Ken Smith Jack

[ped]

Hi guys

Recently got this lovely Smith (1991)

It'll need a new jack at some point - can I just check that it's a Switchcraft 152B? Stereo?
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(I am in the UK)

I notice there are two types, one with a longer protruding contact like this
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Looking in my bass it looks like the first one with shorter terminals.

How easy are these to fit, I'm OK with a soldering iron but did I read that the Smith circuit simply plugs onto the jack?

Cheers
ped

 

[Warpeg]

Barrel jacks are fairly simple to install. It should be a 5-10 minute procedure. In terms of your statement about the circuit plugging into the jack: how is your current jack connected?

 

[ped]

Barrel jacks are fairly simple to install. It should be a 5-10 minute procedure. In terms of your statement about the circuit plugging into the jack: how is your current jack connected?

That’s the problem, the connections are covered very tightly with heat shrink. Don’t want to yank the wires expecting them to slide off if they can’t. Wondered if any owners here had experience.

 

[DWBass]

Try contacting Ken. Give him the serial number. He should be able to tell you which jack to buy.

 

[mustBmtd]

Hello. This is an actual Smith preamp. It didn't come with any part numbers, but I'm just now deciding it's not what I need. So I'll be trading it off or sell. But just pointing out this is the actual Smith jack.

 

[ped]

Thanks. That’s it! Bit nervous about removing the contacts because it all looks so neat.

 

[BruceWane]

Thanks. That’s it! Bit nervous about removing the contacts because it all looks so neat.

The jack in the pictures of the Smith preamp has a removable plug at the circuit board end of the wire. Remove the plug from the circuit board, them remove the jack from the bass. This is actually a really nice feature, it lets you do your soldering away from the bass.

Use a razor blade or exacto knife to slice off the shrink tubing, just make a cut along the length of the tubing and it should peel off pretty easily. Alternately, if you've got enough extra length, just clip the wires off right at the jack terminals, don't even bother with desoldering.

 

[BruceWane]

Actually, looking at those pictures again, it looks like there's probably spade terminals under that shrink tubing. You may not need to solder at all. In either case, solder or not, you do want to use shrink tubing on the connections. They're very close together on these jacks, so you don't want any chance of some stray piece of wire or something getting in there and shorting the connections.

Oh, and you do want the first jack you linked to with the short terminals. The other one is for use with shielded coaxial cables.

 

[ped]

Thanks that’s exactly what I needed, I’ll have a look at it in the week. Yes I noticed the whole jack unplugs, that’ll make things very easy.

Thanks and will update when finished.

 

[ped]

OK the new jack arrived but I've dropped it off to the shop to have it changed - mine doesn't plug into the PCB so it would have been a bit too fiddly for me!