Cable makers, please identify this guitar plug

[pchorman]

I'm trying to order some of these 1/4" plugs as they seem to be the most solid I've found on any cable. Hopefully these plugs are still available. Look at that clamp against the outer cable jacket - it can never slip - the inner conductor might tear apart before the cable slips under the jaws of that clamp. Solder job isn't exactly shabby either. This is a very old Conquest Sound cable, no longer manufactured this way.

Closest thing I can find by internet search is a Switchcraft 174s but I'm not convinced. If anyone can confirm this and recommend a place to order a dozen or so, please let me know.

Thanks much

 

[skippy]

That looks to me somewhat like the innards of a good old PJ-048 MIL plug. You don't show the tip, but I bet that it is spherical instead of conical. However, the PJ-048s I've used have an insulating handle that mounts with a little setscrew, not with internal-external threads like that. Maybe a PJ-055? Same family...

I've definitely seen those plugs, and have a few in the junkbox- but it has been a long, _long_ time since I bought any...

I haven't seen an 048 in a catalog since the '70s. Newark still stocks the PJ-055s- that's Switchcraft #440, at about $7.50 each. It'd be worth risking it and buying a pair...

http://www.switchcraft.com/products/JACK-122.HTML

Neutrik NP2Cs won't get it done, eh?

 

[pchorman]

Hey Skippy I was hoping you'd chime in. That question had your name all over it.

When I google up the PL-048 and -049 I come up dry; can't confirm it using the Military Part No's, if thats' what they are.

I see the Switchcraft 440 you pointed me to and it's different in that it has a ball tip, whereas the plugs I'd like to find do have a point, even if it's not clear in the pic.

I searched out the Neutrik NP2Cs and they look impressive, but I can't see the innards. Are they half as sturdy as this mystery plug, by inspection? If I can't find them I will likely go with the Neutrik NP2Cs.

By the way, you nailed it when you said you haven't seen it in a catalog since the 70's. I bought these cables sometime between 1979 and 1982(?). They are still my main cables for all purposes, including playing out. That's why I want to make more cables using them and only them. I can't imagine anything else being nearly as reliable.

 

[pchorman]

alright wait a second. did you say the picture doesn't show the tip? something's wrong with the download then. The full length of the plug should be visible, with conical tip. If not, let me know and I'll fix it. Just to be sure, here's another look...

 

[skippy]

I probably simply spazzed it, and didn't scroll far enough. Nothing new there- I use netscape on everything except the studio machine, and nothing that was written for M$ stuff really works on it.

I spent many years making guitar and patch cables with multiple layers of heatshrink, carefully heating them and screwing them into the internal female threads on PJ-family plugs so that when they cooled they were *bombproof*. I bought an embarassing number of those (and their TRS brethren) in the 70s, and used to swear by them.

Times change. I now use the Neutrik connectors exclusively, and get better strain reliefs in 1/4 the time. The NP2C/NP3C strain relief will make you a believer the first time out, as will not having to solder to that huge freakin' heatsink (the solder lug landing pad) on the MIL-STD-642 connectors...

I'd like to have a few of the older PJ- series in my parts bin, though, just for old times sake. Still: at this moment I have several dozen Neutrik pieces, and 0 PJs, and I'm well content...