Author Topic: Ah, Pandora's box....  (Read 2816 times)

drbassman

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Ah, Pandora's box....
« on: February 24, 2015, 08:44:21 AM »
OK, the jack on my Kubicki has been acting up.  The problem with the though-body jacks is their enclosed case.  You can't tighten up the plug clip when it gets stretched.  I like using them, but they do wear out.  Of course, I decided to check it out and several fun things appear.  First, the electronics, ala NASA, are crammed into the cavity with zero tolerance.  I had to remove all of the circuitry guts just to get at the bottom of the jack.  The guess what, one of the jack wires broke off the circuit board (a tad brittle after 20+ years).  Not a big deal, just annoying.

So, I ordered a new through-body stereo jack.  It needed it anyway.  When it arrives, I'll be back asking for pointers on wiring my first ever stereo jack.  I'll probably go with new wires for the jack to circuit board run.

The biggest pisser about this is I was going to take it to practice tomorrow.  Oh well!  :-[
I'm fixin' a hole where the rain gets in..........cuz I'm built for a kilt!

gearHed289

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Re: Ah, Pandora's box....
« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2015, 09:32:51 AM »
The guess what, one of the jack wires broke off the circuit board (a tad brittle after 20+ years).  Not a big deal, just annoying.

Of course it did! Sounds like my luck. I'm not a fan of those barrel jacks either.

drbassman

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Re: Ah, Pandora's box....
« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2015, 10:33:03 AM »
Of course it did! Sounds like my luck. I'm not a fan of those barrel jacks either.

Yeah, barrel jacks!  Couldn't think of the term on my own.  I'm dying to play this bass but have to wait for the parts now.

If something bad can happen, I can usually count on it.  Comes with the territory of tinkering and fixing things myself.
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Pilgrim

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Re: Ah, Pandora's box....
« Reply #3 on: February 24, 2015, 11:32:33 AM »
Ah, grasshoppa, remember no good deed goes unpunished.    :P
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drbassman

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Re: Ah, Pandora's box....
« Reply #4 on: February 24, 2015, 02:22:32 PM »
Ah, grasshoppa, remember no good deed goes unpunished.    :P

For sure, Al.   
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Highlander

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Re: Ah, Pandora's box....
« Reply #5 on: February 24, 2015, 02:37:20 PM »
I went XLR decades back... never had a failure... ;)
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drbassman

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Re: Ah, Pandora's box....
« Reply #6 on: February 24, 2015, 08:15:28 PM »
XLR?
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Granny Gremlin

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Re: Ah, Pandora's box....
« Reply #7 on: February 25, 2015, 09:16:15 AM »
XLR?

These:



By barrel jack do you mean these:



If so then note that the lower end Neutrik ones (aka REAN) are notoriously unreliable.  Spring the extra bucks for the Switchcraft ones.  I use them in speaker cabs and learned the hard way - sometimes even new, the Rean/Neutriks just don't work right.  Which is odd because all their other stuff is rock solid (I use Rean RCA jacks all the time; best quality:price ratio).  If I was a bit more pessimistic I'd posit that they did that intentionally to get folks to switch over to speakon, but it's more likely that it was just due to factory change/offshoring.
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drbassman

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Re: Ah, Pandora's box....
« Reply #8 on: February 25, 2015, 12:30:32 PM »
Interesting.  The issue might be the space provided for the jack is limited and these might be too large.  I'll do some measuring to see.

I assume you can wire the cable to go from XLR to a 2 conductor 1/4" cable that plugs into the amp jack?
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steveonbass

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Re: Ah, Pandora's box....
« Reply #9 on: February 25, 2015, 02:14:45 PM »
I repaired a Kubicki jack once for a good friend and the EXACT SAME THING happened.  I re-lived all the horror again just now.

Highlander

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Re: Ah, Pandora's box....
« Reply #10 on: February 25, 2015, 02:29:00 PM »
Mics tend to use XLR plugs as their connector and as a three pin they are stereo capable as an option with a three core flex... came as standard on Alembic, iirc...
I like them because the are locking connections and I get very little noise issues... I have/had them on cabs too... adaptors are multi-choice...
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Dave W

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Re: Ah, Pandora's box....
« Reply #11 on: February 25, 2015, 04:09:13 PM »
Interesting.  The issue might be the space provided for the jack is limited and these might be too large.  I'll do some measuring to see.

I assume you can wire the cable to go from XLR to a 2 conductor 1/4" cable that plugs into the amp jack?

You can buy xlr to 1/4" adaptors, just make sure the one you buy is for instrument cable.

dadagoboi

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Re: Ah, Pandora's box....
« Reply #12 on: February 25, 2015, 06:13:04 PM »
You can buy xlr to 1/4" adaptors, just make sure the one you buy is for instrument cable.

Less than $5 delivered on Ebay

drbassman

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Re: Ah, Pandora's box....
« Reply #13 on: February 26, 2015, 05:43:57 AM »
I repaired a Kubicki jack once for a good friend and the EXACT SAME THING happened.  I re-lived all the horror again just now.

It's always something!  I like the XLR idea but I don't think there's enough room for the jack.
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steveonbass

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Re: Ah, Pandora's box....
« Reply #14 on: February 26, 2015, 06:32:26 AM »
FYI: Phil Kubicki is a pretty accessible guy if you reach out.