Tightening the inside of an Ibanez barrel jack?

[Leviathus]

Hey guys. Was hoping someone on here might have a fix for me. The jack on my RG8 is kinda wonky (and my 1527 jack is starting to develop this problem too). Kinda hard for me to explain so bear with me. When the cable's plugged in there seems to be some give in there and the signal disconnects. The metal piece that holds in the cable just needs to be bent a little to make it snug and i think it'd be fixed. I'm sure i'm not the first one to have this problem, so anyone have a fix? I feel like there must be some way i could stick something in the jack to bend the piece and make the connection more snug...

 

[Velokki]

I don't have any sophisticated tech advice.

I'm just here to agree that barrel jacks suck! They're good when they don't get bumped - but I've broken at least 4 on different guitars because they just break very easily if they get hit. The worst offender is my Ibanez AZ; it has the jack on a really bad spot, which I always bump into. I just had my luthier change the place of that jack so it's not so badly on the way. And he also changed the jack type to another type (don't know which kind, haven't picked it up yet).

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Open up your control cavity and you should be able to get at the prongs of the jack with pliers or your fingers, and then you can bend it down a bit so it makes better contact. Alternatively you can desolder the connections, unscrew the jack and then pull it out to do it .

Sometimes it's not the jack that's the problem, it's the cable starting to fail. Have you tried other cables with that same guitar?

 

[Leviathus]

You can't get to the prongs from the back, they're inside the jack.

Happens with any cable too, can't be that.

 

[aesthyrian]

Time to buy a new jack.

 

[ThunderUnderground]

You can't get to the prongs from the back, they're inside the jack.

Happens with any cable too, can't be that.

Ive got a spare barrel jack lying around so i peeped inside and it doesn't look like there's any way to bend the prong, its a really tight space. I can throw up some photos if you want. A little hooked pick might do the trick if you have one laying around?

i would do as @aesthyrian suggested and buy a new jack, probably cost $10 or less and its only a few wires to swap over providing you have an iron and some solder 👍

 

[Leviathus]

A little hooked pick might do the trick if you have one laying around?

Yeah i was thinking something along these lines.

I knew before i made this thread i'd probably end up just wiring in a new one. Not a problem, i'm okay with the soldering iron these days. Just thought maybe someone here might've had some secret tech for this particular prob.

 

[ThunderUnderground]

I just discovered you actually can get slight movement on the prongs via the rear of the jack where the wires solder on to. Basically if you squeeze those it applies pressure to the prongs inside the jack, the only problem is the wires get close to touching each other. 👎

 

[Leviathus]

Hmmm. I tried doing the same a little bit ago but didn't wanna push it. Maybe i should in the name of science... Worse case scenario is just replacing it if i break it.

 

[ThunderUnderground]

Yeah if its last chance saloon then anything goes. I don't know if you could bend the ends of the prongs outwards slightly first to separate the wire connections a bit more then squeeze the prongs together toward the base to lever the inner prongs closer together.

On my barrel jack there's slight rectangular gaps where the rear prongs come through, i dont know if you could maybe get some thick card or similar to jam it in and keep the prongs in place?

Super ghetto solution, but like you said, Science! 👍

 

[NoodleFace]

My carvin has this issue too. I just bought a new jack.

It's my first barrel jack and if you Google them they have quite the reputation for being pieces of shit. Why anyone uses them on modern guitars I don't know

 

[CanserDYI]

...why are we suggesting buying a new jack when it just needs to be bent back in place? You'll have to remove it either way to replace the jack, so why not just save 10 bucks and pull it out and bend it

 

[odibrom]

Time to buy a new jack.

+1

It's not worth the trouble to bend the inner contacts of a barrel jack. Maybe with a (pair of?) repurposed paper clip and trying to guess how to move inside and ... it sure is faster and better to just swap for a new one since it will just be a temporary fix if that at all..

...why are we suggesting buying a new jack when it just needs to be bent back in place? You'll have to remove it either way to replace the jack, so why not just save 10 bucks and pull it out and bend it

Barrel jacks are a pain (impossible) to get them to lock better once they become loose.

 

[owlexifry]

must be that time of year…
fucken barrel jacks aye 🤦🏻‍♂️
had an RG550 (RI) since new almost 3 years ago and it’s already showing signs of struggle.

let’s hope this swifchcraft one lasts. at least it’ll actually match the rest of the black hardware now..

 

[NoodleFace]

...why are we suggesting buying a new jack when it just needs to be bent back in place? You'll have to remove it either way to replace the jack, so why not just save 10 bucks and pull it out and bend it

Barrel jacks don't really work like that. You'll likely destroy it IF you can even attempt to bend the innards back

 

[CanserDYI]

Barrel jacks don't really work like that. You'll likely destroy it IF you can even attempt to bend the innards back

Yeah I realized that after the fact haha didn't really think about it.

 

[owlexifry]

holy shit.
check out the difference between a stock ibanez jack and a switchcraft replacement.

(filmed through a lens/led lamp thingy)


not surprising i was getting intermittent signal loss with that ibanez jack.