Guitar Repair Tips
First a disclaimer. Obviously, we are not professional luthiers. We do not take responsibility for any damages you may inflict on your instrument or yourself. Please make sure to use common sense and take any safety precautions that may be necessary to perform a job like this guitar repair job. This video is only intended to help people. Say if a real luthier has a 3 month long waiting period or you just like to fix things yourself.
Hello! TimeScar here with a tip on how to fix a barrel jack that has stopped working. In this video we’ll walk you through a diagram, how to, and results of fixing your jack.
Let’s say you have a really nice guitar like this one:
Or like the guitar we have. You probably want it in working order, which is why we made the video above.
We took an Ibanez Iron Label that had a bad barrel jack and fixed it. Unfortunately, we made the mistake of trusting a local guitar tech and he royally messed up the guitar. He had to do a patch fill, cracked the pickup cover, and the guitar just hasn’t felt the same since. Loving the Fishman Fluences though. They sound amazing!
Guitar Repair Step 1
Let’s get your “mise en place” for this job. You’ll need:
- A new jack
- A screw driver to remove the screws of your back panel
- A soldering iron kit (Link to either the kit I’m using or one that’s very similar Not an affiliate link. Get whatever set has the best stuff.)
- A pair of snips is handy but a version of wire snips comes with a lot of soldering iron kits
- A wiring diagram similar to your guitar. Here is the one I used for my setup Guitar Wiring Diagram Link
Guitar Repair Step 2
Get your back plate off. Then you’ll probably want to take some pictures of the current wiring configuration. Follow that up by loosening the nut and grabbing a diagram so you can properly re-wire this when you have it apart.
Once the nut is pretty much off you’ll want to snip your wires. Leaving a little bit of sleeve on the wires attached to the old jack might be a good idea so you can see what went where. That is, if your new jack is setup the same as your old one. Once the jack is removed it might be a good time to clean the cavity. You might want to avoid anything abrasive or that might harm the wires.
Guitar Repair Step 3
Get your new jack ready and make sure to clear off any excess wiring sleeves from inside the cavity (i.e. get the wires ready to solder). Now the real guitar repair portion of the job beings! If you don’t have enough wiring to strip any of the sleeves you may need some extensions or to take your guitar into a pro.
Install your new jack and put on the nut. Only tighten the nut to the first few threads. You’ll want it loose to be able to move the jack around to make soldering easier. Make sure to have a clear plan ready of what order you’ll be soldering the wires in so you don’t back yourself into a corner at the end. Having a handy dandy helper like Stan might be very useful for you.
We started with the shortest peg on one side and then went around in a circle so we could make sure we had room to solder all the wires. Once you’ve finished with the soldering, tighten the nut. I wouldn’t recommend going too tight since you probably want the option to remove it again.
Finally, replace the back plate and screws. Again, making sure not to over tighten anything you are screwing into or against the wood.
Guitar Repair Step 4
You should now have a working jack and guitar again so dust off those old YouTube guitar training videos and get yourself to godlike status. Hopefully, your guitar repair journey has come to an end.
Now, this wasn’t the most in depth post so please let us know how we did and how we can improve. If you enjoyed this or it helped you out at all please be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, listen to some of our bespoke progressive metal music, and help support the band. If you have any comments or questions please leave them on the YouTube version of the video above and we’d be happy to help.