And just when you think you've seen everything...

[Mark Hammer]

Trying to box up a pedal today, and it simply refused to work.  No effect.  No bypass either.  WTF?  Checked the switch for continuity.  Hmmm.  Does everything it's supposed to do.  Continuity from jack lug through the switch to the other jack lug.

I take the switch apart just to verify proper functioning.  Do my usual switch rehabilitation routine.  Re-assemble.  Still nothing.  Just can't get a signal from one jack through the other.  Take the jacks and switch out of the box completely and try it out.  Still nothing.

Okay, time to take a good long hard look at the jacks.  The seem fine.

Okay, one last check, just for the heck of it.  The hot and ground lug short out against each other.  Somewhere, deep in that little rivet sandwich that brings all those parts together to make a phone jack  The metal collet that makes the ground connection is touching against the metal piece that forms the hot lug.

The reason why I hadn't been  getting any signal was because it was all diverted to ground.  Don't know what brand of jack it was, but it wasn't a cheap one.

Weird, huh?

[rousejeremy]

The exact same thing happened to me once with some jacks I bought from Active Surplus. I swore a lot that day.

[Top Top]

Exact thing happened to me not more than two weeks ago.

Not to make you feel any less special... 

[Bad Chizzle]

I have some that have sections that like to rotate when I tighten them. They will eventually come around and short in the same way. I think I may win the award for the most boring post ever.

[darron]

i just came across a batch of switchcraft stereo (input) jacks where the signal shorts to earth. it looks like there was some sort of machining error that they tried to cover up with a metal washer. the washer when sitting right would short between the tip and earth. i'll have to be very careful now and check them all in the future...


very upsetting.. they should know better..... and it's confusing to debug!!! no signal right at the tip???


some photos will follow in a different thread soonish

[deadastronaut]

I think I may win the award for the most boring post ever.

congratulations..

and the prize is?...a new jack socket..

[mattthegamer463]

The exact same thing happened to me once with some jacks I bought from Active Surplus. I swore a lot that day.

Items from Active Surplus don't usually carry a quality guarantee.  Best store ever though.

[Mark Hammer]

Well, gents, glad to know I'm in good company.  I guess this just adds one more thing to the "check this first before you drive yourself any crazier" list.  I think I'm beginning to learn why we're seeing a shift towards those plastic Marshall-style jacks.

[petemoore]

  Touchin' across the jack tips became part of the Gnd.-black-lead of DMM pretests after a couple twist the Glug around to the Hot wiper, this and a new gripping of the Ground lug/nut twist stopper keeps the hot wiper from being the nut-turn-stop.
 Smooth solder joints don't tend to draw blood as easily, that or use a piece of 4x paper or cardboard as an oven mitt to hold back-torque to the lug...the jack does almost enough backtorque on it's own [until when it gives in and slighly turns for the first time.
  once it twists even slightly it has become 'loose jack', but can still be worked with and prove reliable, just not as easy to tighten as one that hasn't been ''overturned'' [not a very good word, the thread/sleeve lug thing comes loose and spins to tip wiper.

[davent]

The exact same thing happened to me once with some jacks I bought from Active Surplus. I swore a lot that day.

Items from Active Surplus don't usually carry a quality guarantee.  Best store ever though.

I miss the old locale with the aisles absolutely jammed with everything, including shoppers, the crawlspace high basement, the mechanical sculptures... that place had the mojo happening! How do they ever afford to stay on Queen St., only thing i can think of is they must own the building and make their money renting to the street level merchants.

See ya on Queen
dave

[dukie]

Ha! So you think you've seen it all? here in my country i bought 10 socket and 8 of them are fail when you tighten the screw nut! So i had to loosen up the nut a little bit to get them to work but that wasn't always working, sometimes they just broke! The other type available is the plastic socket but they are take up more space, easy to melt and of course expensive
Cheers!

[rousejeremy]

The exact same thing happened to me once with some jacks I bought from Active Surplus. I swore a lot that day.

Items from Active Surplus don't usually carry a quality guarantee.  Best store ever though.

I miss the old locale with the aisles absolutely jammed with everything, including shoppers, the crawlspace high basement, the mechanical sculptures... that place had the mojo happening! How do they ever afford to stay on Queen St., only thing i can think of is they must own the building and make their money renting to the street level merchants.

See ya on Queen
dave

There are some gems in there. I cleaned them out of 2N404A's and 2SB135's a while ago. The majority of them were low leakage and half of that majority sit in the Fuzz Face range. $1 a piece!

[amptramp]

The exact same thing happened to me once with some jacks I bought from Active Surplus. I swore a lot that day.

Items from Active Surplus don't usually carry a quality guarantee.  Best store ever though.

I miss the old locale with the aisles absolutely jammed with everything, including shoppers, the crawlspace high basement, the mechanical sculptures... that place had the mojo happening! How do they ever afford to stay on Queen St., only thing i can think of is they must own the building and make their money renting to the street level merchants.

See ya on Queen
dave

There are some gems in there. I cleaned them out of 2N404A's and 2SB135's a while ago. The majority of them were low leakage and half of that majority sit in the Fuzz Face range. $1 a piece!

I gotta get back down there and see what they have.  There's stuff you won't see anywhere else.  But parking is a bitch!