Looking after a New Guitar
It's the same story over and over again. Person gets new guitar, plays it for a week and then the jack socket starts to work itself loose.
My guitars, my friends' guitars, guitars that have been in the shop a long time. It happens to them all, and no sooner have you screwed it tight again, then it begins to work it's way loose. You keep doing it, and then eventually the guitar stops working.
What's happening is that, every time you tighten the nut holding the socket on, you're also tightening anything that's connected to the back of it, i.e. the signal wires from the pickups. You carry on tightening it, and before long one of the wires that carries the signal, is twisted right off the socket, and so your electric guitar produces no sound. However, you don't need to be an electronics wizz to fix this once and for all, as it's quite easy to mend.
First off. When you buy a new guitar, take the jack plate off. There will be a nut on either side keeping the socket fixed, but as there's no locking mechanism on the nuts, they soon work loose. To stop this, a dab of superglue, varnish, threadlock or something else suitable on the edge of the inside nut will stop it moving.
You can do this on the external nut as well if you like, although most people prefer to leave the exterior alone without the ugly blob showing.
If the guitar is dead, this is just the first part of the process. It's likely that one of the signal wires, as mentioned previously, has come off the back of the socket.
I borrowed a friend's guitar recently, and he advised me there was an electrical glitch with it, and was there anything I could do? Nothing on the guitar worked, and there was absolutely no sound coming out of it, so naturally he was really worried about it. My first thought was, one of the signal wires is broken, I'll check the jack socket, and after removing the plate, that's exactly what it was.
All I had to do was strip back the wire, re-attach it with a little solder, and tighten and treat the nuts as described. Put it all back together, and lo and behold, it works beautifully.
My guitars, my friends' guitars, guitars that have been in the shop a long time. It happens to them all, and no sooner have you screwed it tight again, then it begins to work it's way loose. You keep doing it, and then eventually the guitar stops working.
What's happening is that, every time you tighten the nut holding the socket on, you're also tightening anything that's connected to the back of it, i.e. the signal wires from the pickups. You carry on tightening it, and before long one of the wires that carries the signal, is twisted right off the socket, and so your electric guitar produces no sound. However, you don't need to be an electronics wizz to fix this once and for all, as it's quite easy to mend.
First off. When you buy a new guitar, take the jack plate off. There will be a nut on either side keeping the socket fixed, but as there's no locking mechanism on the nuts, they soon work loose. To stop this, a dab of superglue, varnish, threadlock or something else suitable on the edge of the inside nut will stop it moving.
You can do this on the external nut as well if you like, although most people prefer to leave the exterior alone without the ugly blob showing.
If the guitar is dead, this is just the first part of the process. It's likely that one of the signal wires, as mentioned previously, has come off the back of the socket.
I borrowed a friend's guitar recently, and he advised me there was an electrical glitch with it, and was there anything I could do? Nothing on the guitar worked, and there was absolutely no sound coming out of it, so naturally he was really worried about it. My first thought was, one of the signal wires is broken, I'll check the jack socket, and after removing the plate, that's exactly what it was.
All I had to do was strip back the wire, re-attach it with a little solder, and tighten and treat the nuts as described. Put it all back together, and lo and behold, it works beautifully.
About the Author:
M Withers is author of an electric guitars blog. He is a keen enthusiast and has been playing the electric guitar for over 25 years.
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