Jack Replacement

[BluesBassPlayer]

Steve

The square plate has 4 screws. The football plate only accommodates 2 screws. Both can be or are curved. My MusicMan Sterling HS has the square plate and it is contoured.

Jimi

[Youngspanion]

Jimi. I ordered the parts. I checked the soldering iron and the solder. I'm ready to go. I'm just waiting for the parts. If I crap myself before I attempt the mod, you'll be hearing from me.

[Ken Baker]

Jimi. I ordered the parts. I checked the soldering iron and the solder. I'm ready to go. I'm just waiting for the parts.

Pictures, dammit, pictures!

If I crap myself before I attempt the mod, you'll be hearing from me.

Okay; maybe not pictures of crapping yourself. But pictures!

Ken...

[Youngspanion]

JImi. The parts came in. Got the Jack, the plate, all the screws and the tools except for the bit and the experience. Wadaya Say? Ready. And Ken wants pics too. Just of the mod. Nothing else.

[Youngspanion]

Sorry Ken, No Pics.By the time Jimi and I got into it, I realized that we did not have a camera available and we just went ahead and did the mod. It came out great because Jimi knows exactly what he's doing, carefully drilling and soldering like a pro. I will say this though. The original Jack came out pretty easily. We had it done well within an hour of starting. I'm real glad its done now and I don't have to worry about it.

[cwzcwz]

Thanks for the great thread BluesBassPlayer. After the second barrel jack in my L2000 started to short out I found this forum and my problem is hopefully solved. I bought a black football jack from Allparts, a Switchcraft open frame STEREO jack (I bought a mono jack the first time) and a no name 7/8” step drill on eBay. Total cost for parts was about $20.

Drilling a big hole in my bass made me a bit nervous so I made a hole in some scrap and tested the jack plate assembly for fit. Satisfied I had all the right parts I removed the barrel jack, took a deep breath and drilled the hole out. The step drill is quite long so I protected the electronics and wires with a thin cardboard shield made out of a strip cut from a DHL envelope. If I did this mod for a living I would probably cut the first ½” or so off the step drill since it doesn’t cut anything, it just gets in the way.

Next I soldered up the new stereo jack and drilled the holes for the jack plate assembly. I measured from the back of the guitar to the center of the jack plate screw holes to make sure everything was lined up. The wires in my guitar were quite short so it was a little difficult to solder the leads but I got it done. The white wire went to the tip, black battery wire to the ring and black ground to the shield. It was a real snug fit but I squeezed it into the new hole and was off to test my handy work. As it turns out, squeezing the jack into the hole was a bad thing. The tip and ring contacts were shorting out and the male input jack wouldn’t go in easily. So I took it all apart and went deeper with the step drill. This time I hit the cardboard shield and made a hole in it, I’m glad it was there.

I re-soldered the jack, mounted the jack plate assembly and tested it out. Everything works great and hopefully I’ve heard my bass shorting out at 120db for the last time. The entire procedure took me about an hour but having done it once now I could probably complete the mod in about 20 minutes. If you’re not comfortable with guitar electronics and using drills I’d recommend finding a pro to do it for you. My guess is it would cost less than $100 for the job.

[BluesBassPlayer]

[quote="cwzcwz"]Thanks for the great thread BluesBassPlayer.

Welcome to bassesbyleo. Glad you found the thread helpful. I too would use a shorter step (bit) drill if I did this for a living. Just have to be careful not to hit the other components in the cavity.

Jimi