short, I pared back the loose wire, soldered it up again, and tightened everything up, along with a dab of glue. Surprise, surprise - it lives again!
About the Author:
M Withers is author of the electric guitar blog. He is a keen enthusiast and has been playing the electric guitar for over 25 years.