Bad jack insert on my bass....

[Rokket]

My ESP 5 string bass is starting to act funny. Well that's a bad word because it's not funny at all when it happens.

Every once in awhile, I will plug in, and it crackles, or there is no sound at all until I jiggle the damn patch chord, and you know the sound that makes. Sometimes it will go out in the middle of playing if I shift around a bit too much.

I opened it up and looked around. There are no bad solder joints, no broken wires. What the hell is causing this and how can I fix it? If it makes any difference, they are EMG active pickups and the 9-volt is brand new.

 

[Clive Hugh]

Try to eliminate things from the circuit, first try the guitar lead, these die fairly often, far more so than the jack on the instrument. put a testt and wriggle the plugs one at a time. If it is them hack off about 6 to 8 inches and resolder.
If that passes instrument jacks are fairly cheap, but go for a good quality one rather than something made in China or Indonesia.
If you haven't done a lot of soldering, before you fire up get yourself some plumbers soldering flux. It looks like axle grease. I have had a 35mm film case for about the last 7 years and it'll last me out.
I use it all the time, especially with resin core solder. It pays to tin the wire first. Peel back how much you want and twist the copper strands. Apply a coating of flux. Pick up some solder with the iron. Then run it under the wire. It will penetrate all the strands and give you a really good base for the next step.
Now put a small dollop of flux on the join to be soldered. When you touch the blob of solder on the iron to the job it will flow beautifully.
The fumes are pretty noxious so try not to breathe them in, and a bit of ventilation is a good thing.
I often solder on the kitchen table which can make for some interesting family discussions. In order to avoid these put a towell down and put the job on something like a wooden breadboard.
Clive

 

[Rokket]

Try to eliminate things from the circuit, first try the guitar lead, these die fairly often, far more so than the jack on the instrument. put a testt and wriggle the plugs one at a time. If it is them hack off about 6 to 8 inches and resolder.
If that passes instrument jacks are fairly cheap, but go for a good quality one rather than something made in China or Indonesia.
If you haven't done a lot of soldering, before you fire up get yourself some plumbers soldering flux. It looks like axle grease. I have had a 35mm film case for about the last 7 years and it'll last me out.
I use it all the time, especially with resin core solder. It pays to tin the wire first. Peel back how much you want and twist the copper strands. Apply a coating of flux. Pick up some solder with the iron. Then run it under the wire. It will penetrate all the strands and give you a really good base for the next step.
Now put a small dollop of flux on the join to be soldered. When you touch the blob of solder on the iron to the job it will flow beautifully.
The fumes are pretty noxious so try not to breathe them in, and a bit of ventilation is a good thing.
I often solder on the kitchen table which can make for some interesting family discussions. In order to avoid these put a towell down and put the job on something like a wooden breadboard.
Clive

Thanks! I have already eliminated the bad cord idea because it does this with all my cords every once in awhile. I'll see if I can get a high quality jack and replace it. I may get a tech to do the solder job. I don't have an iron...

 

[Toki987]

sometimes... it can a bad connection due to oxide buildup on the contact point of the jack and recepticle from current passing through them where they touch. A little tuner cleaner on the points and rapidly plug and unplug the jack will clean it off, or take a small piece of emory cloth and polish the connections. Kinda like if you leave your amp settings the same all the time, the pots will have a little scratch sound if you change the setting. This is caused by the same type of buildup.